diff --git a/.cruft.json b/.cruft.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ede09c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.cruft.json
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+{
+  "template": "https://github.com/adjavon/pycookie/",
+  "commit": "d7bd6b8521627b130001b270383b72bfed608ab3",
+  "checkout": null,
+  "context": {
+    "cookiecutter": {
+      "full_name": "Jan Funke",
+      "email": "funkej@janelia.hhmi.org",
+      "github_username": "funkelab",
+      "project_name": "witty",
+      "project_slug": "witty",
+      "project_short_description": "Well-in-Time Compiler for Cython Modules",
+      "_copy_without_render": [
+        ".github/workflows/*"
+      ],
+      "_template": "https://github.com/adjavon/pycookie/"
+    }
+  },
+  "directory": null
+}
diff --git a/.github/workflows/black.yaml b/.github/workflows/black.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60b6467
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/black.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+name: Python Black
+
+on: [push, pull_request]
+
+jobs:
+  lint:
+    name: Python Lint
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Setup Python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+      - name: Setup checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@master
+      - name: Lint with Black
+        run: |
+          pip install black
+          black --diff --check src/witty tests
diff --git a/.github/workflows/mypy.yaml b/.github/workflows/mypy.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..495582f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/mypy.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+name: Python mypy
+
+on: [push, pull_request]
+
+jobs:
+  static-analysis:
+    name: Python mypy
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    steps:
+      - name: Setup Python
+        uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+      - name: Setup checkout
+        uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - name: mypy
+        run: |
+          pip install .
+          pip install --upgrade mypy
+          mypy src/witty
diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests.yaml b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..384aaea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+name: Test
+
+on:
+  push:
+
+jobs:
+  test:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    strategy:
+      fail-fast: false
+      matrix:
+        python-version: ["3.9", "3.10"]
+
+    steps:
+    - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+    - name: Set up Python ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+      uses: actions/setup-python@v4
+      with:
+        python-version: ${{ matrix.python-version }}
+    - name: Install dependencies
+      run: |
+        pip install ".[dev]"
+    - name: Test with pytest
+      run: |
+        pytest tests
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2b2f55c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+*.sw[pmno]
+*.pyc
+*.egg-info
+*.dat
+*.lock
+*.so
+*_wrapper.cpp
+*_wrapper.c
+.coverage
+build
+dist
+.vscode
+docs/_build/
diff --git a/.pre-commit-config.yaml b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a2bf1d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.pre-commit-config.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+ci:
+  autoupdate_schedule: monthly
+  autofix_commit_msg: "style(pre-commit.ci): auto fixes [...]"
+  autoupdate_commit_msg: "ci(pre-commit.ci): autoupdate"
+
+default_install_hook_types: [pre-commit, commit-msg]
+
+repos:
+  - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/pre-commit-hooks
+    rev: v3.2.0
+    hooks:
+      - id: trailing-whitespace
+      - id: end-of-file-fixer
+      - id: check-yaml
+      - id: check-added-large-files
+
+  - repo: https://github.com/psf/black
+    rev: 23.1.0
+    hooks:
+      - id: black
+
+  - repo: https://github.com/pre-commit/mirrors-mypy
+    rev: v1.0.1
+    hooks:
+      - id: mypy
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5ace50b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# witty
+
+[![tests](https://github.com/funkelab/witty/actions/workflows/tests.yaml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/funkelab/witty/actions/workflows/tests.yaml)
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0dcb32f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+[build-system]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
+requires = ["setuptools", "wheel"]
+
+[project]
+name = "witty"
+description = "Well-in-Time Compiler for Cython Modules"
+readme = "README.md"
+requires-python = ">=3.7"
+classifiers = [
+  "Programming Language :: Python :: 3",
+]
+keywords = []
+license = { text = "BSD 3-Clause License" }
+authors = [
+    { email = "funkej@janelia.hhmi.org", name = "Jan Funke" },
+]
+dynamic = ["version"]
+dependencies = ["cython"]
+
+[project.optional-dependencies]
+dev = [
+  'pytest',
+  'black',
+  'mypy',
+  'pdoc',
+  'pre-commit'
+]
+
+[project.urls]
+homepage = "https://github.com/funkelab/witty"
+repository = "https://github.com/funkelab/witty"
diff --git a/src/witty/__init__.py b/src/witty/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de2c623
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/witty/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+from .compile_module import compile_module
diff --git a/src/witty/compile_module.py b/src/witty/compile_module.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..092a0ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/witty/compile_module.py
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+import Cython
+import fcntl
+import hashlib
+import importlib.util
+import sys
+from Cython.Build import cythonize
+from Cython.Build.Inline import to_unicode, _get_build_extension
+from Cython.Utils import get_cython_cache_dir
+from distutils.core import Extension
+from pathlib import Path
+
+
+def load_dynamic(module_name, module_lib):
+    spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location(module_name, module_lib)
+    module = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+    sys.modules[module_name] = module
+    spec.loader.exec_module(module)
+    return sys.modules[module_name]
+
+
+def compile_module(
+    source_pyx,
+    source_files=None,
+    include_dirs=None,
+    library_dirs=None,
+    language="c",
+    extra_compile_args=None,
+    extra_link_args=None,
+    name=None,
+    force_rebuild=False,
+):
+    if source_files is None:
+        source_files = []
+    if include_dirs is None:
+        include_dirs = ["."]
