diff --git a/swh/model/cli.py b/swh/model/cli.py
--- a/swh/model/cli.py
+++ b/swh/model/cli.py
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
     # stub so that swh-identify can be used when swh-core isn't installed
     swh_cli_group = click  # type: ignore
 
+from swh.model.from_disk import Directory
 from swh.model.identifiers import CoreSWHID, ObjectType
 
 CONTEXT_SETTINGS = dict(help_option_names=["-h", "--help"])
@@ -74,13 +75,8 @@
     )
 
 
-def swhid_of_dir(path: bytes, exclude_patterns: List[bytes] = None) -> CoreSWHID:
-    from swh.model.from_disk import (
-        Directory,
-        accept_all_directories,
-        ignore_directories_patterns,
-    )
-    from swh.model.hashutil import hash_to_bytes
+def generate_dir_obj(path: bytes, exclude_patterns: List[bytes] = None) -> Directory:
+    from swh.model.from_disk import accept_all_directories, ignore_directories_patterns
 
     dir_filter = (
         ignore_directories_patterns(path, exclude_patterns)
@@ -88,9 +84,16 @@
         else accept_all_directories
     )
 
-    object = Directory.from_disk(path=path, dir_filter=dir_filter).get_data()
+    return Directory.from_disk(path=path, dir_filter=dir_filter)
+
+
+def swhid_of_dir(path: bytes, exclude_patterns: List[bytes] = None) -> CoreSWHID:
+    from swh.model.hashutil import hash_to_bytes
+
+    obj = generate_dir_obj(path, exclude_patterns)
+
     return CoreSWHID(
-        object_type=ObjectType.DIRECTORY, object_id=hash_to_bytes(object["id"])
+        object_type=ObjectType.DIRECTORY, object_id=hash_to_bytes(obj.get_data()["id"])
     )
 
 
@@ -227,9 +230,18 @@
     type=CoreSWHIDParamType(),
     help="reference identifier to be compared with computed one",
 )
+@click.option(
+    "-r", "--recursive", is_flag=True, help="compute SWHID recursively",
+)
 @click.argument("objects", nargs=-1, required=True)
 def identify(
-    obj_type, verify, show_filename, follow_symlinks, objects, exclude_patterns,
+    obj_type,
+    verify,
+    show_filename,
+    follow_symlinks,
+    objects,
+    exclude_patterns,
+    recursive,
 ):
     """Compute the Software Heritage persistent identifier (SWHID) for the given
     source code object(s).
@@ -265,6 +277,25 @@
     if verify and len(objects) != 1:
         raise click.BadParameter("verification requires a single object")
 
+    if recursive:
+        if not os.path.isdir(objects[0]):
+            raise click.BadOptionUsage("recursive option require a directory object")
+
+        path = objects[0].encode(sys.getfilesystemencoding())
+        dir_obj = generate_dir_obj(path, exclude_patterns)
+        for sub_obj in dir_obj.iter_tree():
+            click.echo(sub_obj.data)
+            path = sub_obj.data["path"].decode(sys.getfilesystemencoding())
+            swhid = str(
+                CoreSWHID(
+                    object_type=ObjectType[sub_obj.object_type.upper()],
+                    object_id=sub_obj.hash,
+                )
+            )
+            click.echo("%s\t%s" % (swhid, path))
+
+        sys.exit(0)
+
     results = zip(
         objects,
         map(
diff --git a/swh/model/from_disk.py b/swh/model/from_disk.py
--- a/swh/model/from_disk.py
+++ b/swh/model/from_disk.py
@@ -429,7 +429,7 @@
                     if dir_filter(path, name, dirs[path].entries):
                         entries[name] = dirs[path]
 
-            dirs[root] = cls({"name": os.path.basename(root)})
+            dirs[root] = cls({"name": os.path.basename(root), "path": root})
             dirs[root].update(entries)
 
         return dirs[top_path]