diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 877b43fa8..7c2a9aaed 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -65,4 +65,5 @@ def run(self):
                             'cactus-hal2maf = cactus.maf.cactus_hal2maf:main',
                             'cactus-hal2chains = cactus.maf.cactus_hal2chains:main',
                             'cactus-maf2bigmaf = cactus.maf.cactus_maf2bigmaf:main',
-                            'cactus-pangenome = cactus.refmap.cactus_pangenome:main']},)
+                            'cactus-pangenome = cactus.refmap.cactus_pangenome:main',
+                            'cactus-mafviz = cactus.maf.cactus_mafviz:main']},)
diff --git a/src/cactus/maf/cactus_mafviz.py b/src/cactus/maf/cactus_mafviz.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f5df51812
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cactus/maf/cactus_mafviz.py
@@ -0,0 +1,277 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+
+"""
+This is a script to view a MAF (from cactus-hal2maf) using taffy
+"""
+
+import os, sys
+from argparse import ArgumentParser
+import copy
+import timeit, time
+import math
+import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET
+
+from operator import itemgetter
+
+from cactus.progressive.seqFile import SeqFile
+from cactus.shared.common import setupBinaries, importSingularityImage
+from cactus.shared.common import cactusRootPath
+from cactus.shared.configWrapper import ConfigWrapper
+from cactus.shared.common import makeURL, catFiles
+from cactus.shared.common import enableDumpStack
+from cactus.shared.common import cactus_override_toil_options
+from cactus.shared.common import cactus_call
+from cactus.shared.common import getOptionalAttrib, findRequiredNode
+from cactus.shared.common import cactus_clamp_memory
+from cactus.shared.version import cactus_commit
+from toil.job import Job
+from toil.common import Toil
+from toil.statsAndLogging import logger
+from toil.statsAndLogging import set_logging_from_options
+from toil.realtimeLogger import RealtimeLogger
+from cactus.shared.common import cactus_cpu_count
+from cactus.maf.cactus_hal2maf import get_sed_rename_scripts
+from toil.lib.humanize import bytes2human
+from sonLib.bioio import getTempDirectory
+
+def main():
+    parser = ArgumentParser()
+    Job.Runner.addToilOptions(parser)
+
+    parser.add_argument("mafFile", help = "MAF file to convert to BigMaf (can be gzipped)")
+    parser.add_argument("outDir", help = "Output bigMaf file (.bb)")
+
+    parser.add_argument("--refGenome", required=True, help = "Name of reference genome (1st row in MAF)")
+    parser.add_argument("--chroms", nargs='*',
+                        help = "Subset to input chromosome(s). If used without arguments, split on all chromosomes")
+
+    parser.add_argument("--genomes", nargs='+',
+                        help = "Split into separate output for each given genome.  Ex. --genomes $(halStats --genomes <hal>)")
+
+    parser.add_argument("--haplotypes", nargs='+',
+                        help = "Split into separate output for each given sample.  Same as --genomes except "
+                        " samples will be treaded together. ex hap.1,hap.2,hap.3 will be in the same output file "
+                        "and renamed to hap_1,hap_2,hap_3")
+    
+    #Progressive Cactus Options
+    parser.add_argument("--configFile", dest="configFile",
+                        help="Specify cactus configuration file",
+                        default=os.path.join(cactusRootPath(), "cactus_progressive_config.xml"))
+    parser.add_argument("--latest", dest="latest", action="store_true",
+                        help="Use the latest version of the docker container "
+                        "rather than pulling one matching this version of cactus")
+    parser.add_argument("--containerImage", dest="containerImage", default=None,
+                        help="Use the the specified pre-built containter image "
+                        "rather than pulling one from quay.io")
+    parser.add_argument("--binariesMode", choices=["docker", "local", "singularity"],
+                        help="The way to run the Cactus binaries", default=None)
+
+    options = parser.parse_args()
+
+    setupBinaries(options)
+    set_logging_from_options(options)
+    enableDumpStack()
+
+    if not (options.mafFile.endswith('.maf') or options.mafFile.endswith('.maf.gz') or
+            options.mafFile.endswith('.taf') or options.mafFile.endswith('.taf.gz')):
+        raise RuntimeError('Input MAF file must have .maf/.maf.gz/.taf/.taf.gz extension')
+    
+    # Mess with some toil options to create useful defaults.
