diff --git a/internal/praefect/common.go b/internal/praefect/common.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..17667283e3e5afbeb7e0856633b14aa95a70b562
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/praefect/common.go
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+package praefect
+
+// Repository contains all the information necessary to address a specific
+// repository
+type Repository struct {
+	Project string // e.g. gitlab.com/gitaly-org/gitaly
+	Storage string // e.g. Default
+}
+
+// ReplJob indicates which repo replicas require syncing
+type ReplJob struct {
+	ID      string // unique ID to track job progress in datastore
+	Primary Repository
+	Replica Node
+}
diff --git a/internal/praefect/node.go b/internal/praefect/node.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..7100e2559ad6b99800edffc173ec4bb330c43067
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/praefect/node.go
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+package praefect
+
+import (
+	"context"
+
+	"google.golang.org/grpc"
+)
+
+// Node is a backend Gitaly node that is responsible for hosting repositories
+// in a specific storage location
+type Node struct {
+	storage string // storage location ID (e.g. default)
+	cc      *grpc.ClientConn
+}
+
+// PullReplication will attempt to replicate changes from a primary replica
+func (n Node) PullReplication(ctx context.Context, primary Repository) error {
+	// TODO: replication logic in #1484
+	return nil
+}
diff --git a/internal/praefect/replication.go b/internal/praefect/replication.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..b0d289040a7f80ab02facbc7f12a4a7250a13557
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/praefect/replication.go
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+package praefect
+
+import (
+	"context"
+)
+
+// ReplMan is a replication manager for handling replication jobs
+type ReplMan struct {
+	l Logger
+	// whitelist contains the project names of the repos we wish to replicate
+	whitelist map[string]struct{}
+}
+
+type ReplManOpt func(*ReplMan)
+
+func NewReplMan(opts ...ReplManOpt) *ReplMan {
+	m := &ReplMan{
+		whitelist: map[string]struct{}{},
+	}
+
+	for _, opt := range opts {
+		opt(m)
+	}
+
+	return m
+}
+
+// WithWhitelist will configure a whitelist for repos to allow replication
+func WithWhitelist(whitelistedRepos []string) ReplManOpt {
+	return func(m *ReplMan) {
+		for _, r := range whitelistedRepos {
+			m.whitelist[r] = struct{}{}
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// ReplCoordinator represents all the coordinator functionality the replication
+// manager relies on
+type ReplCoordinator interface {
+	// ReplicationQueue returns a stream of jobs from
+	ReplicationQueue(context.Context) (<-chan ReplJob, error)
+
+	// CompleteJob reports if a job was completed. A non-nil jobErr indicates
+	// the job was not successful.
+	CompleteJob(ctx context.Context, ID string, jobErr error) error
+}
+
+func (rm *ReplMan) ProcessJobs(ctx context.Context, rc ReplCoordinator) error {
+	jobQ, err := rc.ReplicationQueue(ctx)
+
+	for {
+		var (
+			job ReplJob
+			ok  bool
+		)
+
+		select {
+
+		// context cancelled
+		case <-ctx.Done():
+			return ctx.Err()
+
+		case job, ok = <-jobQ:
+			if !ok { // channel closed
+				return nil
+			}
+
+		}
+
+		jobErr := job.Replica.PullReplication(ctx, job.Primary)
+
+		err = rc.CompleteJob(ctx, job.ID, jobErr)
+		if err != nil {
+			rm.l.Errorf("unable to report replication job completion for %v", job.ID)
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/internal/praefect/server.go b/internal/praefect/server.go
index 04779af2cef0595f045d2613066d8d4d214810be..6266c159913519b94e7c2b39e3909fec031901a1 100644
--- a/internal/praefect/server.go
+++ b/internal/praefect/server.go
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ import (
 // into the praefect server
 type Logger interface {
 	Debugf(format string, args ...interface{})
+	Errorf(format string, args ...interface{})
 }
 
 // Coordinator takes care of directing client requests to the appropriate