diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index e0fb31914..a8a7ad4c3 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 [workspace]
 members = [
     "run-wasm",
-    "winit"
+    "winit",
+    "winit-core"
 ]
 resolver = "2"
diff --git a/winit-core/Cargo.toml b/winit-core/Cargo.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3843627d0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/winit-core/Cargo.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+[package]
+name = "winit-core"
+version = "0.1.0"
+authors = ["The winit contributors"]
+description = "Base types for windowing libraries"
+edition = "2021"
+keywords = ["windowing"]
+license = "Apache-2.0"
+readme = "README.md"
+repository = "https://github.com/rust-windowing/winit"
+documentation = "https://docs.rs/winit"
+categories = ["gui"]
+rust-version = "1.70.0"
+
+[features]
+default = ["std"]
+std = ["alloc"]
+alloc = []
diff --git a/winit-core/README.md b/winit-core/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..86a7cd13b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/winit-core/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# winit-core - Base types for a windowing system
+
+TODO
diff --git a/winit-core/src/lib.rs b/winit-core/src/lib.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e08d3ca1d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/winit-core/src/lib.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+//! Base types for a windowing library.
+//! 
+//! This crate contains types, traits and basic functions from [`winit`] that are platform
+//! independent. It is intended to allow for other crates to build abstractions around [`winit`]
+//! without needing to pull in all of [`winit`]'s dependencies, as well as to provide an
+//! interface for alternative backends for [`winit`] to be constructed.
+//! 
+//! [`winit`]: https://docs.rs/winit
+
+#[cfg(any(not(feature = "std"), not(feature = "alloc")))]
+compile_error! { "no-std and no-alloc usage are not yet supported" }
diff --git a/winit/README.md b/winit/README.md
new file mode 120000
index 000000000..32d46ee88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/winit/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../README.md
\ No newline at end of file