diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index e02e0818b9..13e0fc112b 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -630,6 +630,32 @@ dependencies = [
  "unicode-width",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "compactor"
+version = "0.1.0"
+dependencies = [
+ "async-trait",
+ "data_types",
+ "futures",
+ "generated_types",
+ "hyper",
+ "iox_catalog",
+ "iox_object_store",
+ "metric",
+ "object_store",
+ "observability_deps",
+ "parking_lot 0.12.0",
+ "predicate",
+ "prost",
+ "test_helpers",
+ "thiserror",
+ "tokio",
+ "tokio-util 0.7.0",
+ "tonic",
+ "trace",
+ "workspace-hack",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "core-foundation"
 version = "0.9.2"
@@ -1859,6 +1885,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "chrono",
  "clap 3.0.14",
  "comfy-table",
+ "compactor",
  "csv",
  "data_types",
  "datafusion 0.1.0",
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 894265ec8f..25019a0e77 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 members = [
     "arrow_util",
     "client_util",
+    "compactor",
     "data_types",
     "datafusion",
     "datafusion_util",
diff --git a/compactor/Cargo.toml b/compactor/Cargo.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..2b14cd49cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compactor/Cargo.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+[package]
+name = "compactor"
+version = "0.1.0"
+authors = ["Luke Bond <luke.n.bond@gmail.com>"]
+edition = "2021"
+
+[dependencies]
+async-trait = "0.1.42"
+data_types = { path = "../data_types" }
+futures = "0.3"
+generated_types = { path = "../generated_types" }
+hyper = "0.14"
+iox_catalog = { path = "../iox_catalog" }
+iox_object_store = { path = "../iox_object_store" }
+metric = { path = "../metric" }
+object_store = { path = "../object_store" }
+observability_deps = { path = "../observability_deps" }
+parking_lot = "0.12"
+predicate = { path = "../predicate" }
+prost = "0.9"
+thiserror = "1.0"
+tokio = { version = "1.13", features = ["macros", "parking_lot", "rt-multi-thread", "sync", "time"] }
+tokio-util = { version = "0.7.0" }
+tonic = { version = "0.6" }
+trace = { path = "../trace" }
+workspace-hack = { path = "../workspace-hack"}
+
+[dev-dependencies]
+test_helpers = { path = "../test_helpers" }
diff --git a/compactor/src/handler.rs b/compactor/src/handler.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..584d8cc088
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compactor/src/handler.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+//! Compactor handler
+
+use async_trait::async_trait;
+use iox_catalog::interface::Catalog;
+use object_store::ObjectStore;
+use observability_deps::tracing::warn;
+use std::{fmt::Formatter, sync::Arc};
+use thiserror::Error;
+use tokio_util::sync::CancellationToken;
+
+#[derive(Debug, Error)]
+#[allow(missing_copy_implementations, missing_docs)]
+pub enum Error {}
+
+/// The [`CompactorHandler`] does nothing at this point
+#[async_trait]
+pub trait CompactorHandler: Send + Sync {
+    /// Wait until the handler finished  to shutdown.
+    ///
+    /// Use [`shutdown`](Self::shutdown) to trigger a shutdown.
+    async fn join(&self);
+
+    /// Shut down background workers.
+    fn shutdown(&self);
+}
+
+/// Implementation of the `CompactorHandler` trait (that currently does nothing)
+pub struct CompactorHandlerImpl {
+    /// The global catalog for schema, parquet files and tombstones
+    catalog: Arc<dyn Catalog>,
+    /// Object store for persistence of parquet files
+    object_store: Arc<ObjectStore>,
+    /// A token that is used to trigger shutdown of the background worker
+    shutdown: CancellationToken,
+}
+
+// LB: copied this over from the ingester handler; doesn't seem to be needed there either
+impl std::fmt::Debug for CompactorHandlerImpl {
+    fn fmt(&self, _f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
+        todo!()
+    }
+}
+
+impl CompactorHandlerImpl {
+    /// Initialize the Compactor
+    pub fn new(
+        catalog: Arc<dyn Catalog>,
+        object_store: Arc<ObjectStore>,
+        _registry: &metric::Registry,
+    ) -> Self {
+        let shutdown = CancellationToken::new();
+
+        // TODO: initialise compactor threads here
+
+        Self {
+            catalog,
+            object_store,
+            shutdown,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+#[async_trait]
+impl CompactorHandler for CompactorHandlerImpl {
+    async fn join(&self) {
+        // join compactor threads here
+        todo!();
+    }
+
+    fn shutdown(&self) {
+        self.shutdown.cancel();
+    }
+}
+
+impl Drop for CompactorHandlerImpl {
+    fn drop(&mut self) {
+        if !self.shutdown.is_cancelled() {
+            warn!("CompactorHandlerImpl dropped without calling shutdown()");
+            self.shutdown.cancel();
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/compactor/src/lib.rs b/compactor/src/lib.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..56b96dd1ce
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compactor/src/lib.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+//! IOx compactor implementation.
