diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 2113079ed..f0eeb7d9a 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 # Distribution / packaging
 *.egg*
+build/
+dist/
 
 # Testing
 .cache
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 491f9d05c..99240e514 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 [metadata]
 name = browbeat
 summary = OpenStack Performance Tooling
+description-file =
+    README.rst
+description-content-type = text/plain; charset=UTF-8
 author = OpenStack
 author-email = openstack-dev@lists.openstack.org
 home-page = http://www.browbeatproject.org/
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index b6f6cf95a..a6b35820a 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ pykwalify
 coverage>=3.6
 pytest==3.2.1
 python-subunit>=0.0.18
+readme_renderer[md]
 sphinx>=1.3,!=1.6.1
 oslosphinx>=2.5.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslotest>=1.10.0 # Apache-2.0
@@ -16,3 +17,4 @@ sphinx_rtd_theme
 testrepository>=0.0.18
 testscenarios>=0.4
 testtools>=1.4.0
+twine
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 31f2e9838..74f6f956b 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 [tox]
 minversion = 2.0
-envlist = py27,py35,py36,linters
+envlist = py27,py35,py36,linters,dist
 skipsdist = True
 
 [testenv]
@@ -26,6 +26,15 @@ commands =
   bash -c "set -e; for config in $(ls conf/); do \
     echo conf/$config; pykwalify -d conf/$config -s browbeat/schema/browbeat.yml; done"
 
+[testenv:dist]
+basepython = python3
+# reuse linters environment to lower footprint on dev machines
+envdir = {toxworkdir}/linters
+# test that we can build a valid package
+commands =
+  python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
+  python -m twine check dist/*
+
 [testenv:pep8]
 commands = flake8 {posargs}