diff --git a/source/dub/recipe/io.d b/source/dub/recipe/io.d
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..27c2e03
--- /dev/null
+++ b/source/dub/recipe/io.d
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+module dub.recipe.io;
+
+import dub.recipe.packagerecipe;
+import dub.internal.vibecompat.inet.path;
+
+
+/** Reads a package recipe from a file.
+*/
+PackageRecipe readPackageRecipe(string filename, string parent_name = null)
+{
+	return readPackageRecipe(Path(filename), parent_name);
+}
+/// ditto
+PackageRecipe readPackageRecipe(Path file, string parent_name = null)
+{
+	import dub.internal.utils : stripUTF8Bom;
+	import dub.internal.vibecompat.core.file : openFile;
+
+	string text;
+
+	{
+		auto f = openFile(file.toNativeString(), FileMode.read);
+		scope(exit) f.close();
+		text = stripUTF8Bom(cast(string)f.readAll());
+	}
+
+	return parsePackageRecipe(text, file.toNativeString(), parent_name);
+}
+
+/** Parses an in-memory package recipe.
+*/
+PackageRecipe parsePackageRecipe(string contents, string filename, string parent_name = null)
+{
+	import std.algorithm : endsWith;
+	import dub.internal.vibecompat.data.json;
+	import dub.recipe.json : parseJson;
+	import dub.recipe.sdl : parseSDL;
+
+	PackageRecipe ret;
+
+	if (filename.endsWith(".json")) dub.recipe.json.parseJson(ret, parseJsonString(contents, filename), parent_name);
+	else if (filename.endsWith(".sdl")) dub.recipe.sdl.parseSDL(ret, contents, parent_name, filename);
+	else assert(false, "readPackageRecipe called with filename with unknown extension: "~filename);
+	return ret;
+}