+//!
+
+#![deny(rustdoc::broken_intra_doc_links, rust_2018_idioms)]
+#![warn(
+    missing_copy_implementations,
+    missing_docs,
+    clippy::explicit_iter_loop,
+    clippy::future_not_send,
+    clippy::use_self,
+    clippy::clone_on_ref_ptr
+)]
+#![allow(dead_code)]
+
+pub mod handler;
+pub mod server;
diff --git a/compactor/src/server.rs b/compactor/src/server.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..dd3aaa7319
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compactor/src/server.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+//! Compactor server entrypoint.
+
+use std::sync::Arc;
+
+use self::{grpc::GrpcDelegate, http::HttpDelegate};
+use crate::handler::CompactorHandler;
+use std::fmt::Debug;
+
+pub mod grpc;
+pub mod http;
+
+/// The [`CompactorServer`] manages the lifecycle and contains all state for a
+/// `compactor` server instance.
+#[derive(Debug, Default)]
+pub struct CompactorServer<C: CompactorHandler> {
+    metrics: Arc<metric::Registry>,
+
+    http: HttpDelegate<C>,
+    grpc: GrpcDelegate<C>,
+
+    handler: Arc<C>,
+}
+
+impl<C: CompactorHandler> CompactorServer<C> {
+    /// Initialise a new [`CompactorServer`] using the provided HTTP and gRPC
+    /// handlers.
+    pub fn new(
+        metrics: Arc<metric::Registry>,
+        http: HttpDelegate<C>,
+        grpc: GrpcDelegate<C>,
+        handler: Arc<C>,
+    ) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            metrics,
+            http,
+            grpc,
+            handler,
+        }
+    }
+
+    /// Return the [`metric::Registry`] used by the router.
+    pub fn metric_registry(&self) -> Arc<metric::Registry> {
+        Arc::clone(&self.metrics)
+    }
+
+    /// Join shutdown worker.
+    pub async fn join(&self) {
+        self.handler.join().await;
+    }
+
+    /// Shutdown background worker.
+    pub fn shutdown(&self) {
+        self.handler.shutdown();
+    }
+
+    /// Get a reference to the router http delegate.
+    pub fn http(&self) -> &HttpDelegate<C> {
+        &self.http
+    }
+
+    /// Get a reference to the router grpc delegate.
+    pub fn grpc(&self) -> &GrpcDelegate<C> {
+        &self.grpc
+    }
+}
diff --git a/compactor/src/server/grpc.rs b/compactor/src/server/grpc.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f93312a37c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compactor/src/server/grpc.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+//! gRPC service implementations for `compactor`.
+
+use crate::handler::CompactorHandler;
+use std::sync::Arc;
+use thiserror::Error;
+
+/// This type is responsible for managing all gRPC services exposed by
+/// `compactor`.
+#[derive(Debug, Default)]
+pub struct GrpcDelegate<C: CompactorHandler> {
+    compactor_handler: Arc<C>,
+}
+
+impl<C: CompactorHandler + Send + Sync + 'static> GrpcDelegate<C> {
+    /// Initialise a new [`GrpcDelegate`] passing valid requests to the
+    /// specified `compactor_handler`.
+    pub fn new(compactor_handler: Arc<C>) -> Self {
+        Self { compactor_handler }
+    }
+
+    // TODO: add grpc service here, and register it with a add_(gated_)service call in
+    //       server_type/compactor.rs:server_grpc().
+}
+
+/// Errors returnable by the Compactor gRPC service
+#[derive(Clone, Copy, Debug, Error)]
+pub enum Error {}
+
+impl From<Error> for tonic::Status {
+    /// Logs and converts a result from the business logic into the appropriate tonic status
+    fn from(err: Error) -> Self {
+        // An explicit match on the Error enum will ensure appropriate logging is handled for any
+        // new error variants.
