diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
-docker-compose.override.yml
\ No newline at end of file
+docker-compose.override.yml
+docker-compose.storage-replica.override.yml
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -659,3 +659,21 @@
 
 
 Note that the object storage is not replicated here, only the graph storage.
+
+## Starting the backfiller
+
+Reading from the storage the objects <object-type> from within range
+[start-object, end-object] to the kafka topics.
+
+```
+(swh) $ docker-compose \
+             -f docker-compose.yml \
+             -f docker-compose.storage-replica.yml \
+             -f docker-compose.storage-replica.override.yml \
+             run \
+             swh-journal-backfiller \
+             snapshot \
+             --start-object 000000 \
+             --end-object 000001 \
+             --dry-run
+```
diff --git a/conf/journal_backfiller.yml b/conf/journal_backfiller.yml
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/conf/journal_backfiller.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+brokers:
+  - kafka
+
+final_prefix: swh.journal.objects
+client_id: swh.journal.backfiller
+object_types:
+  - content
+
+storage_dbconn: postgresql:///?service=swh-storage
diff --git a/docker-compose.storage-replica.yml b/docker-compose.storage-replica.yml
--- a/docker-compose.storage-replica.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.storage-replica.yml
@@ -49,3 +49,18 @@
     volumes:
       - "./conf/storage-replica.yml:/storage-replica.yml:ro"
       - "./services/swh-storage-replayer/entrypoint.sh:/entrypoint.sh:ro"
+
+  swh-journal-backfiller:
+    image: swh/stack
+    build: ./
+    entrypoint: /entrypoint.sh
+    environment:
+      SWH_CONFIG_FILENAME: /journal_backfiller.yml
+    env_file:
+      - ./env/storage-db.env
+    depends_on:
+      - swh-storage-db
+      - kafka
+    volumes:
+      - "./conf/journal_backfiller.yml:/journal_backfiller.yml:ro"
+      - "./services/swh-journal-backfiller/entrypoint.sh:/entrypoint.sh:ro"
diff --git a/services/swh-journal-backfiller/entrypoint.sh b/services/swh-journal-backfiller/entrypoint.sh
new file mode 100755
--- /dev/null
+++ b/services/swh-journal-backfiller/entrypoint.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+set -e
+source /srv/softwareheritage/utils/pyutils.sh
+setup_pip
+
+source /srv/softwareheritage/utils/pgsql.sh
+setup_pgsql
+
+case "$1" in
+    "shell")
+      exec bash -i
+      ;;
+    *)
+      wait_pgsql
+      echo "Starting swh-journal-backfiller"
+      exec wait-for-it kafka:9092 -s --timeout=0 -- swh-journal backfiller $@
+      ;;
+esac