diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/cmd/doc.py b/lib/spack/spack/cmd/doc.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..c212ebf1fcf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/cmd/doc.py
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+
+description = "Run pydoc from within spack."
+
+def setup_parser(subparser):
+    subparser.add_argument('entity', help="Run pydoc help on entity")
+
+
+def doc(parser, args):
+    help(args.entity)