+        // TODO see equivalent in ingester grpc server once we have some error types
+        //match err {
+        //    _ => {
+        //        todo!();
+        //    }
+        //}
+        err.to_status()
+    }
+}
+
+impl Error {
+    /// Converts a result from the business logic into the appropriate tonic status
+    // LB: this allow is to satisfy clippy; unsure why the ingester doesn't get this clippy error
+    // but since this is clearly a placeholder, this note should suffice as a reminder to remove
+    // this when this function is implemented for the compactor
+    #[allow(clippy::wrong_self_convention)]
+    fn to_status(&self) -> tonic::Status {
+        use tonic::Status;
+        // TODO see equivalent in ingester grpc server once we have some error types
+        Status::internal(self.to_string())
+    }
+}
diff --git a/compactor/src/server/http.rs b/compactor/src/server/http.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ff2566c196
--- /dev/null
+++ b/compactor/src/server/http.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,50 @@
+//! HTTP service implementations for `compactor`.
+
+use crate::handler::CompactorHandler;
+use hyper::{Body, Request, Response, StatusCode};
+use std::sync::Arc;
+use thiserror::Error;
+
+/// Errors returned by the HTTP request handler.
+#[derive(Debug, Error, Copy, Clone)]
+pub enum Error {
+    /// The requested path has no registered handler.
+    #[error("not found")]
+    NotFound,
+}
+
+impl Error {
+    /// Convert the error into an appropriate [`StatusCode`] to be returned to
+    /// the end user.
+    pub fn as_status_code(&self) -> StatusCode {
+        match self {
+            Error::NotFound => StatusCode::NOT_FOUND,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// This type is responsible for servicing requests to the `compactor` HTTP
+/// endpoint.
+///
+/// Requests to some paths may be handled externally by the caller - the IOx
+/// server runner framework takes care of implementing the heath endpoint,
+/// metrics, pprof, etc.
+#[derive(Debug, Default)]
+pub struct HttpDelegate<I: CompactorHandler> {
+    #[allow(dead_code)]
+    compactor_handler: Arc<I>,
+}
+
+impl<I: CompactorHandler> HttpDelegate<I> {
+    /// Initialise a new [`HttpDelegate`] passing valid requests to the
+    /// specified `compactor_handler`.
+    pub fn new(compactor_handler: Arc<I>) -> Self {
+        Self { compactor_handler }
+    }
+
+    /// Routes `req` to the appropriate handler, if any, returning the handler
+    /// response.
+    pub fn route(&self, _req: Request<Body>) -> Result<Response<Body>, Error> {
+        unimplemented!()
+    }
+}
diff --git a/influxdb_iox/Cargo.toml b/influxdb_iox/Cargo.toml
index dde32fec3d..d25c8b3aa4 100644
--- a/influxdb_iox/Cargo.toml
+++ b/influxdb_iox/Cargo.toml
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ default-run = "influxdb_iox"
 
 [dependencies]
 # Workspace dependencies, in alphabetical order
+compactor = { path = "../compactor" }
 data_types = { path = "../data_types" }
 datafusion = { path = "../datafusion" }
 db = { path = "../db" }
diff --git a/influxdb_iox/src/commands/run/compactor.rs b/influxdb_iox/src/commands/run/compactor.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6a5dda5ad1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/influxdb_iox/src/commands/run/compactor.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,87 @@
+//! Implementation of command line option for running the compactor
+
+use compactor::{
+    handler::CompactorHandlerImpl,
+    server::{grpc::GrpcDelegate, http::HttpDelegate, CompactorServer},
+};
+use object_store::ObjectStore;
+use observability_deps::tracing::*;
+use std::sync::Arc;
+use thiserror::Error;
+
+use crate::{
+    clap_blocks::{catalog_dsn::CatalogDsnConfig, run_config::RunConfig},
+    influxdb_ioxd::{
+        self,
+        server_type::common_state::{CommonServerState, CommonServerStateError},
+        server_type::compactor::CompactorServerType,
+    },
+};
+
+#[derive(Debug, Error)]
+pub enum Error {
+    #[error("Run: {0}")]
+    Run(#[from] influxdb_ioxd::Error),
+
+    #[error("Invalid config: {0}")]
+    InvalidConfig(#[from] CommonServerStateError),
+
+    #[error("Catalog error: {0}")]
+    Catalog(#[from] iox_catalog::interface::Error),
+
+    #[error("Catalog DSN error: {0}")]
+    CatalogDsn(#[from] crate::clap_blocks::catalog_dsn::Error),
+
+    #[error("Cannot parse object store config: {0}")]
+    ObjectStoreParsing(#[from] crate::clap_blocks::object_store::ParseError),
+}
+
+#[derive(Debug, clap::Parser)]
+#[clap(
+    name = "run",
+    about = "Runs in compactor mode",
+    long_about = "Run the IOx compactor server.\n\nThe configuration options below can be \
+    set either with the command line flags or with the specified environment \
+    variable. If there is a file named '.env' in the current working directory, \
+    it is sourced before loading the configuration.
