diff --git a/cmd/libs/go2idl/.import-restrictions b/cmd/libs/go2idl/.import-restrictions
index 5abc3747cc572..8832a0234bc13 100644
--- a/cmd/libs/go2idl/.import-restrictions
+++ b/cmd/libs/go2idl/.import-restrictions
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@
         "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/libs/go2idl",
         "k8s.io/gengo",
         "k8s.io/kubernetes/third_party",
-        "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/util/sets"
+        "k8s.io/apimachinery/third_party",
+        "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/sets"
       ]
     }
   ]
diff --git a/cmd/libs/go2idl/go-to-protobuf/protobuf/cmd.go b/cmd/libs/go2idl/go-to-protobuf/protobuf/cmd.go
index 38a20d676e22f..be4e5dc2810e8 100644
--- a/cmd/libs/go2idl/go-to-protobuf/protobuf/cmd.go
+++ b/cmd/libs/go2idl/go-to-protobuf/protobuf/cmd.go
@@ -62,9 +62,9 @@ func New() *Generator {
 		Packages: strings.Join([]string{
 			`+k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/util/intstr`,
 			`+k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api/resource`,
-			`+k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/runtime/schema`,
-			`+k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/runtime`,
-			`k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apis/meta/v1`,
+			`+k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema`,
+			`+k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime`,
+			`k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/apis/meta/v1`,
 			`k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/api/v1`,
 			`k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apis/policy/v1beta1`,
 			`k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apis/extensions/v1beta1`,
diff --git a/cmd/libs/go2idl/openapi-gen/.import-restrictions b/cmd/libs/go2idl/openapi-gen/.import-restrictions
index 09df4a2886a3c..7273c8222eee3 100644
--- a/cmd/libs/go2idl/openapi-gen/.import-restrictions
+++ b/cmd/libs/go2idl/openapi-gen/.import-restrictions
@@ -4,10 +4,11 @@
       "SelectorRegexp": "k8s[.]io",
       "AllowedPrefixes": [
         "k8s.io/kubernetes/cmd/libs/go2idl",
-        "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/genericapiserver/openapi/common",
+        "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/genericapiserver/openapi/common",
         "k8s.io/gengo",
         "k8s.io/kubernetes/third_party",
-        "k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/util/sets"
+        "k8s.io/apimachinery/third_party",
+        "k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/sets"
       ]
     }
   ]
diff --git a/hack/godep-save.sh b/hack/godep-save.sh
index 281f3a815bacf..1bc1f19ff8f76 100755
--- a/hack/godep-save.sh
+++ b/hack/godep-save.sh
@@ -44,6 +44,9 @@ pushd "${KUBE_ROOT}" > /dev/null
   if [ ! -e "vendor/k8s.io/apiserver" ]; then
     ln -s ../../staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver vendor/k8s.io/apiserver
   fi
+  if [ ! -e "vendor/k8s.io/apimachinery" ]; then
+    ln -s ../../staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery vendor/k8s.io/apimachinery
+  fi
 popd > /dev/null
 
 echo "Don't forget to run hack/update-godep-licenses.sh if you added or removed a dependency!"
diff --git a/hack/make-rules/test.sh b/hack/make-rules/test.sh
index 5700afad31ef5..e71d6d99ec432 100755
--- a/hack/make-rules/test.sh
+++ b/hack/make-rules/test.sh
@@ -60,6 +60,10 @@ kube::test::find_dirs() {
     # run tests for apiserver
     find ./staging/src/k8s.io/apiserver -name '*_test.go' \
       -name '*_test.go' -print0 | xargs -0n1 dirname | sed 's|^\./staging/src/|./vendor/|' | LC_ALL=C sort -u
+
+    # run tests for apimachinery
+    find ./staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery -name '*_test.go' \
+      -name '*_test.go' -print0 | xargs -0n1 dirname | sed 's|^\./staging/src/|./vendor/|' | LC_ALL=C sort -u
   )
 }
 
diff --git a/staging/prime-apimachinery.sh b/staging/prime-apimachinery.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000000..04930a38c24d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/staging/prime-apimachinery.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+# Copyright 2016 The Kubernetes Authors.
+#
+# 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.
+
+set -o errexit
+set -o nounset
+set -o pipefail
+
+KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/..
