diff --git a/focker/bootstrap.py b/focker/bootstrap.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..527d189
--- /dev/null
+++ b/focker/bootstrap.py
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+import subprocess
+import hashlib
+from .misc import find_prefix
+from .zfs import zfs_poolname, \
+    zfs_mountpoint, \
+    zfs_tag
+
+
+def command_bootstrap(args):
+    version = subprocess.check_output(['freebsd-version']).decode('utf-8')
+    print('FreeBSD version:', version)
+    tags = [ 'freebsd-' + version.split('-')[0], 'freebsd-latest' ]
+    sha256 = hashlib.sha256(('FreeBSD ' + version).encode('utf-8')).hexdigest()
+    poolname = zfs_poolname()
+    name = find_prefix(poolname + '/focker/images/', sha256)
+    subprocess.check_output(['zfs', 'create', '-o', 'focker:sha256=' + sha256, name])
+    zfs_tag(name, tags)
+    res = subprocess.run(['bsdinstall', 'jail', zfs_mountpoint(name)])
+    if res.returncode != 0:
+        raise ValueError('bsdinstall failed')
+    subprocess.check_output(['zfs', 'set', 'rdonly=on', name])
+    subprocess.check_output(['zfs', 'snapshot', name + '@1'])
diff --git a/focker/focker.py b/focker/focker.py
index 6ce8cf5..6596e0a 100644
--- a/focker/focker.py
+++ b/focker/focker.py
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ from .jail import command_jail_create, \
 from .compose import \
     command_compose_build, \
     command_compose_run
+from .bootstrap import command_bootstrap
 
 
 class ListForwarderFunctor(object):
@@ -71,6 +72,9 @@ def create_parser():
     subparsers_top = parser_top.add_subparsers(dest='L1_command')
     subparsers_top.required = True
 
+    parser = ListForwarder([subparsers_top.add_parser(cmd) for cmd in ['bootstrap', 'boot', 'bs']])
+    parser.set_defaults(func=command_bootstrap)
+
     # image
     subparsers = ListForwarder([ subparsers_top.add_parser(cmd).add_subparsers(dest='L2_command') \
         for cmd in ['image', 'ima', 'img', 'im', 'i'] ])