diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..26a2f67b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+language: go
+go:
+  - 1.8
+
+sudo: false
+
+script:
+  - ./scripts/travis.sh
diff --git a/scripts/travis.sh b/scripts/travis.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..9fe49856
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/travis.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+#! /bin/bash
+
+set -ex
+
+virtualenv env
+. env/bin/activate
+pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt
+
+# do sanity checks on the examples and swagger
+(cd event-schemas/ && ./check_examples.py)
+(cd api && ./check_examples.py)
+(cd api && npm install && node validator.js -s "client-server")
+
+: ${GOPATH:=${WORKSPACE}/.gopath}
+mkdir -p "${GOPATH}"
+export GOPATH
+go get github.com/hashicorp/golang-lru
+go get gopkg.in/fsnotify.v1
+
+# make sure that the scripts build
+(cd scripts/continuserv && go build)
+(cd scripts/speculator && go build)
+
+# build the spec and collect the supporting docs for matrix.org.  (we aren't
+# actually going to use them, since we're on travis, but we may as well check
+# that the build works correctly).
+./scripts/generate-matrix-org-assets