diff --git a/mypy.ini b/mypy.ini
--- a/mypy.ini
+++ b/mypy.ini
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@
 [mypy-django.*]  # false positive, only used my hypotesis' extras
 ignore_missing_imports = True
 
+[mypy-dulwich.*]  # false positive, only used my hypotesis' extras
+ignore_missing_imports = True
+
 [mypy-pkg_resources.*]
 ignore_missing_imports = True
 
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@
 attrs
 hypothesis
 python-dateutil
+dulwich
diff --git a/swh/model/cli.py b/swh/model/cli.py
--- a/swh/model/cli.py
+++ b/swh/model/cli.py
@@ -4,12 +4,14 @@
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 import click
+import dulwich.repo
 import os
 import sys
 
 from functools import partial
 from urllib.parse import urlparse
 
+from swh.model import hashutil
 from swh.model import identifiers as pids
 from swh.model.exceptions import ValidationError
 from swh.model.from_disk import Content, Directory
@@ -17,6 +19,15 @@
 
 CONTEXT_SETTINGS = dict(help_option_names=['-h', '--help'])
 
+# Mapping between dulwich types and Software Heritage ones. Used by snapshot ID
+# computation.
+_DULWICH_TYPES = {
+    b'blob': 'content',
+    b'tree': 'directory',
+    b'commit': 'revision',
+    b'tag': 'release',
+}
+
 
 class PidParamType(click.ParamType):
     name = 'persistent identifier'
@@ -45,6 +56,26 @@
     return str(pid)
 
 
+def pid_of_git_repo(path):
+    repo = dulwich.repo.Repo(path)
+
+    branches = {}
+    for ref, target in repo.refs.as_dict().items():
+        obj = repo[target]
+        if obj:
+            branches[ref] = {
+                'target': hashutil.bytehex_to_hash(target),
+                'target_type': _DULWICH_TYPES[obj.type_name],
+            }
+        else:
+            branches[ref] = None
+    snapshot = {'branches': branches}
+
+    pid = pids.PersistentId(object_type='snapshot',
+                            object_id=pids.snapshot_identifier(snapshot))
+    return str(pid)
+
+
 def identify_object(obj_type, follow_symlinks, obj):
     if obj_type == 'auto':
         if os.path.isfile(obj):
@@ -73,6 +104,8 @@
             pid = pid_of_dir(path)
     elif obj_type == 'origin':
         pid = pid_of_origin(obj)
+    elif obj_type == 'snapshot':
+        pid = pid_of_git_repo(obj)
     else:  # shouldn't happen, due to option validation
         raise click.BadParameter('invalid object type: ' + obj_type)
 
@@ -89,7 +122,8 @@
 @click.option('--filename/--no-filename', 'show_filename', default=True,
               help='show/hide file name (default: show)')
 @click.option('--type', '-t', 'obj_type', default='auto',
-              type=click.Choice(['auto', 'content', 'directory', 'origin']),
+              type=click.Choice(['auto', 'content', 'directory', 'origin',
+                                 'snapshot']),
               help='type of object to identify (default: auto)')
 @click.option('--verify', '-v', metavar='PID', type=PidParamType(),
               help='reference identifier to be compared with computed one')
@@ -116,7 +150,12 @@
       $ swh identify --no-filename /usr/src/linux/kernel/
       swh:1:dir:f9f858a48d663b3809c9e2f336412717496202ab
 
-    """
+    \b
+      $ git clone --mirror https://forge.softwareheritage.org/source/helloworld.git
+      $ swh identify --type snapshot helloworld.git/
+      swh:1:snp:510aa88bdc517345d258c1fc2babcd0e1f905e93	helloworld.git
+
+    """  # NoQA  # overlong lines in shell examples are fine
     if verify and len(objects) != 1:
         raise click.BadParameter('verification requires a single object')
 
diff --git a/swh/model/tests/data/repos/sample-repo.tgz b/swh/model/tests/data/repos/sample-repo.tgz
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..0000000000000000000000000000000000000000
GIT binary patch
literal 0
Hc$@<O00001

literal 0
Hc$@<O00001

diff --git a/swh/model/tests/test_cli.py b/swh/model/tests/test_cli.py
--- a/swh/model/tests/test_cli.py
+++ b/swh/model/tests/test_cli.py
@@ -1,9 +1,10 @@
-# Copyright (C) 2018 The Software Heritage developers
+# Copyright (C) 2018-2019 The Software Heritage developers
 # See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
 import os
+import tarfile
 import tempfile
 import unittest
 
@@ -45,6 +46,19 @@
         self.assertPidOK(result,
                          'swh:1:dir:e8b0f1466af8608c8a3fb9879db172b887e80759')
 
+    def test_snapshot_id(self):
+        """identify a snapshot"""
+        tarball = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'data', 'repos',
+                               'sample-repo.tgz')
+        with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(prefix='swh.model.cli') as d:
+            with tarfile.open(tarball, 'r:gz') as t:
+                t.extractall(d)
+                repo_dir = os.path.join(d, 'sample-repo')
+                result = self.runner.invoke(cli.identify,
+                                            ['--type', 'snapshot', repo_dir])
+                self.assertPidOK(result,
+                                 'swh:1:snp:9dc0fc035aabe293f5faf6c362a59513454a170d')  # NoQA
+
     def test_origin_id(self):
         """identify an origin URL"""
         url = 'https://github.com/torvalds/linux'