+    if library_dirs is None:
+        library_dirs = []
+    if name is None:
+        name = "_wit_module"
+
+    source_pyx = to_unicode(source_pyx)
+    sources = [source_pyx]
+
+    for source_file in source_files:
+        sources.append(open(source_file, "r").read())
+
+    source_hashes = [
+        hashlib.md5(source.encode("utf-8")).hexdigest() for source in sources
+    ]
+    source_key = (source_hashes, sys.version_info, sys.executable, Cython.__version__)
+    module_hash = hashlib.md5(str(source_key).encode("utf-8")).hexdigest()
+    module_name = name + "_" + module_hash
+
+    # already loaded?
+    if module_name in sys.modules and not force_rebuild:
+        return sys.modules[module_name]
+
+    build_extension = _get_build_extension()
+    module_ext = build_extension.get_ext_filename("")
+    module_dir = Path(get_cython_cache_dir()) / "witty"
+    module_pyx = (module_dir / module_name).with_suffix(".pyx")
+    module_lib = (module_dir / module_name).with_suffix(module_ext)
+    module_lock = (module_dir / module_name).with_suffix(".lock")
+
+    print(f"Compiling {module_name} into {module_lib}...")
+
+    module_dir.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)
+
+    # make sure the same module is not build concurrently
+    with open(module_lock, "w") as lock_file:
+        fcntl.lockf(lock_file, fcntl.LOCK_EX)
+
+        # already compiled?
+        if module_lib.is_file() and not force_rebuild:
+            print(f"Reusing already compiled module from {module_lib}")
+            return load_dynamic(module_name, module_lib)
+
+        # create pyx file
+        with open(module_pyx, "w") as f:
+            f.write(source_pyx)
+
+        extension = Extension(
+            module_name,
+            sources=[str(module_pyx)],
+            include_dirs=include_dirs,
+            library_dirs=library_dirs,
+            language=language,
+            extra_compile_args=extra_compile_args,
+            extra_link_args=extra_link_args,
+        )
+
+        build_extension.extensions = cythonize(
+            [extension], compiler_directives={"language_level": "3"}
+        )
+        build_extension.build_temp = str(module_dir)
+        build_extension.build_lib = str(module_dir)
+        build_extension.run()
+
+    return load_dynamic(module_name, module_lib)
diff --git a/tests/test_compile.py b/tests/test_compile.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af79bdc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/test_compile.py
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+import witty
+
+
+def test_compile():
+    source_pxy_template = """
+cdef extern from '<vector>' namespace 'std':
+
+    cdef cppclass vector[T]:
+        vector()
+        void push_back(T& item)
+        size_t size()
+
+def add({type} x, {type} y):
+    return x + y
+
+def to_vector({type} x):
+    v = vector[{type}]()
+    v.push_back(x)
+    return v
+"""
+
+    module_int = witty.compile_module(
+        source_pxy_template.format(type="int"), language="c++", force_rebuild=True
+    )
+    result = module_int.add(3, 4)
+
+    assert result == 7
+    assert type(result) == int
+
+    module_float = witty.compile_module(
+        source_pxy_template.format(type="float"), language="c++"
+    )
+    result = module_float.add(3, 4)
+
+    assert result == 7
+    assert type(result) == float