diff --git a/.rat-excludes b/.rat-excludes
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..01d629817c8a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.rat-excludes
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+.rat-excludes
+rat.out
+sbt
+sbt.boot.lock
+README*
+.gitignore
+.git
+.svn
+build.properties
+target
+src_managed
+update.log
+clients/target
+core/target
+contrib/target
+project/plugins/target
+project/build/target
+*.iml
+*.csproj
+TODO
+Makefile*
+*.html
+*.xml
+*expected.out
+*.kafka
+
diff --git a/bin/run-rat.sh b/bin/run-rat.sh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..b8e8fdf6cae8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/run-rat.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
+# contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
+# this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
+# The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
+# (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
+# the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+
+base_dir=$(dirname $0)/..
+rat_excludes_file=$base_dir/.rat-excludes
+
+if [ -z "$JAVA_HOME" ]; then
+  JAVA="java"
+else
+  JAVA="$JAVA_HOME/bin/java"
+fi
+
+rat_command="$JAVA -jar $base_dir/lib/apache-rat-0.8-SNAPSHOT.jar --dir $base_dir "
+
+for f in $(cat $rat_excludes_file);
+do
+  rat_command="${rat_command} -e $f"  
+done
+
+echo "Running " $rat_command
+$rat_command > $base_dir/rat.out
+
diff --git a/lib/apache-rat-0.8-SNAPSHOT.jar b/lib/apache-rat-0.8-SNAPSHOT.jar
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..b6b07f73ba28
Binary files /dev/null and b/lib/apache-rat-0.8-SNAPSHOT.jar differ
diff --git a/project/build/KafkaProject.scala b/project/build/KafkaProject.scala
index 9f1df7725191..0d99c2e31f5c 100644
--- a/project/build/KafkaProject.scala
+++ b/project/build/KafkaProject.scala
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
  * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
  * limitations under the License.
  */
+
 import sbt._
 
 class KafkaProject(info: ProjectInfo) extends ParentProject(info) with IdeaProject {
@@ -27,6 +28,17 @@ class KafkaProject(info: ProjectInfo) extends ParentProject(info) with IdeaProje
   lazy val releaseZip = releaseZipTask dependsOn(core.corePackageAction, core.test, examples.examplesPackageAction,
     contrib.producerPackageAction, contrib.consumerPackageAction) describedAs releaseZipDescription
 
+  // Not sure why rat does not get pulled from a Maven repo automatically.
+  val rat = "org.apache.rat" % "apache-rat-project" % "0.7"
+
+  val runRatDescription = "Runs Apache rat on Kafka"
+  lazy val runRatTask = task {
+    val rat = "org.apache.rat" % "apache-rat-project" % "0.7"
+    Runtime.getRuntime().exec("bin/run-rat.sh")
+    None
+  } describedAs runRatDescription
+
+
   class CoreKafkaProject(info: ProjectInfo) extends DefaultProject(info)
      with IdeaProject with CoreDependencies with TestDependencies {
    val corePackageAction = packageAllAction
@@ -108,6 +120,7 @@ class KafkaProject(info: ProjectInfo) extends ParentProject(info) with IdeaProje
       List(JavaCompileOption("-source"), JavaCompileOption("1.5"))
 
     override def packageAction = super.packageAction dependsOn (testCompileAction)
+
   }
 
   class KafkaExamplesProject(info: ProjectInfo) extends DefaultProject(info)