diff --git a/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/lxd.py b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/lxd.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..8e225c973ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/ansible/plugins/connection/lxd.py
@@ -0,0 +1,112 @@
+# (c) 2016 Matt Clay <matt@mystile.com>
+#
+# This file is part of Ansible
+#
+# Ansible is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+# (at your option) any later version.
+#
+# Ansible is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+# GNU General Public License for more details.
+#
+# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+# along with Ansible.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+from __future__ import (absolute_import, division, print_function)
+__metaclass__ = type
+
+import os
+from distutils.spawn import find_executable
+from subprocess import call, Popen, PIPE
+
+from ansible.errors import AnsibleError, AnsibleConnectionFailure, AnsibleFileNotFound
+from ansible.plugins.connection import ConnectionBase
+from ansible.utils.unicode import to_bytes, to_unicode
+
+
+class Connection(ConnectionBase):
+    """ lxd based connections """
+
+    transport = "lxd"
+    has_pipelining = True
+
+    def __init__(self, play_context, new_stdin, *args, **kwargs):
+        super(Connection, self).__init__(play_context, new_stdin, *args, **kwargs)
+
+        self._host = self._play_context.remote_addr
+        self._lxc_cmd = find_executable("lxc")
+
+        if not self._lxc_cmd:
+            raise AnsibleError("lxc command not found in PATH")
+
+        if self._play_context.remote_user is not None and self._play_context.remote_user != 'root':
+            self._display.warning('lxd does not support remote_user, using container default: root')
+
+    def _connect(self):
+        """connect to lxd (nothing to do here) """
+        super(Connection, self)._connect()
+
+        if not self._connected:
+            self._display.vvv(u"ESTABLISH LXD CONNECTION FOR USER: root", host=self._host)
+            self._connected = True
+
+    def exec_command(self, cmd, in_data=None, sudoable=True):
+        """ execute a command on the lxd host """
+        super(Connection, self).exec_command(cmd, in_data=in_data, sudoable=sudoable)
+
+        self._display.vvv(u"EXEC {0}".format(cmd), host=self._host)
+
+        local_cmd = [self._lxc_cmd, "exec", self._host, "--", self._play_context.executable, "-c", cmd]
+
+        local_cmd = [to_bytes(i, errors='strict') for i in local_cmd]
+        in_data = to_bytes(in_data, errors='strict', nonstring='passthru')
+
+        process = Popen(local_cmd, stdin=PIPE, stdout=PIPE, stderr=PIPE)
+        stdout, stderr = process.communicate(in_data)
+
+        stdout = to_unicode(stdout)
+        stderr = to_unicode(stderr)
+
+        if stderr == "error: Container is not running.\n":
+            raise AnsibleConnectionFailure("container not running: %s" % self._host)
+
+        if stderr == "error: not found\n":
+            raise AnsibleConnectionFailure("container not found: %s" % self._host)
+
+        return process.returncode, stdout, stderr
+
+    def put_file(self, in_path, out_path):
+        """ put a file from local to lxd """
+        super(Connection, self).put_file(in_path, out_path)
+
+        self._display.vvv(u"PUT {0} TO {1}".format(in_path, out_path), host=self._host)
+
+        if not os.path.isfile(to_bytes(in_path, errors='strict')):
+            raise AnsibleFileNotFound("input path is not a file: %s" % in_path)
+
+        local_cmd = [self._lxc_cmd, "file", "push", in_path, self._host + "/" + out_path]
+
+        local_cmd = [to_bytes(i, errors='strict') for i in local_cmd]
+
+        call(local_cmd)
+
+    def fetch_file(self, in_path, out_path):
+        """ fetch a file from lxd to local """
+        super(Connection, self).fetch_file(in_path, out_path)
+
+        self._display.vvv(u"FETCH {0} TO {1}".format(in_path, out_path), host=self._host)
+
+        local_cmd = [self._lxc_cmd, "file", "pull", self._host + "/" + in_path, out_path]
+
+        local_cmd = [to_bytes(i, errors='strict') for i in local_cmd]
+
+        call(local_cmd)
+
+    def close(self):
+        """ close the connection (nothing to do here) """
+        super(Connection, self).close()
+
+        self._connected = False
diff --git a/test/integration/test_connection.inventory b/test/integration/test_connection.inventory
index 9e3ab602cbb..5fee43a2804 100644
--- a/test/integration/test_connection.inventory
+++ b/test/integration/test_connection.inventory
@@ -48,6 +48,13 @@ paramiko_ssh-no-pipelining ansible_ssh_pipelining=false
 ansible_host=localhost
 ansible_connection=paramiko_ssh
 
+[lxd]
+lxd-pipelining    ansible_ssh_pipelining=true
+lxd-no-pipelining ansible_ssh_pipelining=false
+[lxd:vars]
+ansible_host=centos-7-amd64
+ansible_connection=lxd
+
 [test_default:children]
 local
 chroot