diff --git a/api/proto/objects/options.proto b/api/proto/objects/options.proto
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..08b7a1deff
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/proto/objects/options.proto
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+syntax = "proto3";
+
+package jj_api.objects;
+
+// Leaving this as a proto in case we come up with some sort of revset-style
+// syntax for operations.
+message OperationRef {
+  string id = 1;
+}
+
+enum Snapshot {
+  SNAPSHOT_UNSPECIFIED = 0;
+  NO_SNAPSHOT = 1;
+  SNAPSHOT = 2;
+}
+
+message GlobalOptions {
+  // Generally prefer providing working_dir over repo_path, since working_dir
+  // allows jj to infer the path if you're not at the repo root.
+  string working_dir = 1;
+  string repo_path = 2;
+
+  // Technically this could be a boolean, but this forces users to choose either
+  // SNAPSHOT or NO_SNAPSHOT.
+  Snapshot snapshot = 3;
+
+  OperationRef operation = 4;
+
+  // If true, user configuration will be loaded. In particular:
+  // * User revset aliases will be used
+  // * User template aliases will be used
+  bool use_user_config = 5;
+
+  // Path to additional config files.
+  // Will be applied after the user configuration, if use_user_config is set.
+  repeated string extra_configs = 6;
+
+  bool ignore_immutable = 7;
+}
diff --git a/api/proto/objects/revision.proto b/api/proto/objects/revision.proto
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..297575dde4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/proto/objects/revision.proto
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+syntax = "proto3";
+
+package jj_api.objects;
+
+// A RevisionMask controls how much of a revision is returned.
+// For example, `jj log` will likely not care about files, while `jj status`
+// will want to know what files changed in a revision, and `jj diff` will want
+// to know both the content of the file and the content of the file in the
+// parent revision.
+message RevisionMask {
+  // Which files will be returned.
+  enum FilePathMask {
+    NONE = 0;
+    MODIFIED_FILES = 1;
+    ALL_FILES = 3;
+    // Include all files that were matched by the RevisionMask containing this
+    // RevisionMask. For example, if we had:
+    // RevisionMask(
+    //   files_to_include = MODIFIED_FILES,
+    //   files = FileMask(content = True),
+    //   parents = RevisionMask(
+    //     files_to_include = PARENT_FILES
+    //     files = FileMask(content = True),
+    //   ),
+    // )
+    // And we returned the revision @, which modfied the file foo, then both
+    // r.files["foo"].content and r.parent.files["foo"].content would be filled.
+    PARENT_FILES = 4;
+  };
+  FilePathMask files_to_include = 1;
+  repeated string additional_files = 2;
+  
+  bool rendered = 3;
+
+  bool file_content = 4;
+  bool file_hash = 5;
+  bool file_metadata = 6;
+
+  // How much of the parent revision to fill in.
+  RevisionMask parents = 7;
+}
+
+message File {
+  // If you query for MODIFIED_FILES, you may get a file that's been deleted.
+  bool exists = 1;
+  string hash = 2;
+  bytes content = 3;
+  // TODO: file metadata (eg. permissions)?
+}
+
+
+// By default, 
+message Revision {
+  string change_id = 1;
+  string commit_id = 2;
+  string description = 3;
+  bool empty = 4;
+  bool conflicts = 5;
+  bool mutable = 6;
+  
+  // The rendered template.
+  // Open question: Is a template a first-class citizen of jj, or is it specific
+  // to jj-cli?
+  string rendered = 7;
+
+  map<string, File> files = 8;
+
+  // revision.parents[*].parents is always empty, to avoid recursion.
+  repeated Revision parents = 9;
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/api/proto/objects/revset.proto b/api/proto/objects/revset.proto
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..78a6e4373d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/proto/objects/revset.proto
@@ -0,0 +1,72 @@
+syntax = "proto3";
+
+package jj_api.objects;
+
+message Revset {
+  oneof kind {
+    // Should ideally only be used when the user types in their own revset.
+    // Otherwise, construct it using this proto.
+    string revset = 1;
+
+    // Primitives that we can look up directly.
+    string change_id = 2;
+    string commit_id = 3;
+
+    // Operators
+    Union union = 4;
+    Intersection intersection = 5;
+    Revset not = 6;
+    Between between = 7;
+
+    // Functions
+    Revset parents = 8;
+    Revset children = 9;
+    Ancestors ancestors = 10;
+    // Descendants is skipped (use Between(from=x, to=None, inclusive=True)
+    Reachable reachable = 12;
+    // Connected is skipped (use Between(from=x, to=x, inclusive=True)
+    bool all = 13; // Use bool for a function with no parameters
+    bool none = 14; // Use bool for a function with no parameters
+    Branches branches = 15;
+    RemoteBranches remote_branches = 16;
+
+    // You get the point. Each builtin function is implemented as a oneof in 
+    // this message.
