diff --git a/src/engine/Engine.js b/src/engine/Engine.js
index 6b1d38a..4b26e68 100644
--- a/src/engine/Engine.js
+++ b/src/engine/Engine.js
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
 const lpsRequire = require('../lpsRequire');
 const LiteralTreeMap = lpsRequire('engine/LiteralTreeMap');
 const FunctorProvider = lpsRequire('engine/FunctorProvider');
+const StaticAnalyzer = lpsRequire('engine/StaticAnalyzer');
 
 const processRules = lpsRequire('utility/processRules');
 const goalTreeSorter = lpsRequire('utility/goalTreeSorter');
@@ -704,6 +705,7 @@ function Engine(programArg) {
   // we preprocess some of the built-in processors by looking at the facts
   // of the _program.
   this.on('loaded', () => {
+    StaticAnalyzer.analyze(_program, _engineEventManager);
     settingsProcessor(this, _program);
     timableProcessor(this, _program);
     initiallyProcessor(this, _program);
diff --git a/src/engine/StaticAnalyzer.js b/src/engine/StaticAnalyzer.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bb676d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/engine/StaticAnalyzer.js
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+/*
+  This file is part of the lps.js project, released open source under
+  the BSD 3-Clause license. For more info, please see https://github.com/mauris/lps.js
+ */
+
+const lpsRequire = require('../lpsRequire');
+const stringLiterals = lpsRequire('utility/strings');
+
+const WARNING_EVENT = 'warning';
+
+function StaticAnalyzer() {
+}
+
+StaticAnalyzer.analyze = function (program, eventManager) {
+  const rules = program.getRules();
+  if (rules.length === 0) {
+    eventManager.notify(WARNING_EVENT, {
+      type: 'rule.empty',
+      message: stringLiterals(
+        'engine.analyzer.noRules'
+      )
+    });
+  }
+};
+
+module.exports = StaticAnalyzer;