diff --git a/xwords4/android/scripts/logcat.py b/xwords4/android/scripts/logcat.py
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..0e7b8154f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xwords4/android/scripts/logcat.py
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python3
+
+"""Beginnings of a script to filter logcat. Eventually I'd like a UI
+like what's built into AS or apparently available on the Mac, where
+individual tags, threads and and processes can be viewed clicking
+buttons or dropdowns. For for now, just a commandline app that watches
+for app startup and then prints everything with its PID.
+"""
+
+import argparse, re, subprocess, threading
+
+
+# 10-05 20:49:56.220 11158 11158 I XWApp   : onCreate(); git_rev=android_beta_169-17-g94a709423-dirty
+
+# sPIDPat = re.compile('^.*(\d+) (\d+) I XWApp.*git_rev=.*$')
+sPIDPat = re.compile('.*\s(\d+)\s(\d+)\sI\sXWApp.*git_rev.*')
+sLinePatFmt = '.* (\d+:\d+:\d+.\d+) {pid} (\d+) D (.*): .*'
+sLinePats = {}
+
+def output_reader(proc):
+    for line in iter(proc.stdout.readline, b''):
+        line = str(line, 'utf8').strip()
+        match = sPIDPat.match(line)
+        if match:
+            pid1 = int(match.group(1))
+            pid2 = int(match.group(2))
+            assert pid1 == pid2
+            if not pid1 in sLinePats:
+                pat = sLinePatFmt.format(pid=pid1)
+                reg = re.compile(pat)
+                sLinePats[pid1] = reg
+                print('got pid {}'.format(pid1))
+        else:
+            for pat in sLinePats.values():
+                match = pat.match(line)
+                if match:
+                    print(line)
+                    break
+
+def mkParser():
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
+    parser.add_argument('--device', dest = 'DEVICE', type = str, default = None,
+                        help = 'device to follow')
+    return parser
+
+def main():
+    args = mkParser().parse_args()
+
+    cmds = ['adb']
+    if args.DEVICE: cmds += ['-s', args.DEVICE ]
+    cmds += ['logcat']
+    proc = subprocess.Popen( cmds, stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+                             stderr=subprocess.STDOUT)
+
+    threading.Thread(target=output_reader, args=(proc,)).start()
+
+##############################################################################
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    main()