diff --git a/bindep.txt b/bindep.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c0c860f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bindep.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+# This is a cross-platform list tracking distribution packages needed by tests;
+# see http://docs.openstack.org/infra/bindep/ for additional information.
+
+python-dev [platform:dpkg]
+python3-all [platform:dpkg !platform:ubuntu-precise]
+python3-all-dev [platform:dpkg !platform:ubuntu-precise]
+python3-devel [platform:fedora]
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index eff8613..706b94c 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -44,6 +44,17 @@ commands = {posargs}
 [testenv:docs]
 commands = python setup.py build_sphinx
 
+[testenv:bindep]
+# Do not install any requirements. We want this to be fast and work even if
+# system dependencies are missing, since it's used to tell you what system
+# dependencies are missing! This also means that bindep must be installed
+# separately, outside of the requirements files, and develop mode disabled
+# explicitly to avoid unnecessarily installing the checked-out repo too (this
+# further relies on "tox.skipsdist = True" above).
+deps = bindep
+commands = bindep test
+usedevelop = False
+
 [flake8]
 show-source = True
 builtins = _