diff --git a/doc/README.rst b/doc/README.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd9776e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/README.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+========================
+Content of doc directory
+========================
+
+This directory contains documentation related information.
diff --git a/doc/source/conf.py b/doc/source/conf.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..1589d82
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/conf.py
@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or
+# implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+import os
+import sys
+
+sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../..'))
+# -- General configuration ----------------------------------------------------
+
+# Add any Sphinx extension module names here, as strings. They can be
+# extensions coming with Sphinx (named 'sphinx.ext.*') or your custom ones.
+extensions = [
+    'sphinx.ext.autodoc',
+    #'sphinx.ext.intersphinx',
+    'oslosphinx'
+]
+
+# autodoc generation is a bit aggressive and a nuisance when doing heavy
+# text edit cycles.
+# execute "export SPHINX_DEBUG=1" in your terminal to disable
+
+# The suffix of source filenames.
+source_suffix = '.rst'
+
+# The master toctree document.
+master_doc = 'index'
+
+# General information about the project.
+project = u'bareon'
+copyright = u'2015, OpenStack Foundation'
+
+# If true, '()' will be appended to :func: etc. cross-reference text.
+add_function_parentheses = True
+
+# If true, the current module name will be prepended to all description
+# unit titles (such as .. function::).
+add_module_names = True
+
+# The name of the Pygments (syntax highlighting) style to use.
+pygments_style = 'sphinx'
+
+# -- Options for HTML output --------------------------------------------------
+
+# The theme to use for HTML and HTML Help pages.  Major themes that come with
+# Sphinx are currently 'default' and 'sphinxdoc'.
+# html_theme_path = ["."]
+# html_theme = '_theme'
+# html_static_path = ['static']
+
+# Output file base name for HTML help builder.
+htmlhelp_basename = '%sdoc' % project
+
+# Grouping the document tree into LaTeX files. List of tuples
+# (source start file, target name, title, author, documentclass
+# [howto/manual]).
+latex_documents = [
+    ('index',
+     '%s.tex' % project,
+     u'%s Documentation' % project,
+     u'OpenStack Foundation', 'manual'),
+]
+
+# Example configuration for intersphinx: refer to the Python standard library.
+#intersphinx_mapping = {'http://docs.python.org/': None}
diff --git a/doc/source/contributing.rst b/doc/source/contributing.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1728a61
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/contributing.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+============
+Contributing
+============
+.. include:: ../../CONTRIBUTING.rst
diff --git a/doc/source/index.rst b/doc/source/index.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd6d7c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/index.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+.. bareon documentation master file, created by
+   sphinx-quickstart on Tue Jul  9 22:26:36 2013.
+   You can adapt this file completely to your liking, but it should at least
+   contain the root `toctree` directive.
+
+Welcome to Bareon's documentation!
+========================================================
+
+Contents:
+
+.. toctree::
+   :maxdepth: 2
+
+   readme
+   installation
+   usage
+   contributing
+
+Indices and tables
+==================
+
+* :ref:`genindex`
+* :ref:`modindex`
+* :ref:`search`
+
diff --git a/doc/source/installation.rst b/doc/source/installation.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a5b22c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/installation.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+============
+Installation
+============
+
+At the command line::
+
+    $ pip install bareon
+
+Or, if you have virtualenvwrapper installed::
+
+    $ mkvirtualenv bareon
+    $ pip install bareon
diff --git a/doc/source/readme.rst b/doc/source/readme.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a6210d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/readme.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+.. include:: ../../README.rst
diff --git a/doc/source/usage.rst b/doc/source/usage.rst
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a18c028
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/source/usage.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+========
+Usage
+========
+
+To use bareon in a project::
+
+    import bareon
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index b583dfd..4cc46b4 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -47,6 +47,9 @@ all_files = 1
 build-dir = doc/build
 source-dir = doc/source
 
+[upload_sphinx]
+upload-dir = doc/build/html
+
 [egg_info]
 tag_build =
 tag_date = 0
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index ecf5ce8..73895a5 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -4,3 +4,7 @@ pytest>=2.7.2
 pytest-cov>=1.8.1
 requests-mock>=0.6
 unittest2==1.1.0
+
+# this is required for the docs build jobs
+sphinx!=1.2.0,!=1.3b1,<1.3,>=1.1.2
+oslosphinx!=3.4.0,>=2.5.0 # Apache-2.0
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 0a8dc1c..d1fe5a2 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -33,6 +33,9 @@ commands = {posargs:}
 envdir = devenv
 usedevelop = True
 
+[testenv:docs]
+commands = python setup.py build_sphinx
+
 [flake8]
 exclude = .venv,.git,.tox,dist,doc,*openstack/common*,*lib/python*,*egg,build,tools,docs
 show-pep8 = True