+source "${KUBE_ROOT}/hack/lib/init.sh"
+
+kube::golang::setup_env
+
+dir=$(mktemp -d "${TMPDIR:-/tmp/}$(basename 0).XXXXXXXXXXXX")
+echo ${dir}
+
+echo k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apimachinery/registered > ${dir}/packages.txt
+echo k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/runtime/serializer >> ${dir}/packages.txt
+echo k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/runtime/serializer/yaml >> ${dir}/packages.txt
+echo k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/runtime/serializer/streaming >> ${dir}/packages.txt
+echo k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/runtime/serializer/recognizer/testing >> ${dir}/packages.txt
+go list -f {{.Deps}} k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/apimachinery/registered | sed -e 's/ /\n/g' - | grep k8s.io | grep -v vendor >> ${dir}/packages.txt
+go list -f {{.Deps}} k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/runtime/serializer | sed -e 's/ /\n/g' - | grep k8s.io | grep -v vendor >> ${dir}/packages.txt
+go list -f {{.Deps}} k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/runtime/serializer/yaml | sed -e 's/ /\n/g' - | grep k8s.io | grep -v vendor >> ${dir}/packages.txt
+go list -f {{.Deps}} k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/runtime/serializer/streaming | sed -e 's/ /\n/g' - | grep k8s.io | grep -v vendor >> ${dir}/packages.txt
+# used by tests
+echo k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/util/diff >> ${dir}/packages.txt
+go list -f {{.Deps}} k8s.io/kubernetes/pkg/util/diff | sed -e 's/ /\n/g' - | grep k8s.io | grep -v vendor >> ${dir}/packages.txt
+LC_ALL=C sort -u -o ${dir}/packages.txt ${dir}/packages.txt
+
+echo "moving these packages"
+cat ${dir}/packages.txt
+
+# copy all the packages over
+while read package; do
+	unprefix_package=$(echo ${package} | sed 's|k8s.io/kubernetes/||g')
+	mkdir -p ${KUBE_ROOT}/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/${unprefix_package}
+	cp ${KUBE_ROOT}/${unprefix_package}/* ${KUBE_ROOT}/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/${unprefix_package} || true
+done <${dir}/packages.txt
+
+# need to remove the bazel files or bazel fails when this moves into vendor
+find ${KUBE_ROOT}/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery -name BUILD | xargs rm
+
+# need to rewrite all the package imports for k8s.io/kuberentes to k8s.io/apimachinery
+find ${KUBE_ROOT}/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery -name "*.go" | xargs sed -i 's|k8s.io/kubernetes|k8s.io/apimachinery|g'
+
+# need to rewrite all the package imports for these packages in the main repo to use the vendored copy
+while read package; do
+	echo "rewriting import for ${package}"
+	new_package=$(echo ${package} | sed 's|k8s.io/kubernetes|k8s.io/apimachinery|g')
+	find ${KUBE_ROOT}/cmd ${KUBE_ROOT}/examples ${KUBE_ROOT}/federation ${KUBE_ROOT}/pkg ${KUBE_ROOT}/plugin ${KUBE_ROOT}/test -name "*.go" | xargs sed -i "s|${package}\"|${new_package}\"|g"
+done <${dir}/packages.txt
+
+# we don't want to rewrite imports for the packages we're modifying.  So check those back out, but only the files directly in that directory, not subdirs
+# also, add .readonly files to each folder we moved
+while read package; do
+	unprefix_package=$(echo ${package} | sed 's|k8s.io/kubernetes/||g')
+	find ${unprefix_package} -type f -maxdepth 1 | xargs git checkout
+	touch ${unprefix_package}/.readonly
+done <${dir}/packages.txt
+
+# this file generates something or other, but we don't want to accidentally have it generate into an apimachinery package
+git checkout cmd/libs/go2idl/set-gen/main.go
+
+
+# now run gofmt to get the sorting right
+echo "running gofmt"
+gofmt -s -w ${KUBE_ROOT}/cmd ${KUBE_ROOT}/examples ${KUBE_ROOT}/federation ${KUBE_ROOT}/pkg ${KUBE_ROOT}/plugin ${KUBE_ROOT}/test 
+
diff --git a/vendor/k8s.io/apimachinery b/vendor/k8s.io/apimachinery
new file mode 120000
index 0000000000000..b509d9e0f5c2e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/vendor/k8s.io/apimachinery
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+../../staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery
\ No newline at end of file