diff -r 1c42381a7a34 alembic/ddl/__init__.py
--- a/alembic/ddl/__init__.py	Mon Jan 02 17:26:00 2012 -0500
+++ b/alembic/ddl/__init__.py	Tue Jan 03 11:42:46 2012 -0500
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
 import postgresql, mysql, sqlite, mssql
-from impl import DefaultImpl
\ No newline at end of file
+from impl import DefaultImpl, ops_for_connection
\ No newline at end of file
diff -r 1c42381a7a34 alembic/ddl/impl.py
--- a/alembic/ddl/impl.py	Mon Jan 02 17:26:00 2012 -0500
+++ b/alembic/ddl/impl.py	Tue Jan 03 11:42:46 2012 -0500
@@ -217,6 +217,37 @@
         """
         self.static_output("COMMIT;")
 
+def ops_for_connection(connection, impl_opts=None, transactional_ddl=None):
+    """Return a :class:`.DefaultImpl` for the given
+    :class:`sqlalchemy.engine.base.Connection`.
+    
+    Once retrieved, the object can be used to emit
+    the various "ops" defined in :mod:`alembic.op`
+    without a usual Alembic configuration in place.
+    
+    :param connection: a :class:`sqlalchemy.engine.base.Connection`.
+     This will be used to invoke DDL statements and also 
+     to determine the type of dialect in use.
+    :param impl_opts: optional dictionary which can 
+     contain options normally passed to 
+     :func:`.context.configure`.   Some implementations
+      respond to various options here such as 
+      ``mssql_batch_separator``.
+    :param transactional_ddl: Force the "transactional DDL"
+     flag to ``True`` or ``False``.  Leave as ``None``
+     to use the default.
+     
+    """
+    engine = connection.engine
+    if not impl_opts:
+        impl_opts = {}
+    return DefaultImpl.get_by_dialect(engine.dialect)(
+                            engine.dialect, connection, 
+                            as_sql=False, 
+                            transactional_ddl=transactional_ddl, 
+                            output_buffer=None, 
+                            context_opts=impl_opts)
+
 class _literal_bindparam(_BindParamClause):
     pass
 
diff -r 1c42381a7a34 tests/test_op.py
--- a/tests/test_op.py	Mon Jan 02 17:26:00 2012 -0500
+++ b/tests/test_op.py	Tue Jan 03 11:42:46 2012 -0500
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 """Test against the builders in the op.* module."""
 
-from tests import op_fixture
+from tests import op_fixture, db_for_dialect
 from alembic import op
 from sqlalchemy import Integer, Column, ForeignKey, \
             UniqueConstraint, Table, MetaData, String,\
@@ -273,3 +273,10 @@
         "UPDATE account SET name='account 2' WHERE account.name = 'account 1'",
         "UPDATE account SET id=2 WHERE account.id = 1"
     )
+
+def test_standalone_ops_sqlite():
+    eng = db_for_dialect("sqlite")
+    conn = eng.connect()
+    impl = ops_for_connection(conn)
+    assert impl.transactional_ddl is False
+    assert impl.connection is conn