+    cactus_override_toil_options(options)
+
+    logger.info('Cactus Command: {}'.format(' '.join(sys.argv)))
+    logger.info('Cactus Commit: {}'.format(cactus_commit))
+    start_time = timeit.default_timer()
+
+    with Toil(options) as toil:
+        importSingularityImage(options)
+        #Run the workflow
+        if options.restart:
+            viz_id_dict = toil.restart()
+        else:
+            #load cactus config
+            configNode = ET.parse(options.configFile).getroot()
+            config = ConfigWrapper(configNode)
+            config.substituteAllPredefinedConstantsWithLiterals(options)
+            
+            logger.info("Importing {}".format(options.mafFile))
+            maf_id = toil.importFile(makeURL(options.mafFile))
+            try:
+                logger.info("Importing {}".format(options.mafFile + '.tai'))
+                tai_id = toil.importFile(makeURL(options.mafFile + '.tai'))
+            except:
+                raise RuntimeError('Maf Index {} not found: Please create with taffy index'.format(
+                    options.mafFile + '.tai'))
+
+            viz_id_dict = toil.start(Job.wrapJobFn(mafviz_workflow, config, options, maf_id, tai_id))
+
+        #export the results
+        export_mafviz(toil, options, viz_id_dict)
+        
+    end_time = timeit.default_timer()
+    run_time = end_time - start_time
+    logger.info("cactus-mafviz has finished after {} seconds".format(run_time))
+
+
+def mafviz_workflow(job, config, options, maf_id, tai_id):
+    root_job = Job()
+    job.addChild(root_job)
+    # get the reference chromosomes
+    if options.chroms == []:
+        chrom_job = root_job.addFollowOnJobFn(tai_ref_croms, options, maf_id, tai_id)
+        root_job = chrom_job
+        options.chroms = chrom_job.rv()
+
+    viz_all_job = root_job.addFollowOnJobFn(maf_viz_all, config, options, maf_id, tai_id)
+
+    return viz_all_job.rv()
+
+def tai_ref_chroms(job, options, maf_id, tai_id):
+    """ use taffy to get the reference chromosomes from the tai """
+    work_dir = job.fileStore.getLocalTempDir()
+    maf_path = os.path.join(work_dir, os.path.basename(options.mafFile))
+    tai_path = maf_path + '.tai'
+    job.fileStore.readGlobalFile(maf_id, maf_path)
+    job.fileStore.readGlobalFile(tai_id, tai_path)
+    seq_stats = cactus_call(parameters=['taffy' 'stats', '-s', '-i', maf_path], check_output=True)
+    seq_list = []
+    for line in seq_stats.split('\n'):
+        seq_list.append(line.split()[0])
+    return seq_list
+
+def maf_viz_all(job, config, options, maf_id, tai_id):
+    """ make visualization, for each chrom / genome as specified, in parallel """
+    out_dict = {}
+
+    # "None" chromsome means whole-genome
+    if not options.chroms:
+        options.chroms = [None]
+    if options.chroms:
+        for chrom in options.chroms:
+            chrom_viz_job = job.addChildJobFn(maf_viz_chrom, config, options, maf_id, tai_id, chrom,
+                                              disk=maf_id.size*2)
+            out_dict[chrom] = chrom_viz_job.rv()
+
+    return out_dict
+
+def maf_viz_chrom(job, config, options, maf_id, tai_id, chrom):
+    """ make visualizations for given chromosome """
+    work_dir = job.fileStore.getLocalTempDir()
+    maf_path = os.path.join(work_dir, os.path.basename(options.mafFile))
+    tai_path = maf_path + '.tai'
+    job.fileStore.readGlobalFile(maf_id, maf_path)
+    job.fileStore.readGlobalFile(tai_id, tai_path)
+
+    # extract the chromosome if specified
+    if chrom:
+        chrom_maf_path = os.path.join(work_dir, chrom + '.' + os.path.basename(options.mafFile))
+        maf_view_command = ['taffy', 'view', '-m', '-i', maf_path, '-r', options.refGenome + '.' + chrom]
+        if maf_path.endswith('.gz'):
+            maf_view_command += ['-c']
+        cactus_call(parameters=maf_view_command, outfile=chrom_maf_path)
+        maf_path = chrom_maf_path
+        maf_id = job.fileStore.writeGlobalFile(maf_path)
+
+    if not options.genomes and not options.haplotypes:
+        options.genomes = [None]
+
+    genome_groups = []
+    if options.genomes:
+        for genome in options.genomes:
+            genome_groups.append([genome])
+
+    # group haplotypes by sample, using .1 .2 etc naming convention from mc
+    if options.haplotypes:
+        sample_map = {}
+        for h in options.haplotypes:
+            assert '.' in h
+            sample = h[0:h.rfind('.')]
