diff --git a/Makefile.objs b/Makefile.objs
index 92c7b56512..c918ee7f8f 100644
--- a/Makefile.objs
+++ b/Makefile.objs
@@ -376,6 +376,7 @@ libcacard-y = cac.o event.o vcard.o vreader.o vcard_emul_nss.o vcard_emul_type.o
 # qapi
 
 qapi-nested-y = qapi-visit-core.o qmp-input-visitor.o qmp-output-visitor.o qapi-dealloc-visitor.o
+qapi-nested-y += qmp-registry.o
 qapi-obj-y = $(addprefix qapi/, $(qapi-nested-y))
 
 vl.o: QEMU_CFLAGS+=$(GPROF_CFLAGS)
diff --git a/qapi/qmp-core.h b/qapi/qmp-core.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..8b96d2c676
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qapi/qmp-core.h
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+/*
+ * Core Definitions for QAPI/QMP Dispatch
+ *
+ * Copyright IBM, Corp. 2011
+ *
+ * Authors:
+ *  Anthony Liguori   <aliguori@us.ibm.com>
+ *
+ * This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU LGPL, version 2.1 or later.
+ * See the COPYING.LIB file in the top-level directory.
+ *
+ */
+
+#ifndef QMP_CORE_H
+#define QMP_CORE_H
+
+#include "qobject.h"
+#include "qdict.h"
+#include "error.h"
+
+typedef void (QmpCommandFunc)(QDict *, QObject **, Error **);
+
+typedef enum QmpCommandType
+{
+    QCT_NORMAL,
+} QmpCommandType;
+
+typedef struct QmpCommand
+{
+    const char *name;
+    QmpCommandType type;
+    QmpCommandFunc *fn;
+    QTAILQ_ENTRY(QmpCommand) node;
+} QmpCommand;
+
+void qmp_register_command(const char *name, QmpCommandFunc *fn);
+QmpCommand *qmp_find_command(const char *name);
+
+#endif
diff --git a/qapi/qmp-registry.c b/qapi/qmp-registry.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3fe8866d44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/qapi/qmp-registry.c
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+/*
+ * Core Definitions for QAPI/QMP Dispatch
+ *
+ * Copyright IBM, Corp. 2011
+ *
+ * Authors:
+ *  Anthony Liguori   <aliguori@us.ibm.com>
+ *  Michael Roth      <mdroth@us.ibm.com>
+ *
+ * This work is licensed under the terms of the GNU LGPL, version 2.1 or later.
+ * See the COPYING.LIB file in the top-level directory.
+ *
+ */
+
+#include "qapi/qmp-core.h"
+
+static QTAILQ_HEAD(, QmpCommand) qmp_commands =
+    QTAILQ_HEAD_INITIALIZER(qmp_commands);
+
+void qmp_register_command(const char *name, QmpCommandFunc *fn)
+{
+    QmpCommand *cmd = qemu_mallocz(sizeof(*cmd));
+
+    cmd->name = name;
+    cmd->type = QCT_NORMAL;
+    cmd->fn = fn;
+    QTAILQ_INSERT_TAIL(&qmp_commands, cmd, node);
+}
+
+QmpCommand *qmp_find_command(const char *name)
+{
+    QmpCommand *i;
+
+    QTAILQ_FOREACH(i, &qmp_commands, node) {
+        if (strcmp(i->name, name) == 0) {
+            return i;
+        }
+    }
+    return NULL;
+}