diff --git a/CHANGES b/CHANGES
index 24a6162e..30ba418b 100644
--- a/CHANGES
+++ b/CHANGES
@@ -28,6 +28,11 @@ Release date to be announced, codename to be decided.
   same name on the application object.
 - added a :func:`flask.make_response` function that simplifies
   creating response object instances in views.
+- added signalling support based on blinker.  This feature is currently
+  optional and supposed to be used by extensions and applications.  If
+  you want to use it, make sure to have `blinker`_ installed.
+
+.. _blinker: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/blinker
 
 Version 0.5.2
 -------------
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 4b1d8081..ba898b9e 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-.PHONY: clean-pyc test upload-docs
+.PHONY: clean-pyc test upload-docs docs
 
 all: clean-pyc test
 
@@ -20,3 +20,6 @@ upload-docs:
 	scp -r docs/_build/dirhtml/* pocoo.org:/var/www/flask.pocoo.org/docs/
 	scp -r docs/_build/latex/Flask.pdf pocoo.org:/var/www/flask.pocoo.org/docs/flask-docs.pdf
 	scp -r docs/_build/flask-docs.zip pocoo.org:/var/www/flask.pocoo.org/docs/
+
+docs:
+	$(MAKE) -C docs html
diff --git a/docs/api.rst b/docs/api.rst
index f31563b4..afcb4c20 100644
--- a/docs/api.rst
+++ b/docs/api.rst
@@ -351,3 +351,54 @@ Useful Internals
    information from the context local around for a little longer.  Make
    sure to properly :meth:`~werkzeug.LocalStack.pop` the stack yourself in
    that situation, otherwise your unittests will leak memory.
+
+Signals
+-------
+
+.. versionadded:: 0.6
+
+.. data:: signals_available
+
+   `True` if the signalling system is available.  This is the case
+   when `blinker`_ is installed.
+
+.. data:: template_rendered
+
+   This signal is sent when a template was successfully rendered.  The
+   signal is invoked with the instance of the template as `template`
+   and the context as dictionary (named `context`).
+
+.. data:: request_started
+
+   This signal is sent before any request processing started but when the
+   request context was set up.  Because the request context is already
+   bound, the subscriber can access the request with the standard global
+   proxies such as :class:`~flask.request`.
+
+.. data:: request_finished
+
+   This signal is sent right before the response is sent to the client.
+   It is passed the response to be sent named `response`.
+
+.. data:: got_request_exception
+
+   This signal is sent when an exception happens during request processing.
+   It is sent *before* the standard exception handling kicks in and even
+   in debug mode, where no exception handling happens.  The exception
+   itself is passed to the subscriber as `exception`.
+
+.. class:: flask.signals.Namespace
+
+   An alias for :class:`blinker.base.Namespace` if blinker is available,
+   otherwise a dummy class that creates fake signals.  This class is
+   available for Flask extensions that want to provide the same fallback
+   system as Flask itself.
+
+   .. method:: signal(name, doc=None)
+
+      Creates a new signal for this namespace if blinker is available,
+      otherwise returns a fake signal that has a send method that will
+      do nothing but will fail with a :exc:`RuntimeError` for all other
+      operations, including connecting.
+
+.. _blinker: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/blinker
diff --git a/docs/conf.py b/docs/conf.py
index 6308beee..721c8369 100644
--- a/docs/conf.py
+++ b/docs/conf.py
@@ -245,7 +245,8 @@ intersphinx_mapping = {
     'http://docs.python.org/dev': None,
     'http://werkzeug.pocoo.org/documentation/dev/': None,
     'http://www.sqlalchemy.org/docs/': None,
-    'http://wtforms.simplecodes.com/docs/0.5/': None
+    'http://wtforms.simplecodes.com/docs/0.5/': None,
+    'http://discorporate.us/projects/Blinker/docs/1.0/': None
 }
 
 pygments_style = 'flask_theme_support.FlaskyStyle'
diff --git a/flask/__init__.py b/flask/__init__.py
index 93ada5f7..95497069 100644
--- a/flask/__init__.py
+++ b/flask/__init__.py
@@ -24,6 +24,10 @@ from .globals import current_app, g, request, session, _request_ctx_stack
 from .module import Module
 from .templating import render_template, render_template_string
 
