diff --git a/python/mlx/distributed_run.py b/python/mlx/distributed_run.py
index 0857e286e..7f45faf69 100644
--- a/python/mlx/distributed_run.py
+++ b/python/mlx/distributed_run.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ from dataclasses import dataclass
 from pathlib import Path
 from select import select
 from subprocess import PIPE, Popen, run
+from typing import Optional
 
 
 @dataclass
@@ -25,6 +26,95 @@ class Host:
     ips: list[str]
 
 
+@dataclass
+class ThunderboltPort:
+    iface: str
+    uuid: str
+    connected_to: Optional[str]
+
+
+@dataclass
+class ThunderboltHost:
+    name: str
+    ports: list[ThunderboltPort]
+
+
+def parse_hardware_ports(ports_string):
+    ports = {}
+    port_name = None
+    for l in ports_string.decode("utf-8").split("\n"):
+        if l.startswith("Hardware Port:"):
+            port_name = l.strip()[15:]
+        elif l.startswith("Device:"):
+            ports[port_name] = l.strip()[8:]
+            port_name = None
+    return ports
+
+
+def extract_rings(hosts, index):
+    def usable_port(i, j, used_ports):
+        return (i, j) not in used_ports and hosts[i].ports[j].connected_to is not None
+
+    def dfs(start_node, node, path, visited, used_ports):
+        path.append(node)
+        visited.add(node)
+        for j, p in enumerate(hosts[node].ports):
+            if not usable_port(node, j, used_ports):
+                continue
+            next_node, _ = index[p.connected_to]
+            if next_node == start_node:
+                yield path[:]
+            if next_node not in visited:
+                yield from dfs(start_node, next_node, path, visited, used_ports)
+        path.pop()
+        visited.remove(node)
+
+    # Concretize maps the found cycle to real thunderbolt ports. It also adds
+    # those ports to the used set so next cycles can't use them again.
+    def concretize(cycle, used_ports):
+        concrete_path = []
+        for n1, n2 in zip(cycle, cycle[1:] + cycle[:1]):
+            for j, p in enumerate(hosts[n1].ports):
+                if not usable_port(n1, j, used_ports):
+                    continue
+                n2_hat, nj = index[p.connected_to]
+                if n2 == n2_hat:
+                    concrete_path.append(((n1, j), (n2, nj)))
+                    used_ports.add((n1, j))
+                    used_ports.add((n2, nj))
+                    break
+            if concrete_path[-1][0][0] != n1:
+                raise RuntimeError("Couldn't concretize the cycle")
+        return concrete_path
+
+    # Normalize tries to ensure that the cycles have the same direction so we can
+    # use them together. We achieve this by selecting the direction such that
+    # the smallest rank hosts connect to larger rank hosts.
+    def normalize(path):
+        small_to_large = sum(1 for p in path if p[0][0] < p[1][0])
+        if small_to_large > len(path) - small_to_large:
+            return path
+        else:
+            return [(p[1], p[0]) for p in path]
+
+    rings = []
+    used_ports = set()
+    for start_node in range(len(hosts)):
+        while True:
+            ring = []
+            for r in dfs(start_node, start_node, [], set(), used_ports):
+                if len(r) > len(ring):
+                    ring = r
+                # Break early since we won't find a bigger ring no matter what
+                if len(ring) == len(hosts):
+                    break
+            if not ring:
+                break
+            rings.append(normalize(concretize(ring, used_ports)))
+
+    return rings
+
+
 def positive_number(x):
     x = int(x)
     if x <= 0:
@@ -43,6 +133,11 @@ def log_warning(*args, **kwargs):
     print("\033[33m[WARN]", *args, "\033[0m", **kwargs)
 
 
+def log_error(*args, **kwargs):
+    kwargs["file"] = sys.stderr
+    print("\033[31m[ERROR]", *args, "\033[0m", **kwargs)
+
+
 def parse_hostfile(parser, hostfile):
     """Parse the json hostfile that contains both the hostnames to ssh into and
     the ips to communicate over when using the ring backend.
@@ -77,6 +172,8 @@ def parse_hostfile(parser, hostfile):
 def parse_hostlist(parser, hostlist, repeats):
     hosts = []
     for i, h in enumerate(hostlist.split(",")):
+        if h == "":
+            raise ValueError("Hostname cannot be empty")
         try:
             ipaddress.ip_address(h)
             ips = [h]
@@ -271,6 +368,305 @@ def launch_mpi(parser, hosts, args, command):
             pass
 
 
+def check_ssh_connections(hosts):
+    results = [False] * len(hosts)
+
+    def _check(hostname, i):
+        result = run(
+            [
+                "ssh",
+                "-o",
+                "BatchMode=yes",
+                "-o",
+                "ConnectTimeout=5",
+                hostname,
+                "echo",
+                "success",
+            ],
+            stdout=PIPE,
+            stderr=PIPE,
+        )
+        results[i] = result.returncode == 0
+
+    threads = [
+        threading.Thread(target=_check, args=(h.ssh_hostname, i))
+        for i, h in enumerate(hosts)
+    ]
+    for t in threads:
+        t.start()
+    for t in threads:
+        t.join()
+
+    if not all(results):
+        log_error("Could not ssh to the following hosts:")
+        for i, h in enumerate(hosts):
+            if not results[i]:
+                log_error("  - ", h.ssh_hostname)
+        log_error()
+        log_error("Maybe they are not set-up for password-less ssh?")