+  }
+}
+
+message Union {
+  repeated Revset srcs = 1;
+}
+
+message Intersection {
+  repeated Revset srcs = 1;
+}
+
+// Equivalent to from::to when inclusive is set, or from..to when not set.
+message Between {
+  optional Revset from = 1;
+  optional Revset to = 2;
+  // If false, equivalent to ..
+  // If true, equivalent to ::
+  bool inclusive = 3;
+}
+
+message Ancestors {
+  Revset srcs = 1;
+  int32 depth = 2;
+}
+
+message Reachable {
+  Revset srcs = 1;
+  Revset domain = 2;
+}
+
+message Branches {
+  string pattern = 1;
+}
+
+message RemoteBranches {
+  string branch_pattern = 1;
+  string remote_pattern = 2;
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/api/proto/rpc/read_revisions.proto b/api/proto/rpc/read_revisions.proto
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..abb432191b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/proto/rpc/read_revisions.proto
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+syntax = "proto3";
+
+package jj_api.rpc;
+
+import "objects/options.proto";
+import "objects/revset.proto";
+import "objects/revision.proto";
+
+message RevisionsRequest {
+  // Since this is a read-only request, we don't want to require the user to
+  // start a transaction.
+  oneof state {
+    string transaction_id = 1;
+    jj_api.objects.GlobalOptions repo_state = 2;
+  }
+  
+  jj_api.objects.RevisionMask revision_mask = 3;
+
+  jj_api.objects.Revset revisions = 4;
+
+  int32 limit = 5;
+  // TODO: We have three options here:
+  // 1) Make this a string, and return the string
+  // 2) Make this similar to Revset, where we can construct it
+  // 3) Remove this from the API and put it in jj-cli entirely. Templates would,
+  //    instead of formatting a Commit object, format a Revision proto.
+  // I don't really like option 2, since it seems that the caller of this could
+  // always just do that themselves in whatever the language is calling this
+  // API.
+  // Option 1 and Option 3 both seem reasonable, and mainly depend on whether we
+  // think that jj-cli will be the only user of templates.
+  // I personally am leaning towards option 3, because I think that an extension
+  // may quite reasonably want to, for example, take advantage of a user's
+  // jj config file containing custom templates or template aliases.
+  string template = 6;
+}
+
+message ListRevisionsResponse {
+  repeated jj_api.objects.Revision revisions = 1;
+  
+  // This is useful if you want to perform, for example, `jj diff` between two
+  // revisions.
+  string operation_id = 2;
+}
+
+message GetRevisionResponse {
+  jj_api.objects.Revision revision = 1;
+
+  // This is useful if you want to perform, for example, `jj diff` between two
+  // revisions.
+  string operation_id = 2;
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/api/proto/rpc/transaction.proto b/api/proto/rpc/transaction.proto
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bb089d8e90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/proto/rpc/transaction.proto
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+syntax = "proto3";
+
+package jj_api.rpc;
+
+import "objects/options.proto";
+
+message BeginTransactionRequest {
+  jj_api.objects.GlobalOptions state = 1;
+  
+  // If EndTransaction is not called within timeout_seconds, then the daemon
+  // will abandon the transaction.
+  uint32 timeout_seconds = 2;
+}
+
+message BeginTransactionResponse {
+  string transaction_id = 1;
+}
+
+message EndTransactionRequest {
+  string transaction_id = 1;
+}
+
+message EndTransactionResponse {
+  string operation_id = 1;
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/api/proto/services/service.proto b/api/proto/services/service.proto
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..66515798a9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/proto/services/service.proto
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+syntax = "proto3";
+
+import "rpc/read_revisions.proto";
+import "rpc/transaction.proto";
+
+package jj_api.services;
+
+// All jj things will go into this service.
+service JjService {
+  rpc BeginTransaction(jj_api.rpc.BeginTransactionRequest) returns (jj_api.rpc.BeginTransactionResponse) {}
+  rpc EndTransaction(jj_api.rpc.EndTransactionRequest) returns (jj_api.rpc.EndTransactionResponse) {}
+  
+  // This RPC will be used by `jj log`
+  rpc ListRevisions(jj_api.rpc.RevisionsRequest) returns (jj_api.rpc.ListRevisionsResponse) {}
+  
+  // This RPC will be used by:
+  // * cat
+  // * diff
+  // * files
+  // * show
+  // * status
+  // It only differs from `ListRevisions` in that it throws an error if there
+  // isn't exactly one match.
+  rpc GetRevision(jj_api.rpc.RevisionsRequest) returns (jj_api.rpc.GetRevisionResponse) {}
+}