diff --git a/dd-trace-ext/README.md b/dd-trace-ext/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..54c177619f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dd-trace-ext/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Convenience Utils for Datadog Tracer Internal API
+- Trace Scopes
+- Global Tracer
+- Async controls
diff --git a/dd-trace-ext/dd-trace-ext.gradle b/dd-trace-ext/dd-trace-ext.gradle
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..bd6e0d7315
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dd-trace-ext/dd-trace-ext.gradle
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+description = 'dd-trace-ext'
+apply from: "${rootDir}/gradle/java.gradle"
+
+dependencies {
+  compile project(':dd-trace')
+}
diff --git a/dd-trace/README.md b/dd-trace/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..4d9f601f2c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dd-trace/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+# Datadog Tracer Internal API
+Contains the core elements needed to create and report APM traces to Datadog.
+
+It's recommended to use `dd-trace-utils` in addition to this api.
diff --git a/dd-trace/dd-trace.gradle b/dd-trace/dd-trace.gradle
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e41c60d76b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/dd-trace/dd-trace.gradle
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+description = 'dd-trace'
+apply from: "${rootDir}/gradle/java.gradle"
+
+// TODO: Move over any special setups from dd-trace-ot (e.g. trace-agent integration tests).
+
+dependencies {
+  annotationProcessor deps.autoservice
+  implementation deps.autoservice
+
+  compile project(':dd-trace-api')
+
+  compile deps.jackson
+  compile deps.slf4j
+  // any higher versions seems to break ES tests with this exception:
+  // java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: com.fasterxml.jackson.dataformat.smile.SmileGenerator.getOutputContext()
+  compile group: 'org.msgpack', name: 'jackson-dataformat-msgpack', version: '0.8.14'
+}
diff --git a/settings.gradle b/settings.gradle
index f1bbb807a8..b96b646b67 100644
--- a/settings.gradle
+++ b/settings.gradle
@@ -1,13 +1,22 @@
 rootProject.name = 'dd-trace-java'
 
-include ':dd-trace-ot'
-include ':dd-java-agent'
+// core tracing projects
+include ':dd-trace-api'
 include ':dd-java-agent:agent-bootstrap'
+include ':dd-trace'
+include ':dd-trace-ext'
+
+// implements for third-party tracing libraries
+include ':dd-trace-ot'
+
+// agent projects
+include ':dd-java-agent'
 include ':dd-java-agent:agent-tooling'
 include ':dd-java-agent:agent-jmxfetch'
+
+// misc
 include ':dd-java-agent:testing'
 include ':dd-java-agent-ittests'
-include ':dd-trace-api'
 
 // instrumentation:
 include ':dd-java-agent:instrumentation:akka-http-10.0'