diff --git a/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/clientapi/clientapi-app/main.go b/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/clientapi/clientapi-app/main.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..82a08e767
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/clientapi/clientapi-app/main.go
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+// Copyright 2017 Vector Creations Ltd
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+package clientapi
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"net/http"
+	"net/url"
+	"strings"
+
+	"golang.org/x/crypto/ed25519"
+
+	"github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/clientapi/config"
+	"github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/clientapi/producers"
+	"github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/clientapi/routing"
+	"github.com/matrix-org/dendrite/roomserver/api"
+
+	log "github.com/Sirupsen/logrus"
+)
+
+// App is a function that configures and starts a client API server
+func App(host string, kafkaURIsStr string, roomserverURL string, topicPrefix string) {
+	if host == "" {
+		log.Panic("No host specified.")
+	}
+	hostURL, err := url.Parse(host)
+	if hostURL.Port() == "" {
+		host += ":7778"
+	}
+	kafkaURIs := strings.Split(kafkaURIsStr, ",")
+	if len(kafkaURIs) == 0 {
+		// the kafka default is :9092
+		kafkaURIs = []string{"localhost:9092"}
+	}
+	if roomserverURL == "" {
+		log.Panic("No roomserver host specified.")
+	}
+
+	clientAPIOutputTopic := fmt.Sprintf("%sroomserver_input_topic", topicPrefix)
+
+	// TODO: Rather than generating a new key on every startup, we should be
+	//       reading a PEM formatted file instead.
+	_, privKey, err := ed25519.GenerateKey(nil)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Panicf("Failed to generate private key: %s", err)
+	}
+
+	cfg := config.ClientAPI{
+		ServerName:           "localhost",
+		KeyID:                "ed25519:something",
+		PrivateKey:           privKey,
+		KafkaProducerURIs:    kafkaURIs,
+		ClientAPIOutputTopic: clientAPIOutputTopic,
+		RoomserverURL:        roomserverURL,
+	}
+
+	log.Infoln("clientapi host:", host)
+	log.Infoln("clientapi output topic:", clientAPIOutputTopic)
+	log.Infoln("kafka URIs:", kafkaURIs)
+	log.Infoln("roomserver URL:", roomserverURL)
+	log.Info("Starting clientapi")
+
+	roomserverProducer, err := producers.NewRoomserverProducer(cfg.KafkaProducerURIs, cfg.ClientAPIOutputTopic)
+	if err != nil {
+		log.Panicf("Failed to setup kafka producers(%s): %s", cfg.KafkaProducerURIs, err)
+	}
+
+	queryAPI := api.NewRoomserverQueryAPIHTTP(cfg.RoomserverURL, nil)
+
+	routing.Setup(http.DefaultServeMux, http.DefaultClient, cfg, roomserverProducer, queryAPI)
+	log.Fatal(http.ListenAndServe(host, nil))
+}