diff --git a/bindep.txt b/bindep.txt
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..812bcbacf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bindep.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+# This is a cross-platform list tracking distribution packages needed by tests;
+# see https://docs.openstack.org/infra/bindep/ for additional information.
+
+gettext
+libffi-dev [platform:dpkg]
+libffi-devel [platform:rpm]
+libssl-dev [platform:ubuntu-xenial]
+locales [platform:debian]
+python-dev [platform:dpkg]
+python-devel [platform:rpm]
+python3-all-dev [platform:ubuntu !platform:ubuntu-precise]
+python3-dev [platform:dpkg]
+python3-devel [platform:fedora]