+            if sample in sample_map:
+                sample_map[sample].append(h)
+            else:
+                sample_map[sample] = [h]
+        for hap_list in sample_map.values():
+            genome_groups.append(hap_list)
+
+    print(genome_groups)
+            
+    genome_dict = {}
+    for genome_group in genome_groups:
+        viz_job = job.addChildJobFn(maf_viz, config, options, maf_id, chrom, genome_group,
+                                    disk=maf_id.size*3)
+        genome_dict[sorted(genome_group)[0]] = viz_job.rv()
+
+    print(genome_dict)
+    return genome_dict
+
+def maf_viz(job, config, options, maf_id, chrom, genomes):
+    """ make the visualizations for the given maf and genomes """
+
+    work_dir = job.fileStore.getLocalTempDir()
+    prefix = chrom + '.' if chrom else ''
+    maf_path = os.path.join(work_dir, prefix + os.path.basename(options.mafFile))
+    job.fileStore.readGlobalFile(maf_id, maf_path)
+
+    if genomes != [None]:
+        sed_cmd = ['sed']
+        extract_cmd = [['gzip', '-dc', maf_path]] if options.mafFile.endswith('.gz') else [['cat', maf_path]]
+        new_genomes = []
+        for genome in genomes:
+            if '.' in genome:
+                new_genome = '_'.join(genome.rsplit('.', 1))
+                sed_cmd += ['-e', 's/{}/{}/g'.format(genome, new_genome)]
+            else:
+                new_genome = genome
+            new_genomes.append(new_genome)
+        if len(sed_cmd) > 1:
+            extract_cmd.append(sed_cmd)
+        extract_cmd.append(['mafFilter', '-m', '-', '-i', ','.join(new_genomes + [options.refGenome])])
+        extract_cmd.append(['mafFilter', '-m', '-', '-l', '2'])
+        
+        extract_cmd.append(['bgzip'])
+
+        extract_maf_path = os.path.join(work_dir, prefix + genomes[0] + '.' + os.path.basename(options.mafFile))
+        if not extract_maf_path.endswith('.gz'):
+            extract_maf_path += '.gz'
+        cactus_call(parameters=extract_cmd, outfile=extract_maf_path)
+    else:
+        extract_maf_path = maf_path
+
+    # now we can do this viz
+    dotfile = os.path.join(work_dir, 'dotplot.pdf')
+    cactus_call(parameters=['python3', '/home/hickey/dev/taffy/scripts/taffy_alignment_plot.py',
+                            extract_maf_path, '--show_dot_plot', '--output_format', 'png',
+                            '--out_file', dotfile])
+
+    syntfile = os.path.join(work_dir, 'synteny.pdf')
+    cactus_call(parameters=['python3', '/home/hickey/dev/taffy/scripts/taffy_alignment_plot.py',
+                            extract_maf_path, '--show_synteny', '--output_format', 'png',
+                            '--bin_number', '500', '--show_sequence_boundaries',
+                            '--out_file', syntfile])
+
+    return { 'dot' : job.fileStore.writeGlobalFile(dotfile),
+             'synteny' : job.fileStore.writeGlobalFile(syntfile) }
+                            
+def export_mafviz(toil, options, output_dict):
+    """ export the files into a directory """
+
+    name = os.path.splitext(os.path.basename(options.mafFile))[0]
+    if options.mafFile.endswith('.gz'):
+        name = os.path.splitext(name)[0]
+
+    for chrom, chrom_dict in output_dict.items():
+        chrom_base = os.path.join(options.outDir, chrom) if chrom else options.outDir
+        if not chrom_base.startswith('s3://') and not os.path.isdir(chrom_base):
+            os.makedirs(chrom_base)
+
+        for genome, genome_dict in chrom_dict.items():
+            for viz_type, viz_id in genome_dict.items():
+                file_name = name
+                if chrom:
+                    file_name += '.{}'.format(chrom)
+                if genome:
+                    file_name += '.{}'.format(genome)
+                file_name += '.{}.png'.format(viz_type)
+                
+                toil.exportFile(viz_id, makeURL(os.path.join(chrom_base, file_name)))
+