diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+Copyright (c) 2012, Mark Wotton
+
+All rights reserved.
+
+Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
+modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
+
+    * Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
+      notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
+
+    * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
+      copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
+      disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided
+      with the distribution.
+
+    * Neither the name of Mark Wotton nor the names of other
+      contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived
+      from this software without specific prior written permission.
+
+THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
+"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
+A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT
+OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
+SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT
+LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE,
+DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY
+THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT
+(INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE
+OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
diff --git a/Setup.hs b/Setup.hs
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Setup.hs
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+import Distribution.Simple
+main = defaultMain
diff --git a/lz4.cabal b/lz4.cabal
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lz4.cabal
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+name:                lz4
+version:             0.1.0.0
+synopsis:            Haskell bindings to the lz4 compression library
+description:         lz4 is a fast compression library, and can be found at
+                     http://code.google.com/p/lz4/
+                     a version that adds a C library can be found at
+                     https://github.com/mwotton/lz4
+homepage:            http://github.com/mwotton/lz4hs
+license:             BSD3
+license-file:        LICENSE
+author:              Mark Wotton
+maintainer:          mwotton@gmail.com
+
+category:            Codec
+build-type:          Simple
+cabal-version:       >=1.8
+source-repository head
+  type:        git
+  location:    git://github.com/mwotton/lz4hs.git
+
+library
+  exposed-modules: Codec.Compression.LZ4
+  hs-source-dirs: src
+  extra-libraries: lz4
+  build-depends:       base ==4.5.*, bytestring
+
+test-suite spec
+  type:           exitcode-stdio-1.0
+  main-is:        Spec.hs
+  hs-source-dirs: test
+  extra-libraries: lz4
+  build-depends:  base, hspec, hspec-discover, lz4, QuickCheck, hspec-shouldbe,
+                  bytestring
diff --git a/src/Codec/Compression/LZ4.hs b/src/Codec/Compression/LZ4.hs
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Codec/Compression/LZ4.hs
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+module Codec.Compression.LZ4 (compress, compressHC, uncompress) where
+import Codec.Compression.LZ4.Foreign
+import Foreign
+import Data.ByteString
+import Debug.Trace
+import Data.ByteString.Unsafe
+
+-- Following zlib's lead, we pretend to be pure on Bytestrings
+-- errors may be thrown for bad formats. I'm not entirely comfortable with this.
+
+-- we use unsafeUseAsCStringLen because the underlying files may be large, and
+-- we trust lz4 not to tamper with the input buffer.
+
+-- TODO: use a standard chunk size & support lazy Bytestrings
+-- TODO: load files from disk: we don't currently support the full file format with
+--       magic archive numbers etc.
+
+-- compressHC = compressWorker c_LZ4_compressHC
+-- compress   = compressWorker c_LZ4_compress
+
+-- for some reason, when I factor this out in the obvious way, I get link errors. Very confusing. FIXME
+compressHC x = unsafePerformIO $ unsafeUseAsCStringLen x $ \(input,len) ->
+  let outLen = c_LZ4_compressBound len in
+  allocaBytes (1+outLen) $ \out -> do    
+    written <- c_LZ4_compressHC input out (fromIntegral len)
+    if written == 0
+      then error "compression failed"
+      else packCStringLen (out, written) --  `doTrace` ("compress", x, len, outLen, written)
+
+compress x = unsafePerformIO $ unsafeUseAsCStringLen x $ \(input,len) ->
+  let outLen = c_LZ4_compressBound len in
+  allocaBytes (1+outLen) $ \out -> do    
+    written <- c_LZ4_compress input out (fromIntegral len)
+    if written == 0
+      then error "compression failed"
+      else packCStringLen (out, written) --  `doTrace` ("compress", x, len, outLen, written)
+
+uncompress :: ByteString -> ByteString
+uncompress x = unsafePerformIO $ unsafeUseAsCStringLen x $ \(input,len) ->
+  -- this is a complete punt. let's say we use 5*len for the moment,
+  -- and extend to lazy bytestrings later.
+  let outLen = 5 * len in
+  allocaBytes (1+outLen) $ \out -> do
+    written <- c_LZ4_uncompress_unknownOutputSize input out (fromIntegral len) (fromIntegral outLen)
+    if written < 0
+      then error "decompression failed!"
+      else packCStringLen (out, written)
diff --git a/test/Spec.hs b/test/Spec.hs
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/Spec.hs
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+-- file test/Spec.hs
+{-# OPTIONS_GHC -F -pgmF hspec-discover #-}