+        sys.exit(1)
+
+
+def prepare_tb_ring(args, hosts):
+    log(
+        args.verbose,
+        f"Preparing a thunderbolt ring for {', '.join(h.ssh_hostname for h in hosts)}",
+    )
+
+    # Check that we can ssh
+    check_ssh_connections(hosts)
+    if args.auto_setup and args.verbose:
+        log_warning(
+            "--auto-setup is requested which requires password-less sudo",
+            "on the remote hosts",
+        )
+
+    # Extract the current connectivity from the remote hosts
+    thunderbolt_connections = []
+    for h in hosts:
+        log(args.verbose, "Getting connectivity from", h.ssh_hostname)
+        thunderbolt_connections.append(
+            json.loads(
+                run(
+                    [
+                        "ssh",
+                        h.ssh_hostname,
+                        "system_profiler",
+                        "SPThunderboltDataType",
+                        "-json",
+                    ],
+                    capture_output=True,
+                ).stdout
+            )
+        )
+    interface_maps = []
+    for h in hosts:
+        log(args.verbose, "Getting interface names from", h.ssh_hostname)
+        interface_maps.append(
+            parse_hardware_ports(
+                run(
+                    [
+                        "ssh",
+                        h.ssh_hostname,
+                        "networksetup",
+                        "-listallhardwareports",
+                    ],
+                    capture_output=True,
+                ).stdout
+            )
+        )
+
+    # Parse the connectivity into some simple dataclasses
+    tb_hosts = []
+    for c, iface_map in zip(thunderbolt_connections, interface_maps):
+        name = ""
+        ports = []
+        for t in c["SPThunderboltDataType"]:
+            name = t["device_name_key"]
+            uuid = t["domain_uuid_key"]
+            tag = t["receptacle_1_tag"]["receptacle_id_key"]
+            if items := t.get("_items", []):
+                connected_to = items[0]["domain_uuid_key"]
+            else:
+                connected_to = None
+            iface = iface_map[f"Thunderbolt {tag}"]
+            ports.append(ThunderboltPort(iface, uuid, connected_to))
+        tb_hosts.append(ThunderboltHost(name, sorted(ports, key=lambda x: x.iface)))
+
+    # Create a reverse index to be able to map uuids to (host, port) quickly
+    uuid_reverse_index = {}
+    for i, h in enumerate(tb_hosts):
+        for j, p in enumerate(h.ports):
+            uuid_reverse_index[p.uuid] = (i, j)
+
+    # Find the rings by simply walking and marking visited (host, port) tuples
+    # and keeping the largest rings greedily.
+    log(args.verbose, "Extracting rings from the parsed connectivity")
+    rings = extract_rings(tb_hosts, uuid_reverse_index)
+
+    # Just output a DOT graphical representation of the found rings
+    if args.dot:
+        names = []
+        for i in range(len(tb_hosts)):
+            n = ""
+            j = i
+            while True:
+                n += chr(97 + j % 26)
+                j //= 26
+                if j == 0:
+                    break
+            names.append(n)
+
+        print("graph G {")
+        print("  node [shape=rectangle];")
+        for i, h in enumerate(hosts):
+            print(f'  {names[i]} [label="{h.ssh_hostname}"];')
+        for r in rings:
+            for (i, _), (j, _) in r:
+                print(f"  {names[i]} -- {names[j]};")
+        print("}")
+        return
+
+    # Assign IPs to each interface such that the interfaces can communicate
+    ips = {}
+    pairs = {}
+    expecting = set()
+    ip0 = 0
+    ip1 = 0
+    netmask = "255.255.255.252"
+    for r in rings:
+        for a, b in r:
+            ips[a] = f"192.168.{ip0}.{ip1 + 1}"
+            ips[b] = f"192.168.{ip0}.{ip1 + 2}"
+            pairs[a] = b
+            pairs[b] = a
+            expecting.add(b)
+            ip1 += 4
+            if ip1 > 255:
+                ip0 += 1
+                ip1 = 0
+            if ip0 > 255:
+                raise ValueError("Ran out of available local IPs for the ring")
+
+    # Create the hostfile
+    hostfile = []
+    for i, h in enumerate(hosts):
+        host = {
+            "ssh": h.ssh_hostname,
+            "ips": [
+                ips[i, j]
+                for j, p in enumerate(tb_hosts[i].ports)
+                if (i, j) in expecting
+            ],
+        }
+        hostfile.append(host)
+
+    if not args.hostfile_only:
+        for i, h in enumerate(hosts):
+            command = ""
+            command += "sudo ifconfig bridge0 down\n"
+            for j, p in enumerate(tb_hosts[i].ports):
+                if (i, j) not in ips:
+                    continue
+                iface = p.iface
+                ip = ips[i, j]
