diff --git a/bin/README.md b/bin/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f74e268
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# Scripts
+
+Run from project root.
+
+## Update the example reports files
+
+```bash
+bash bin/update_test_reports.sh
+```
+
+- make sure these run
+- evaluate if changes are intended and potentially commit report file changes
+  along with the corresponding code changes
diff --git a/bin/update_test_reports.sh b/bin/update_test_reports.sh
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c5028a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/update_test_reports.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+§set -e
+vuegen -dir docs/example_data/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook -output_dir tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook
+
+vuegen -dir docs/example_data/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook -output_dir tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook/html -rt html
+vuegen -dir docs/example_data/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook -output_dir tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook/pdf -rt pdf
+vuegen -dir docs/example_data/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook -output_dir tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook/docx -rt docx
+vuegen -dir docs/example_data/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook -output_dir tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook/odt -rt odt
+vuegen -dir docs/example_data/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook -output_dir tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook/revealjs -rt revealjs
+vuegen -dir docs/example_data/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook -output_dir tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook/pptx -rt pptx
+vuegen -dir docs/example_data/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook -output_dir tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook/jupyter -rt jupyter
+
+# all of the above quarto based reports, can be opened from the command line with:
+# open tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook/pdf/quarto_report/quarto_report.pdf
+
+cd docs
+vuegen -c example_config_files/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook_config.yaml -output_dir ../tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook_cfg
+vuegen -c example_config_files/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook_config.yaml -output_dir ../tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook_cfg/html -rt html
+vuegen -c example_config_files/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook_config.yaml -output_dir ../tests/report_examples/Basic_example_vuegen_demo_notebook_cfg/pdf -rt pdf
+
+# update bot example
+vuegen -c example_config_files/Chatbot_example_config.yaml -output_dir ../tests/report_examples/chat_bot