diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f7f30b06f..39eeda695 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,6 +1,12 @@
 *.pyc
+*swp
+*~
+
 _trial_temp
 dropin.cache
 docs/build
 *egg-info
 .tox
+
+build/
+dist/
diff --git a/scrapy/commands/check.py b/scrapy/commands/check.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e68add5eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scrapy/commands/check.py
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+from functools import wraps
+
+from scrapy.command import ScrapyCommand
+from scrapy.http import Request
+
+from scrapy.contracts import Contract
+
+class Command(ScrapyCommand):
+    requires_project = True
+
+    def syntax(self):
+        return "[options] <spider>"
+
+    def short_desc(self):
+        return "Check contracts for given spider"
+
+    def run(self, args, opts):
+        self.crawler.engine.has_capacity = lambda: True
+
+        for spider in args or self.crawler.spiders.list():
+            spider = self.crawler.spiders.create(spider)
+            requests = self.get_requests(spider)
+            self.crawler.crawl(spider, requests)
+
+        self.crawler.start()
+
+    def get_requests(self, spider):
+        requests = []
+
+        for key, value in vars(type(spider)).iteritems():
+            if callable(value) and value.__doc__:
+                bound_method = value.__get__(spider, type(spider))
+                request = Request(url='http://scrapy.org', callback=bound_method)
+
+                # register contract hooks to the request
+                contracts = Contract.from_method(value)
+                for contract in contracts:
+                    request = contract.prepare_request(request)
+
+                # discard anything the request might return
+                cb = request.callback
+                @wraps(cb)
+                def wrapper(response):
+                    cb(response)
+
+                request.callback = wrapper
+
+                requests.append(request)
+
+        return requests
diff --git a/scrapy/contracts/__init__.py b/scrapy/contracts/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..fb66291c7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scrapy/contracts/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+from .base import Contract, ContractType
+from .default import *
diff --git a/scrapy/contracts/base.py b/scrapy/contracts/base.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f5756be31
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scrapy/contracts/base.py
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+import re
+from functools import wraps
+
+from scrapy.utils.spider import iterate_spider_output
+
+class ContractType(type):
+    """ Metaclass for contracts
+        - automatically registers contracts in the root `Contract` class
+    """
+
+    def __new__(meta, name, bases, dct):
+        # only allow single inheritence
+        assert len(bases) == 1, 'Multiple inheritance is not allowed'
+        base = bases[0]
+
+        # ascend in inheritence chain
+        while type(base) not in [type, meta]:
+            base = type(base)
+
+        # register this as a valid contract
+        cls = type.__new__(meta, name, bases, dct)
+        if type(base) != type:
+            base.registered[cls.name] = cls
+        return cls
+
+
+class Contract(object):
+    """ Abstract class for contracts
+        - keeps a reference of all derived classes in `registered`
+    """
+
+    __metaclass__ = ContractType
+    registered = {}
+
+    def __init__(self, method, *args):
+        self.method = method
+        self.args = args
+
+    @classmethod
+    def from_method(cls, method):
+        contracts = []
+        for line in method.__doc__.split('\n'):
+            line = line.strip()
+
+            if line.startswith('@'):
+                name, args = re.match(r'@(\w+)\s*(.*)', line).groups()
+                args = re.split(r'[\,\s+]', args)
+                args = filter(lambda x:x, args)
+
+                contracts.append(cls.registered[name](method, *args))
+
+        return contracts
+
+    def prepare_request(self, request):
+        cb = request.callback
+        @wraps(cb)
+        def wrapper(response):
+            self.pre_process(response)
+            output = list(iterate_spider_output(cb(response)))
+            self.post_process(output)
+            return output
+
+        request.callback = wrapper
+        request = self.modify_request(request)
+        return request
+
+    def modify_request(self, request):
+        return request
+
+    def pre_process(self, response):
+        pass
+
+    def post_process(self, output):
+        pass
diff --git a/scrapy/contracts/default.py b/scrapy/contracts/default.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..77f2e8c75
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scrapy/contracts/default.py
@@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
+from scrapy.item import BaseItem
+
+from .base import Contract
+
+
+# contracts
+class UrlContract(Contract):
+    name = 'url'
+
+    def modify_request(self, request):
+        return request.replace(url=self.args[0])
+
+class ReturnsRequestContract(Contract):
+    name = 'returns_request'
+
+class ScrapesContract(Contract):
+    name = 'scrapes'
+
+    def post_process(self, output):
+        for x in output:
+            if isinstance(x, BaseItem):
+                for arg in self.args:
+                    assert arg in x, '%r field is missing' % arg