diff --git a/compressor/utils.py b/compressor/utils.py
index 4d8f580..05b769d 100644
--- a/compressor/utils.py
+++ b/compressor/utils.py
@@ -116,3 +116,112 @@ def import_module(name, package=None):
        name = _resolve_name(name[level:], package, level)
    __import__(name)
    return sys.modules[name]
+
+
+class AppSettings(object):
+   """
+   An app setting object to be used for handling app setting defaults
+   gracefully and providing a nice API for them. Say you have an app
+   called ``myapp`` and want to define a few defaults, and refer to the
+   defaults easily in the apps code. Add a ``settings.py`` to your app::
+
+       from path.to.utils import AppSettings
+
+       class MyAppSettings(AppSettings):
+           SETTING_1 = "one"
+           SETTING_2 = (
+               "two",
+           )
+
+   Then initialize the setting with the correct prefix in the location of
+   of your choice, e.g. ``conf.py`` of the app module::
+
+       settings = MyAppSettings(prefix="MYAPP")
+
+   The ``MyAppSettings`` instance will automatically look at Django's
+   global setting to determine each of the settings and respect the
+   provided ``prefix``. E.g. adding this to your site's ``settings.py``
+   will set the ``SETTING_1`` setting accordingly::
+
+       MYAPP_SETTING_1 = "uno"
+
+   Usage
+   -----
+
+   Instead of using ``from django.conf import settings`` as you would
+   usually do, you can switch to using your apps own settings module
+   to access the app settings::
+
+       from myapp.conf import settings
+
+       print myapp_settings.MYAPP_SETTING_1
+
+   ``AppSettings`` instances also work as pass-throughs for other
+   global settings that aren't related to the app. For example the
+   following code is perfectly valid::
+
+       from myapp.conf import settings
+
+       if "myapp" in settings.INSTALLED_APPS:
+           print "yay, myapp is installed!"
+
+   Custom handling
+   ---------------
+
+   Each of the settings can be individually configured with callbacks.
+   For example, in case a value of a setting depends on other settings
+   or other dependencies. The following example sets one setting to a
+   different value depending on a global setting::
+
+       from django.conf import settings
+
+       class MyCustomAppSettings(AppSettings):
+           ENABLED = True
+
+           def configure_enabled(self, value):
+               return value and not self.DEBUG
+
+       custom_settings = MyCustomAppSettings("MYAPP")
+
+   The value of ``custom_settings.MYAPP_ENABLED`` will vary depending on the
+   value of the global ``DEBUG`` setting.
+
+   Each of the app settings can be customized by providing
+   a method ``configure_<lower_setting_name>`` that takes the default
+   value as defined in the class attributes as the only parameter.
+   The method needs to return the value to be use for the setting in
+   question.
+   """
+   def __dir__(self):
+       return sorted(list(set(self.__dict__.keys() + dir(settings))))
+
+   __members__ = lambda self: self.__dir__()
+
+   def __getattr__(self, name):
+       if name.startswith(self._prefix):
+           raise AttributeError("%r object has no attribute %r" %
+                                (self.__class__.__name__, name))
+       try:
+           return getattr(settings, name)
+       except AttributeError:
+           raise
+
+   def __init__(self, prefix):
+       defaults = filter(self.issetting, inspect.getmembers(self.__class__))
+       self._prefix = prefix
+       for name, value in defaults:
+           prefixed_name = "%s_%s" % (self._prefix.upper(), name.upper())
+           value = getattr(settings, prefixed_name, value)
+           try:
+               callback = getattr(self, "configure_%s" % name.lower())
+               if callable(callback):
+                   callback_value = callback(value)
+                   if callback_value is not None:
+                       value = callback_value
+           except AttributeError:
+               pass
+           delattr(self.__class__, name)
+           setattr(self, prefixed_name, value)
+
+   def issetting(self, setting):
+       return setting[0] == setting[0].upper()