diff --git a/src/.isort.cfg b/src/.isort.cfg
index 02c7273d..adcc4815 100644
--- a/src/.isort.cfg
+++ b/src/.isort.cfg
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 [settings]
 line_length=120
-skip=migrations
+skip=migrations,celery.py
diff --git a/src/c3nav/celery.py b/src/c3nav/celery.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..21e95d1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/c3nav/celery.py
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+import os
+
+from celery import Celery
+
+os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'c3nav.settings')
+
+from django.conf import settings  # noqa
+
+app = Celery('c3nav')
+app.config_from_object('django.conf:settings')
+app.autodiscover_tasks(lambda: settings.INSTALLED_APPS)
diff --git a/src/c3nav/settings.py b/src/c3nav/settings.py
index aa70a9fe..14c2a837 100644
--- a/src/c3nav/settings.py
+++ b/src/c3nav/settings.py
@@ -101,6 +101,17 @@ if HAS_MEMCACHED:
     }
     SESSION_ENGINE = "django.contrib.sessions.backends.cached_db"
 
+HAS_CELERY_BROKER = config.has_option('celery', 'broker')
+if HAS_CELERY_BROKER:
+    BROKER_URL = config.get('celery', 'broker')
+    CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND = config.get('celery', 'backend')
+    CELERY_SEND_TASK_ERROR_EMAILS = bool(ADMINS)
+else:
+    CELERY_ALWAYS_EAGER = True
+CELERY_TASK_SERIALIZER = 'json'
+CELERY_ACCEPT_CONTENT = ['json']
+CELERY_RESULT_SERIALIZER = 'json'
+
 SESSION_COOKIE_DOMAIN = config.get('c3nav', 'cookie_domain', fallback=None)
 SESSION_COOKIE_SECURE = config.getboolean('c3nav', 'session_cookie_secure', fallback=False)
 
diff --git a/src/requirements/production.txt b/src/requirements/production.txt
index 82814034..ac516268 100644
--- a/src/requirements/production.txt
+++ b/src/requirements/production.txt
@@ -5,3 +5,4 @@ csscompressor
 djangorestframework>=3.4,<3.5
 django-filter>=0.14,<0.15
 shapely>=1.5,<1.6
+celery>=3.1,<3.2