+                peer = ips[pairs[i, j]]
+                command += f"sudo ifconfig {iface} inet {ip} netmask {netmask}\n"
+                command += f"sudo route change {peer} -interface {iface}\n"
+            if args.auto_setup:
+                print(f"Running auto setup for {h.ssh_hostname}")
+                command = command.strip().replace("\n", " && ")
+                command = ["ssh", h.ssh_hostname, command]
+                log(args.verbose, shlex.join(command))
+                run(command)
+            else:
+                msg = f"Setup for {h.ssh_hostname}"
+                print(msg)
+                print("=" * len(msg))
+                print(command)
+                input("Enter to continue")
+            print()
+
+    if args.output_hostfile:
+        with open(args.output_hostfile, "w") as f:
+            json.dump(hostfile, f, indent=4)
+    else:
+        print("Hostfile")
+        print("========")
+        print(json.dumps(hostfile, indent=4))
+
+
+def prepare_hostfile(args, hosts):
+    log(
+        args.verbose,
+        f"Preparing an ethernet hostfile for {', '.join(h.ssh_hostname for h in hosts)}",
+    )
+
+    # Check that we can ssh
+    check_ssh_connections(hosts)
+
+    # Get the ips for each host
+    for h in hosts:
+        log(args.verbose, "Getting the ip from", h.ssh_hostname)
+        h.ips.append(
+            run(
+                ["ssh", h.ssh_hostname, "ipconfig", "getifaddr", "en0"],
+                capture_output=True,
+                text=True,
+            ).stdout.strip()
+        )
+
+    hostfile = []
+    for h in hosts:
+        hostfile.append(dict(ssh=h.ssh_hostname, ips=h.ips))
+
+    if args.output_hostfile:
+        with open(args.output_hostfile, "w") as f:
+            json.dump(hostfile, f, indent=4)
+    else:
+        print("Hostfile")
+        print("========")
+        print(json.dumps(hostfile, indent=4))
+
+
+def distributed_config():
+    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
+        description="Configure remote machines for use with MLX distributed"
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--verbose", action="store_true", help="Print debug messages in stdout"
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--backend",
+        choices=["ring", "mpi"],
+        default="ring",
+        help="Which distributed backend to configure",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--over",
+        choices=["thunderbolt", "ethernet"],
+        default="thunderbolt",
+        help="What type of connectivity to configure",
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--hosts", default="127.0.0.1", help="A comma separated list of hosts"
+    )
+    parser.add_argument("--hostfile", help="The file containing the hosts")
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--dot", action="store_true", help="Output the topology in DOT format and exit"
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--hostfile-only", action="store_true", help="If set only compute the hostfile"
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--output-hostfile", help="If provided, save the hostfile to this path"
+    )
+    parser.add_argument(
+        "--auto-setup",
+        action="store_true",
+        help="If set we will attempt to automatically configure the machines via ssh",
+    )
+    args = parser.parse_args()
+
+    if args.backend == "mpi" and args.over == "thunderbolt":
+        raise ValueError(
+            (
+                "The configuration of MPI over thunderbolt is "
+                "not supported yet by mlx.distributed_config"
+            )
+        )
+
+    if args.hostfile is not None:
+        hosts = parse_hostfile(parser, args.hostfile)
+    else:
+        hosts = parse_hostlist(parser, args.hosts, 1)
+
+    if args.over == "thunderbolt":
+        prepare_tb_ring(args, hosts)
+    else:
+        prepare_hostfile(args, hosts)
+
+
 def main():
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="Launch an MLX distributed program")
     parser.add_argument(
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 9296254ff..d4b5e15dd 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -194,7 +194,12 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
                 "typing_extensions",
             ],
         },
-        entry_points={"console_scripts": ["mlx.launch = mlx.distributed_run:main"]},
+        entry_points={
+            "console_scripts": [
+                "mlx.launch = mlx.distributed_run:main",
+                "mlx.distributed_config = mlx.distributed_run:distributed_config",
+            ]
+        },
         ext_modules=[CMakeExtension("mlx.core")],
         cmdclass={"build_ext": CMakeBuild, "generate_stubs": GenerateStubs},
         zip_safe=False,