diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..45c9b34981
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+[package]
+name = "gitcore"
+version = "0.1.0"
+edition = "2018"
+
+[lib]
+crate-type = ["staticlib"]
+
+[dependencies]
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index e8ec0eca16..234a9e9d6f 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ project('git', 'c',
   # learned to define __STDC_VERSION__ with C11 and later. We thus require
   # GNU C99 and fall back to C11. Meson only learned to handle the fallback
   # with version 1.3.0, so on older versions we use GNU C99 unconditionally.
-  default_options: meson.version().version_compare('>=1.3.0') ? ['c_std=gnu99,c11'] : ['c_std=gnu99'],
+  default_options: meson.version().version_compare('>=1.3.0') ? ['rust_std=2018', 'c_std=gnu99,c11'] : ['rust_std=2018', 'c_std=gnu99'],
 )
 
 fs = import('fs')
@@ -1702,6 +1702,13 @@ version_def_h = custom_target(
 )
 libgit_sources += version_def_h
 
+cargo = find_program('cargo', dirs: program_path, native: true, required: get_option('rust'))
+rust_option = get_option('rust').disable_auto_if(not cargo.found())
+if rust_option.allowed()
+  subdir('src')
+  libgit_c_args += '-DWITH_RUST'
+endif
+
 libgit = declare_dependency(
   link_with: static_library('git',
     sources: libgit_sources,
@@ -2239,6 +2246,7 @@ summary({
   'pcre2': pcre2,
   'perl': perl_features_enabled,
   'python': target_python.found(),
+  'rust': rust_option.allowed(),
 }, section: 'Auto-detected features', bool_yn: true)
 
 summary({
diff --git a/meson_options.txt b/meson_options.txt
index 1668f260a1..143dee9237 100644
--- a/meson_options.txt
+++ b/meson_options.txt
@@ -71,6 +71,8 @@ option('zlib_backend', type: 'combo', choices: ['auto', 'zlib', 'zlib-ng'], valu
 # Build tweaks.
 option('breaking_changes', type: 'boolean', value: false,
   description: 'Enable upcoming breaking changes.')
+option('rust', type: 'feature', value: 'auto',
+  description: 'Enable building with Rust.')
 option('macos_use_homebrew_gettext', type: 'boolean', value: true,
   description: 'Use gettext from Homebrew instead of the slightly-broken system-provided one.')
 
diff --git a/src/cargo-meson.sh b/src/cargo-meson.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..99400986d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cargo-meson.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+
+if test "$#" -lt 2
+then
+	exit 1
+fi
+
+SOURCE_DIR="$1"
+BUILD_DIR="$2"
+BUILD_TYPE=debug
+
+shift 2
+
+for arg
+do
+	case "$arg" in
+	--release)
+		BUILD_TYPE=release;;
+	esac
+done
+
+cargo build --lib --quiet --manifest-path="$SOURCE_DIR/Cargo.toml" --target-dir="$BUILD_DIR" "$@"
+RET=$?
+if test $RET -ne 0
+then
+	exit $RET
+fi
+
+if ! cmp "$BUILD_DIR/$BUILD_TYPE/libgitcore.a" "$BUILD_DIR/libgitcore.a" >/dev/null 2>&1
+then
+	cp "$BUILD_DIR/$BUILD_TYPE/libgitcore.a" "$BUILD_DIR/libgitcore.a"
+fi
diff --git a/src/lib.rs b/src/lib.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2
diff --git a/src/meson.build b/src/meson.build
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c8d874b210
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/meson.build
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+libgit_rs_sources = [
+  'lib.rs',
+]
+
+# Unfortunately we must use a wrapper command to move the output file into the
+# current build directory. This can fixed once `cargo build --artifact-dir`
+# stabilizes. See https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/6790 for that
+# effort.
+cargo_command = [
+  shell,
+  meson.current_source_dir() / 'cargo-meson.sh',
+  meson.project_source_root(),
+  meson.current_build_dir(),
+]
+if get_option('buildtype') == 'release'
+  cargo_command += '--release'
+endif
+
+libgit_rs = custom_target('git_rs',
+  input: libgit_rs_sources + [
+    meson.project_source_root() / 'Cargo.toml',
+  ],
+  output: 'libgitcore.a',
+  command: cargo_command,
+)
+libgit_dependencies += declare_dependency(link_with: libgit_rs)
+
+if get_option('tests')
+  test('rust', cargo,
+    args: [
+      'test',
+      '--manifest-path',
+      meson.project_source_root() / 'Cargo.toml',
+      '--target-dir',
+      meson.current_build_dir() / 'target',
+    ],
+    timeout: 0,
+    protocol: 'rust',
+  )
+endif