diff --git a/README b/README
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
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index 0000000..47e7ef4
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+++ b/Rakefile
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+require 'rake'
+require 'rake/testtask'
+
+Rake::TestTask.new do |t|
+  t.libs << 'lib'
+  t.pattern = 'test/**/*_test.rb'
+  t.verbose = false
+end
+
+task :default => :test
diff --git a/lib/resque/heartbeat.rb b/lib/resque/heartbeat.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..36cf21e
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+++ b/lib/resque/heartbeat.rb
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+require 'resque'
+
+module Resque
+  def self.prune_dead_workers
+    begin
+      Worker.all.each { |worker| worker.prune_if_dead }
+    rescue Exception => e
+      p e
+    end
+  end
+
+  class Worker
+    def startup_with_heartbeat
+      startup_without_heartbeat
+      heart.run
+    end
+    alias startup_without_heartbeat startup
+    alias startup startup_with_heartbeat
+
+    def heart
+      @heart ||= Heart.new(self)
+    end
+
+    def prune_if_dead
+      unregister_worker if heart.last_beat_before?(5)
+    end
+
+    class Heart
+      attr_reader :worker
+
+      def initialize(worker)
+        @worker = worker
+      end
+
+      def run
+        Thread.new { loop { sleep(2) && beat! } }
+      end
+
+      def redis
+        @redis && connected? ? @redis : @redis = connect
+      end
+
+      def connect
+        # apparently the Redis connection is not thread-safe, so we connect another instance
+        # see https://github.com/ezmobius/redis-rb/issues#issue/75
+        redis = Redis.connect(:url => Travis.config['redis']['url']).tap { |redis| redis.client.connect }
+        Redis::Namespace.new(:resque, :redis => redis)
+      end
+
+      def connected?
+        @redis.client.connected?
+      end
+
+      def beat!
+        redis.sadd(:workers, worker)
+        redis.set("worker:#{worker}:heartbeat", Time.now.to_s)
+      rescue Exception => e
+        p e
+      end
+
+      def last_beat_before?(seconds)
+        Time.parse(last_beat).utc < (Time.now.utc - seconds) rescue true
+      end
+
+      def last_beat
+        Resque.redis.get("worker:#{worker}:heartbeat") || worker.started
+      end
+    end
+  end
+end
diff --git a/lib/resque_heartbeat.rb b/lib/resque_heartbeat.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fad9009
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/resque_heartbeat.rb
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+require 'resque/heartbeat'
diff --git a/lib/resque_heartbeat/version.rb b/lib/resque_heartbeat/version.rb
new file mode 100644
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--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/resque_heartbeat/version.rb
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+module ResqueHeartbeat
+  VERSION = "0.0.1"
+end
diff --git a/resque-heartbeat.gemspec b/resque-heartbeat.gemspec
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..561bde4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/resque-heartbeat.gemspec
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# encoding: utf-8
+
+$:.unshift File.expand_path('../lib', __FILE__)
+require 'resque_heartbeat/version'
+
+Gem::Specification.new do |s|
+  s.name         = "resque-heartbeat"
+  s.version      = ResqueHeartbeat::VERSION
+  s.authors      = ["Sven Fuchs"]
+  s.email        = "svenfuchs@artweb-design.de"
+  s.homepage     = "http://github.com/svenfuchs/resque-heartbeat"
+  s.summary      = "[summary]"
+  s.description  = "[description]"
+
+  s.files        = `git ls-files app lib`.split("\n")
+  s.platform     = Gem::Platform::RUBY
+  s.require_path = 'lib'
+  s.rubyforge_project = '[none]'
+end