diff --git a/contrib/devtools/README.md b/contrib/devtools/README.md
index 15ee8a395..7ac8aa39d 100644
--- a/contrib/devtools/README.md
+++ b/contrib/devtools/README.md
@@ -194,3 +194,14 @@ It will do the following automatically:
 - add missing translations to the build system (TODO)
 
 See doc/translation-process.md for more information.
+
+circular-dependencies.py
+========================
+
+Run this script from the root of the source tree (`src/`) to find circular dependencies in the source code.
+This looks only at which files include other files, treating the `.cpp` and `.h` file as one unit.
+
+Example usage:
+
+    cd .../src
+    ../contrib/devtools/circular-dependencies.py {*,*/*,*/*/*}.{h,cpp}
diff --git a/contrib/devtools/circular-dependencies.py b/contrib/devtools/circular-dependencies.py
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..d544d5c37
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contrib/devtools/circular-dependencies.py
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python3
+
+import sys
+import re
+
+MAPPING = {
+    'core_read.cpp': 'core_io.cpp',
+    'core_write.cpp': 'core_io.cpp',
+}
+
+def module_name(path):
+    if path in MAPPING:
+        path = MAPPING[path]
+    if path.endswith(".h"):
+        return path[:-2]
+    if path.endswith(".c"):
+        return path[:-2]
+    if path.endswith(".cpp"):
+        return path[:-4]
+    return None
+
+files = dict()
+deps = dict()
+
+RE = re.compile("^#include <(.*)>")
+
+# Iterate over files, and create list of modules
+for arg in sys.argv[1:]:
+    module = module_name(arg)
+    if module is None:
+        print("Ignoring file %s (does not constitute module)\n" % arg)
+    else:
+        files[arg] = module
+        deps[module] = set()
+
+# Iterate again, and build list of direct dependencies for each module
+# TODO: implement support for multiple include directories
+for arg in sorted(files.keys()):
+    module = files[arg]
+    with open(arg, 'r') as f:
+        for line in f:
+            match = RE.match(line)
+            if match:
+                include = match.group(1)
+                included_module = module_name(include)
+                if included_module is not None and included_module in deps and included_module != module:
+                    deps[module].add(included_module)
+
+# Loop to find the shortest (remaining) circular dependency
+have_cycle = False
+while True:
+    shortest_cycle = None
+    for module in sorted(deps.keys()):
+        # Build the transitive closure of dependencies of module
+        closure = dict()
+        for dep in deps[module]:
+            closure[dep] = []
+        while True:
+            old_size = len(closure)
+            old_closure_keys = sorted(closure.keys())
+            for src in old_closure_keys:
+                for dep in deps[src]:
+                    if dep not in closure:
+                        closure[dep] = closure[src] + [src]
+            if len(closure) == old_size:
+                break
+        # If module is in its own transitive closure, it's a circular dependency; check if it is the shortest
+        if module in closure and (shortest_cycle is None or len(closure[module]) + 1 < len(shortest_cycle)):
+            shortest_cycle = [module] + closure[module]
+    if shortest_cycle is None:
+        break
+    # We have the shortest circular dependency; report it
+    module = shortest_cycle[0]
+    print("Circular dependency: %s" % (" -> ".join(shortest_cycle + [module])))
+    # And then break the dependency to avoid repeating in other cycles
+    deps[shortest_cycle[-1]] = deps[shortest_cycle[-1]] - set([module])
+    have_cycle = True
+
+sys.exit(1 if have_cycle else 0)