diff --git a/rel-eng/packages/.readme b/rel-eng/packages/.readme
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8999c8db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rel-eng/packages/.readme
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+the rel-eng/packages directory contains metadata files
+named after their packages. Each file has the latest tagged
+version and the project's relative directory.
diff --git a/rel-eng/tito.props b/rel-eng/tito.props
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..fb74f3f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rel-eng/tito.props
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+[globalconfig]
+default_builder = tito.builder.Builder
+default_tagger = tito.tagger.VersionTagger
+changelog_do_not_remove_cherrypick = 0
+changelog_format = %s (%ae)