diff --git a/core/autoload/system.el b/core/autoload/system.el
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..462c04691
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/autoload/system.el
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+;;; system.el
+(provide 'core-lib-system)
+
+;;;###autoload
+(defun doom-system-os ()
+  "Returns the OS: arch, debian, macos, general linux, cygwin or windows."
+  (let ((gnu-linux-p (eq system-type 'gnu/linux)))
+    (cond ((and gnu-linux-p (file-exists-p "/etc/arch-release"))
+           'arch)
+          ((and gnu-linux-p (file-exists-p "/etc/debian_version"))
+           'debian)
+          (gnu-linux-p
+           'linux)
+          ((eq system-type 'darwin)
+           'macos)
+          ((memq system-type '(windows-nt cygwin))
+           'windows)
+          (t (error "Unknown OS: %s" system-type)))))
+
+;;;###autoload
+(defun doom-sh (&rest args)
+  "Runs a shell command and prints any output to the DOOM buffer.")
+
+;;;###autoload
+(defun doom-async-sh (&rest args))
+
+;;;###autoload
+(defun doom-sudo (&rest args)
+  "Runs a shell command as admin, prompting for a password. Prints any output to
+the DOOM buffer.")
+
+;;;###autoload
+(defun doom-fetch (fetcher location dest)
+  "Clone a remote version-controlled repo at REPO-URL to PATH, if it exists.
+Requires the corresponding client, e.g. git for git repos, hg for mercurial,
+etc."
+  (let* ((command (pcase fetcher
+                    (:github "git clone --recursive https://github.com/%s.git")
+                    (:git    "git clone --recursive %s")
+                    (:gist   "git clone https://gist.github.com/%s.git")
+                    (_ (error "%s is not a valid fetcher" fetcher))))
+         (argv (s-split-up-to " " command 1))
+         (args (format (car (cdr argv)) location))
+         (bin (executable-find (car argv)))
+         (fn (if noninteractive 'shell-command 'async-shell-command))
+         buf)
+    (unless bin
+      (error "%s couldn't be found" command))
+    (if (file-exists-p dest)
+        (message "Resource already exists locally, skipping")
+      (apply fn (format "%s %s '%s'" bin args dest) (unless noninteractive (list buf)))
+      (if noninteractive
+          (message "Cloning %s -> %s" location (file-relative-name dest doom-modules-dir))
+        (doom-popup-buffer buf)
+        (with-current-buffer buf
+          (when (featurep 'evil)
+            (evil-change-state 'normal))
+          (set-buffer-modified-p nil))))))