+# the signals
+from .signals import signals_available, template_rendered, request_started, \
+     request_finished, got_request_exception
+
 # only import json if it's available
 if json_available:
     from .helpers import json
diff --git a/flask/app.py b/flask/app.py
index 16da7939..5860eb05 100644
--- a/flask/app.py
+++ b/flask/app.py
@@ -32,6 +32,7 @@ from .session import Session, _NullSession
 from .module import _ModuleSetupState
 from .templating import _DispatchingJinjaLoader, \
     _default_template_ctx_processor
+from .signals import request_started, request_finished, got_request_exception
 
 # a lock used for logger initialization
 _logger_lock = Lock()
@@ -657,6 +658,7 @@ class Flask(_PackageBoundObject):
 
         .. versionadded: 0.3
         """
+        got_request_exception.send(self, exception=e)
         handler = self.error_handlers.get(500)
         if self.debug:
             raise
@@ -791,6 +793,7 @@ class Flask(_PackageBoundObject):
         """
         with self.request_context(environ):
             try:
+                request_started.send(self)
                 rv = self.preprocess_request()
                 if rv is None:
                     rv = self.dispatch_request()
@@ -801,6 +804,7 @@ class Flask(_PackageBoundObject):
                 response = self.process_response(response)
             except Exception, e:
                 response = self.make_response(self.handle_exception(e))
+            request_finished.send(self, response=response)
             return response(environ, start_response)
 
     def request_context(self, environ):
diff --git a/flask/signals.py b/flask/signals.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a7e459af
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flask/signals.py
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+"""
+    flask.signals
+    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+    Implements signals based on blinker if available, otherwise
+    falls silently back to a noop
+
+    :copyright: (c) 2010 by Armin Ronacher.
+    :license: BSD, see LICENSE for more details.
+"""
+signals_available = False
+try:
+    from blinker import Namespace
+    signals_available = True
+    _signals = Namespace()
+except ImportError:
+    class Namespace(object):
+        def signal(self, name, doc=None):
+            return _FakeSignal(name, doc)
+    class _FakeSignal(object):
+        """If blinker is unavailable, create a fake class with the same
+        interface that allows sending of signals but will fail with an
+        error on anything else.  Instead of doing anything on send, it
+        will just ignore the arguments and do nothing instead.
+        """
+
+        def __init__(self, name, doc=None):
+            self.name = name
+            self.__doc__ = doc
+        def _fail(self, *args, **kwargs):
+            raise RuntimeError('signalling support is unavailable '
+                               'because the blinker library is '
+                               'not installed.')
+        send = lambda *a, **kw: None
+        connect = disconnect = has_receivers_for = receivers_for = \
+            temporarily_connected_to = _fail
+        del _fail
+
+# the namespace for code signals.  If you are not flask code, do
+# not put signals in here.  Create your own namespace instead.
+_signals = Namespace()
+
+
+# core signals.  For usage examples grep the sourcecode or consult
+# the API documentation in docs/api.rst as well as docs/signals.rst
+template_rendered = _signals.signal('template-rendered')
+request_started = _signals.signal('request-started')
+request_finished = _signals.signal('request-finished')
+got_request_exception = _signals.signal('got-request-exception')
diff --git a/flask/templating.py b/flask/templating.py
index a6fd0982..41c0d39b 100644
--- a/flask/templating.py
+++ b/flask/templating.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@
 from jinja2 import BaseLoader, FileSystemLoader, TemplateNotFound
 
 from .globals import _request_ctx_stack
+from .signals import template_rendered
 
 
 def _default_template_ctx_processor():
@@ -59,6 +60,13 @@ class _DispatchingJinjaLoader(BaseLoader):
         return result
 
