diff --git a/api-ref/source/conf.py b/api-ref/source/conf.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..6b02cb83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api-ref/source/conf.py
@@ -0,0 +1,224 @@
+# -*- 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.
+#
+# searchlight api-ref build config file, copied from:
+# nova documentation build configuration file, created by
+# sphinx-quickstart on Sat May  1 15:17:47 2010.
+#
+# This file is execfile()d with the current directory set to
+# its containing dir.
+#
+# Note that not all possible configuration values are present in this
+# autogenerated file.
+#
+# All configuration values have a default; values that are commented out
+# serve to show the default.
+
+import os
+import subprocess
+import sys
+import warnings
+
+# If extensions (or modules to document with autodoc) are in another directory,
+# add these directories to sys.path here. If the directory is relative to the
+# documentation root, use os.path.abspath to make it absolute, like shown here.
+sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../../'))
+sys.path.insert(0, os.path.abspath('../'))
+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 = [
+    'os_api_ref',
+    'oslosphinx',
+]
+
+# The suffix of source filenames.
+source_suffix = '.rst'
+
+# The encoding of source files.
+#
+# source_encoding = 'utf-8'
+
+# The master toctree document.
+master_doc = 'index'
+
+# General information about the project.
+project = u'Search Service API Reference'
+copyright = u'2015-present, OpenStack Foundation'
+
+# The version info for the project you're documenting, acts as replacement for
+# |version| and |release|, also used in various other places throughout the
+# built documents.
+#
+from searchlight.version import version_info
+# The full version, including alpha/beta/rc tags.
+release = version_info.release_string()
+# The short X.Y version.
+version = version_info.version_string()
+
+
+# for a list of supported languages.
+#
+# language = None
+
+# There are two options for replacing |today|: either, you set today to some
+# non-false value, then it is used:
+# today = ''
+# Else, today_fmt is used as the format for a strftime call.
+# today_fmt = '%B %d, %Y'
+
+# The reST default role (used for this markup: `text`) to use
+# for all documents.
+# default_role = None
+
+# 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 = False
+
+# If true, sectionauthor and moduleauthor directives will be shown in the
+# output. They are ignored by default.
+show_authors = False
+
+# The name of the Pygments (syntax highlighting) style to use.
+pygments_style = 'sphinx'
+
+# -- Options for man page output ----------------------------------------------
+
+# Grouping the document tree for man pages.
+# List of tuples 'sourcefile', 'target', u'title', u'Authors name', 'manual'
+
+
+# -- 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'
+
+# Theme options are theme-specific and customize the look and feel of a theme
+# further.  For a list of options available for each theme, see the
+# documentation.
+# html_theme_options = {}
+
+# Add any paths that contain custom themes here, relative to this directory.
+# html_theme_path = []
+
+# The name for this set of Sphinx documents.  If None, it defaults to
+# "<project> v<release> documentation".
+# html_title = None
+
+# A shorter title for the navigation bar.  Default is the same as html_title.
+# html_short_title = None
+
+# The name of an image file (relative to this directory) to place at the top
+# of the sidebar.
+# html_logo = None
+
+# The name of an image file (within the static path) to use as favicon of the
+# docs.  This file should be a Windows icon file (.ico) being 16x16 or 32x32
+# pixels large.
+# html_favicon = None
+
+# Add any paths that contain custom static files (such as style sheets) here,
+# relative to this directory. They are copied after the builtin static files,
+# so a file named "default.css" will overwrite the builtin "default.css".
+# html_static_path = ['_static']
+
+# If not '', a 'Last updated on:' timestamp is inserted at every page bottom,
+# using the given strftime format.
+# html_last_updated_fmt = '%b %d, %Y'
+git_cmd = [
+    "git", "log", "--pretty=format:'%ad, commit %h'", "--date=local", "-n1"
+]
+try:
+    html_last_updated_fmt = subprocess.Popen(
+        git_cmd, stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()[0]
+except Exception:
+    warnings.warn('Cannot get last updated time from git repository. '
+                  'Not setting "html_last_updated_fmt".')
+
+# If true, SmartyPants will be used to convert quotes and dashes to
+# typographically correct entities.
+# html_use_smartypants = True
+
+# Custom sidebar templates, maps document names to template names.
+# html_sidebars = {}
+
+# Additional templates that should be rendered to pages, maps page names to
+# template names.
+# html_additional_pages = {}
+
+# If false, no module index is generated.
+# html_use_modindex = True
+
+# If false, no index is generated.
+# html_use_index = True
+
+# If true, the index is split into individual pages for each letter.
+# html_split_index = False
+
+# If true, links to the reST sources are added to the pages.
+# html_show_sourcelink = True
+
+# If true, an OpenSearch description file will be output, and all pages will
+# contain a <link> tag referring to it.  The value of this option must be the
+# base URL from which the finished HTML is served.
+# html_use_opensearch = ''
+
+# If nonempty, this is the file name suffix for HTML files (e.g. ".xhtml").
+# html_file_suffix = ''
+
+# Output file base name for HTML help builder.
+htmlhelp_basename = 'searchlightdoc'
+
+
+# -- Options for LaTeX output -------------------------------------------------
+
+# The paper size ('letter' or 'a4').
+# latex_paper_size = 'letter'
+
+# The font size ('10pt', '11pt' or '12pt').
+# latex_font_size = '10pt'
+
+# Grouping the document tree into LaTeX files. List of tuples
+# (source start file, target name, title, author, documentclass
+# [howto/manual]).
+latex_documents = [
+    ('index', 'Searchlight.tex', u'OpenStack Search Service API Documentation',
+     u'OpenStack Foundation', 'manual'),
+]
+
+# The name of an image file (relative to this directory) to place at the top of
+# the title page.
+# latex_logo = None
+
+# For "manual" documents, if this is true, then toplevel headings are parts,
+# not chapters.
+# latex_use_parts = False
+
+# Additional stuff for the LaTeX preamble.
+# latex_preamble = ''
+
+# Documents to append as an appendix to all manuals.
+# latex_appendices = []
+
+# If false, no module index is generated.
+# latex_use_modindex = True
diff --git a/api-ref/source/index.rst b/api-ref/source/index.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..34957383
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api-ref/source/index.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+..
+      Copyright 2016 OpenStack Foundation
+      All Rights Reserved.
+
+      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.
+
+==================
+Search Service API
+==================
+
+The API Reference is on the way.  In the meantime, please see:
+
+http://docs.openstack.org/developer/searchlight/
+
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index a333b8cb..7c84c27c 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -24,4 +24,5 @@ simplejson>=2.2.0 # MIT
 httplib2>=0.7.5 # MIT
 
 # Documentation
+os-api-ref>=0.1.0 # Apache-2.0
 oslosphinx!=3.4.0,>=2.5.0 # Apache-2.0
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 624b3241..441474a9 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -33,6 +33,20 @@ commands =
 [testenv:docs]
 commands = python setup.py build_sphinx
 
+[testenv:api-ref]
+# This environment is called from CI scripts to test and publish
+# the API Ref to developer.openstack.org.
+#
+# NOTE(sdague): this target does not use constraints because
+# upstream infra does not yet support it. Once that's fixed, we can
+# drop the install_command.
+whitelist_externals = bash
+                      rm
+install_command = pip install -U --force-reinstall {opts} {packages}
+commands =
+  rm -rf api-ref/build
+  sphinx-build -W -b html -d api-ref/build/doctrees api-ref/source api-ref/build/html
+
 [testenv:releasenotes]
 commands = sphinx-build -a -E -W -d releasenotes/build/doctrees -b html releasenotes/source releasenotes/build/html