diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@
 !packages/keys/
 
 .venv
+.mypy_cache
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 	make -C doc/
 
 check: $(patsubst %,check/%,$(PYMODULES))
+typecheck: $(patsubst %,typecheck/%,$(PYMODULES))
 distclean: $(patsubst %,distclean/%,$(PYMODULES))
 test: $(patsubst %,test/%,$(PYMODULES))
 
@@ -21,6 +22,8 @@
 
 check/%:
 	make -C $* check
+typecheck/%:
+	make -C $* typecheck
 distclean/%:
 	make -C $* distclean
 test/%:
diff --git a/Makefile.python b/Makefile.python
--- a/Makefile.python
+++ b/Makefile.python
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@
 FLAKEFLAGS =
 LINT = pylint3
 LINTFLAGS = --rcfile=../pylintrc
+MYPY = mypy
+MYPYFLAGS = --config-file ../mypy.ini
 
 all:
 
@@ -32,6 +34,9 @@
 check-codespell:
 	find swh docs -name '*.py' -o -name '*.rst' | xargs -r $(CODESPELL) $(CODESPELLFLAGS)
 	find . -maxdepth 1 -iname 'readme*' | xargs -r $(CODESPELL) $(CODESPELLFLAGS)
+typecheck:
+	@echo PYTHONPATH=... $(MYPY) $(MYPYFLAGS) -p $(PYMODULE)
+	@MYPYPATH=$(shell bash ../pythonpath.sh --print) $(MYPY) $(MYPYFLAGS) -p $(PYMODULE)
 
 .PHONY: check-staged
 check-staged:
diff --git a/mypy.ini b/mypy.ini
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mypy.ini
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+[mypy]
+cache_dir = ../.mypy_cache
+namespace_packages = True
+warn_unused_ignores = True
+
+
+# 3rd party libraries without stubs (yet)
+
+[mypy-aiohttp_utils.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-azure.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-arrow.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-celery.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-decorator.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-deprecated.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-libcloud.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-msgpack.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-pkg_resources.extern.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-psycopg2.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-pyblake2.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-pytest.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-rados.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-request_mock.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
+[mypy-systemd.*]
+ignore_missing_imports = True