 
+def _render(template, context, app):
+    """Renders the template and fires the signal"""
+    rv = template.render(context)
+    template_rendered.send(app, template=template, context=context)
+    return rv
+
+
 def render_template(template_name, **context):
     """Renders a template from the template folder with the given
     context.
@@ -69,7 +77,8 @@ def render_template(template_name, **context):
     """
     ctx = _request_ctx_stack.top
     ctx.app.update_template_context(context)
-    return ctx.app.jinja_env.get_template(template_name).render(context)
+    return _render(ctx.app.jinja_env.get_template(template_name),
+                   context, ctx.app)
 
 
 def render_template_string(source, **context):
@@ -83,4 +92,5 @@ def render_template_string(source, **context):
     """
     ctx = _request_ctx_stack.top
     ctx.app.update_template_context(context)
-    return ctx.app.jinja_env.from_string(source).render(context)
+    return _render(ctx.app.jinja_env.from_string(source),
+                   context, ctx.app)
diff --git a/tests/flask_tests.py b/tests/flask_tests.py
index ccf9b871..43665e1c 100644
--- a/tests/flask_tests.py
+++ b/tests/flask_tests.py
@@ -1024,6 +1024,83 @@ class SubdomainTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         assert rv.data == 'index for mitsuhiko'
 
 
+class TestSignals(unittest.TestCase):
+
+    def test_template_rendered(self):
+        app = flask.Flask(__name__)
+
+        @app.route('/')
+        def index():
+            return flask.render_template('simple_template.html', whiskey=42)
+
+        recorded = []
+        def record(sender, template, context):
+            recorded.append((template, context))
+
+        with flask.template_rendered.temporarily_connected_to(record, app):
+            rv = app.test_client().get('/')
+            assert len(recorded) == 1
+            template, context = recorded[0]
+            assert template.name == 'simple_template.html'
+            assert context['whiskey'] == 42
+
+    def test_request_signals(self):
+        app = flask.Flask(__name__)
+        calls = []
+
+        def before_request_signal(sender):
+            calls.append('before-signal')
+
+        def after_request_signal(sender, response):
+            assert response.data == 'stuff'
+            calls.append('after-signal')
+
+        @app.before_request
+        def before_request_handler():
+            calls.append('before-handler')
+
+        @app.after_request
+        def after_request_handler(response):
+            calls.append('after-handler')
+            response.data = 'stuff'
+            return response
+
+        @app.route('/')
+        def index():
+            calls.append('handler')
+            return 'ignored anyway'
+
+        flask.request_started.connect(before_request_signal, app)
+        flask.request_finished.connect(after_request_signal, app)
+
+        try:
+            rv = app.test_client().get('/')
+            assert rv.data == 'stuff'
+
+            assert calls == ['before-signal', 'before-handler',
+                             'handler', 'after-handler',
+                             'after-signal']
+        finally:
+            flask.request_started.disconnect(before_request_signal, app)
+            flask.request_finished.disconnect(after_request_signal, app)
+
+    def test_request_exception_signal(self):
+        app = flask.Flask(__name__)
+        recorded = []
+
+        @app.route('/')
+        def index():
+            1/0
+
+        def record(sender, exception):
+            recorded.append(exception)
+
+        with flask.got_request_exception.temporarily_connected_to(record):
+            assert app.test_client().get('/').status_code == 500
+            assert len(recorded) == 1
+            assert isinstance(recorded[0], ZeroDivisionError)
+
+
 def suite():
     from minitwit_tests import MiniTwitTestCase
     from flaskr_tests import FlaskrTestCase
@@ -1038,6 +1115,8 @@ def suite():
     suite.addTest(unittest.makeSuite(SubdomainTestCase))
     if flask.json_available:
         suite.addTest(unittest.makeSuite(JSONTestCase))
+    if flask.signals_available:
+        suite.addTest(unittest.makeSuite(TestSignals))
     suite.addTest(unittest.makeSuite(MiniTwitTestCase))
     suite.addTest(unittest.makeSuite(FlaskrTestCase))
     return suite
diff --git a/tests/templates/simple_template.html b/tests/templates/simple_template.html
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c24612cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/templates/simple_template.html
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+<h1>{{ whiskey }}</h1>