diff --git a/misc/filter-golang-stack.py b/misc/filter-golang-stack.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..beba8cff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/misc/filter-golang-stack.py
@@ -0,0 +1,103 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+# Copyright (C) 2019+ James Shubin
+# Written by James Shubin <james@shubin.ca>
+#
+# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+# This program filters golang stack traces. Modify the filter by editing the
+# filter_chunk function. This is a quick hack to help me get work done. It's
+# written in python to encourage some golang enthusiast to rewrite it in golang
+# and to expand the functionality.
+
+import sys
+
+lines = sys.stdin.readlines()
+
+print("read: %d lines" % len(lines))
+
+# find program start
+for i in range(len(lines)):
+	line = lines[i]
+	if line.startswith("PC="):
+		start=i
+		break
+
+print("starts at line: %d" % (start+1)) # +1 because we're zero based
+
+def is_chunk(line):
+	if line == "main.main()" or line.startswith("goroutine"):
+		return True
+
+	return False
+
+def is_end(line):
+	# register junk as seen at the end
+	rx = ["rax", "rbx", "rcx", "rdx", "rdi", "rsi", "rbp", "rsp", "r8", "r9", "r10", "r11", "r12", "r13", "r14", "r15", "rip", "rflags", "cs", "fs", "gs"]
+	for x in rx:
+		if line.startswith(x + " "):
+			return True
+
+	return False
+
+def filter_chunk(chunk):
+	lines = chunk.split("\n")
+	if len(lines) < 2:
+		return False
+
+	package_line = lines[1]
+	if package_line.startswith("github.com/purpleidea/mgmt/vendor/"):
+		return False
+
+	return True
+
+chunks = []
+for i in range(start+1, len(lines)):
+	line = lines[i]
+
+	# found a chunk
+	if is_chunk(line):
+		chunk = line
+		for j in range(i+1, len(lines)):
+			jline = lines[j]
+			if is_chunk(jline) or is_end(jline):
+				chunks.append(chunk)
+				i = j
+				if is_end(jline):
+					end = j
+				break
+			# else
+			chunk = chunk + jline
+
+
+print("found %d chunks" % len(chunks))
+
+count = 0
+for i in range(len(chunks)):
+	chunk = chunks[i]
+	if not filter_chunk(chunk):
+		continue
+
+	print(">>> chunk %d:" % i)
+	print(chunk)
+	print("")
+	count = count + 1
+
+print("got %d filtered chunks" % count)
+
+print("ends at line: %d" % (end+1)) # +1 because we're zero based
+
+for i in range(end, len(lines)):
+	line = lines[i]
+	print("%s" % line, end='')	# already comes with a newline
diff --git a/misc/looper.sh b/misc/looper.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..562837e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/misc/looper.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# simple test loop runner, eg: ./looper.sh make test-shell-exec-fail
+
+while true
+do
+	echo "running: $@"
+	$@	# run some command
+	ret=$?
+	if [ $ret -ne 0 ]; then
+		echo "failed with code: $ret"
+		exit $ret
+	fi
+	echo
+done