diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index da54155fc..6735ebdaa 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -159,7 +159,8 @@ jobs:
           command: npm run system-test
           environment:
             GCLOUD_PROJECT: long-door-651
-            GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS: .circleci/key.json
+            GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS: /home/node/project/.circleci/key.json
+            NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX: /home/node/.npm-global
       - run:
           name: Remove unencrypted key.
           command: |
diff --git a/.circleci/key.json.enc b/.circleci/key.json.enc
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..1dbf9a0b6
Binary files /dev/null and b/.circleci/key.json.enc differ
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 22c612b8e..92ba81aec 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@
     "@types/node": "^10.3.2",
     "@types/proxyquire": "^1.3.28",
     "@types/pumpify": "^1.4.1",
+    "@types/rimraf": "^2.0.2",
     "@types/semver": "^5.5.0",
     "@types/sinon": "^5.0.1",
     "@types/source-map-support": "^0.4.1",
@@ -45,9 +46,11 @@
     "istanbul": "~0.4.5",
     "jsdoc": "^3.5.5",
     "mocha": "~5.2.0",
+    "nyc": "^13.1.0",
     "pegjs": "~0.10.0",
     "proxyquire": "^2.0.1",
     "pumpify": "^1.5.1",
+    "rimraf": "^2.6.2",
     "sinon": "^7.0.0",
     "source-map-support": "^0.5.6",
     "stream-events": "^1.0.4",
@@ -67,7 +70,7 @@
     "prepare": "npm run compile",
     "pretest-only": "npm run compile",
     "posttest": "npm run lint",
-    "system-test": "echo no system tests 😱",
+    "system-test": "nyc mocha --timeout 1200000 build/system-test/system.js",
     "samples-test": "echo no sample tests 😱"
   },
   "repository": "googleapis/gax-nodejs",
@@ -82,5 +85,11 @@
   "homepage": "https://github.com/googleapis/gax-nodejs#readme",
   "engines": {
     "node": ">=6.0.0"
+  },
+  "nyc": {
+    "exclude": [
+      "build/system-test/**",
+      "system-test-run/**"
+    ]
   }
 }
diff --git a/system-test-run/nodejs-speech b/system-test-run/nodejs-speech
new file mode 160000
index 000000000..4ba57015f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/system-test-run/nodejs-speech
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 4ba57015f10fb9bbf0e079f196d9558f13e684f7
diff --git a/system-test/system.ts b/system-test/system.ts
index 4672462af..3918b3f02 100644
--- a/system-test/system.ts
+++ b/system-test/system.ts
@@ -14,4 +14,135 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
-console.warn(`no system tests available 👻`);
+import * as cp from 'child_process';
+import * as fs from 'fs';
+import * as path from 'path';
+import * as rimraf from 'rimraf';
+import * as util from 'util';
+
+const mkdir = util.promisify(fs.mkdir);
+const readFile = util.promisify(fs.readFile);
+const writeFile = util.promisify(fs.writeFile);
+const rmrf = util.promisify(rimraf);
+
+const baseRepoUrl = 'https://github.com/googleapis/';
+const gaxPath = process.cwd();
+const testDir = path.join(process.cwd(), 'system-test-run');
+
+interface PackageJson {
+  dependencies: {[name: string]: string;};
+}
+
+interface ExecuteResult {
+  stdout: string;
+  stderr: string;
+}
+
+async function execute(command: string, cwd?: string): Promise<ExecuteResult> {
+  cwd = cwd || process.cwd();
+  const maxBuffer = 10 * 1024 * 1024;
+  console.log(`Execute: ${command} [cwd: ${cwd}]`);
+  return new Promise<ExecuteResult>((resolve, reject) => {
+    cp.exec(command, {cwd, maxBuffer}, (err, stdout, stderr) => {
+      if (err) {
+        reject(new Error(`Command ${command} terminated with error ${err}`));
+      } else {
+        resolve({stdout, stderr});
+      }
+    });
+  });
+}
+
+async function spawn(
+    command: string, args?: string[], cwd?: string): Promise<void> {
+  cwd = cwd || process.cwd();
+  args = args || [];
+  console.log(`Execute: ${command} ${args.join(' ')} [cwd: ${cwd}]`);
+  return new Promise<void>((resolve, reject) => {
+    const child = cp.spawn(command, args || [], {
+                      cwd,
+                      stdio: 'inherit'
+                    }).on('close', (code: number|null, signal: string|null) => {
+      if (code === 0) {
+        resolve();
+      } else {
+        reject(new Error(`Command ${command} terminated with code ${
+            code}, signal ${signal}`));
+      }
+    });
+  });
+}
+
+async function latestRelease(cwd: string): Promise<string> {
+  const gitTagOutput = (await execute('git tag --list', cwd)).stdout;
+  const tags =
+      gitTagOutput.split('\n')
+          .filter(str => str.match(/^v\d+\.\d+\.\d+$/))
+          .sort((tag1: string, tag2: string): number => {
+            const match1 = tag1.match(/^v(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)$/);
+            const match2 = tag2.match(/^v(\d+)\.(\d+)\.(\d+)$/);
+            if (!match1 || !match2) {
+              throw new Error(`Cannot compare git tags ${tag1} and ${tag2}`);
+            }
+            // compare major version, then minor versions, then patch versions.
+            // return positive number, zero, or negative number
+            for (let idx = 1; idx <= 3; ++idx) {
+              if (match1[idx] !== match2[idx]) {
+                return Number(match1[idx]) - Number(match2[idx]);
+              }
+            }
+            return 0;
+          });
+  // the last tag in the list is the latest release
+  return tags[tags.length - 1];
+}
+
+async function preparePackage(packageName: string): Promise<void> {
+  await spawn(
+      'git', ['clone', `${baseRepoUrl}${packageName}.git`, packageName]);
+  const tag = await latestRelease(packageName);
+  await spawn('git', ['checkout', tag], packageName);
+  await spawn('npm', ['link', '../../'], packageName);
+  // npm-install-retry prints a lot, so run it silently
+  await execute('node .circleci/npm-install-retry.js', packageName);
+}
+
+async function runSystemTest(packageName: string): Promise<void> {
+  await spawn('npm', ['run', 'system-test'], packageName);
+}
+
+describe('Run system tests for some libraries', () => {
+  before(async () => {
+    await rmrf(testDir);
+    await mkdir(testDir);
+    process.chdir(testDir);
+    console.log(`Running tests in ${testDir}.`);
+  });
+  // Video intelligence API has long running operations
+  describe('video-intelligence', () => {
+    before(async () => {
+      await preparePackage('nodejs-video-intelligence');
+    });
+    it('should pass system tests', async () => {
+      await runSystemTest('nodejs-video-intelligence');
+    });
+  });
+  // Pub/Sub has streaming methods and pagination
+  describe('pubsub', () => {
+    before(async () => {
+      await preparePackage('nodejs-pubsub');
+    });
+    it('should pass system tests', async () => {
+      await runSystemTest('nodejs-pubsub');
+    });
+  });
+  // Speech only has smoke tests, but still...
+  describe('speech', () => {
+    before(async () => {
+      await preparePackage('nodejs-speech');
+    });
+    it('should pass system tests', async () => {
+      await runSystemTest('nodejs-speech');
+    });
+  });
+});
diff --git a/tsconfig.json b/tsconfig.json
index 0e62ff7b4..07c70b201 100644
--- a/tsconfig.json
+++ b/tsconfig.json
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@
   },
   "include": [
     "src/*.ts",
-    "test/*.ts"
+    "test/*.ts",
+    "system-test/*.ts"
   ]
 }