+
+Configuration is loaded from the following sources (highest precedence first):
+        - command line arguments
+        - user set environment variables
+        - .env file contents
+        - pre-configured default values"
+)]
+pub struct Config {
+    #[clap(flatten)]
+    pub(crate) run_config: RunConfig,
+
+    #[clap(flatten)]
+    pub(crate) catalog_dsn: CatalogDsnConfig,
+}
+
+pub async fn command(config: Config) -> Result<(), Error> {
+    let common_state = CommonServerState::from_config(config.run_config.clone())?;
+
+    let catalog = config.catalog_dsn.get_catalog("compactor").await?;
+
+    let metric_registry: Arc<metric::Registry> = Default::default();
+
+    let object_store = Arc::new(
+        ObjectStore::try_from(&config.run_config.object_store_config)
+            .map_err(Error::ObjectStoreParsing)?,
+    );
+    let compactor_handler = Arc::new(CompactorHandlerImpl::new(
+        catalog,
+        object_store,
+        &metric_registry,
+    ));
+    let http = HttpDelegate::new(Arc::clone(&compactor_handler));
+    let grpc = GrpcDelegate::new(Arc::clone(&compactor_handler));
+
+    let compactor = CompactorServer::new(metric_registry, http, grpc, compactor_handler);
+    let server_type = Arc::new(CompactorServerType::new(compactor, &common_state));
+
+    info!("starting compactor");
+
+    Ok(influxdb_ioxd::main(common_state, server_type).await?)
+}
diff --git a/influxdb_iox/src/commands/run/mod.rs b/influxdb_iox/src/commands/run/mod.rs
index 68882ce6d9..cfaf51022e 100644
--- a/influxdb_iox/src/commands/run/mod.rs
+++ b/influxdb_iox/src/commands/run/mod.rs
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ use snafu::{ResultExt, Snafu};
 
 use crate::clap_blocks::run_config::RunConfig;
 
+pub mod compactor;
 pub mod database;
 pub mod ingester;
 pub mod router;
@@ -11,6 +12,9 @@ pub mod test;
 #[derive(Debug, Snafu)]
 #[allow(clippy::enum_variant_names)]
 pub enum Error {
+    #[snafu(display("Error in compactor subcommand: {}", source))]
+    CompactorError { source: compactor::Error },
+
     #[snafu(display("Error in database subcommand: {}", source))]
     DatabaseError { source: database::Error },
 
@@ -44,6 +48,7 @@ impl Config {
     pub fn run_config(&self) -> &RunConfig {
         match &self.command {
             None => &self.database_config.run_config,
+            Some(Command::Compactor(config)) => &config.run_config,
             Some(Command::Database(config)) => &config.run_config,
             Some(Command::Router(config)) => &config.run_config,
             Some(Command::Router2(config)) => &config.run_config,
@@ -55,6 +60,9 @@ impl Config {
 
 #[derive(Debug, clap::Parser)]
 enum Command {
+    /// Run the server in compactor mode
+    Compactor(compactor::Config),
+
     /// Run the server in database mode
     Database(database::Config),
 
@@ -81,6 +89,9 @@ pub async fn command(config: Config) -> Result<()> {
                 .await
                 .context(DatabaseSnafu)
         }
+        Some(Command::Compactor(config)) => {
+            compactor::command(config).await.context(CompactorSnafu)
+        }
         Some(Command::Database(config)) => database::command(config).await.context(DatabaseSnafu),
         Some(Command::Router(config)) => router::command(config).await.context(RouterSnafu),
         Some(Command::Router2(config)) => router2::command(config).await.context(Router2Snafu),
diff --git a/influxdb_iox/src/influxdb_ioxd/server_type/compactor.rs b/influxdb_iox/src/influxdb_ioxd/server_type/compactor.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7eb15ce7f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/influxdb_iox/src/influxdb_ioxd/server_type/compactor.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+use std::{
+    fmt::{Debug, Display},
+    sync::Arc,
+};
+
+use async_trait::async_trait;
+use compactor::{handler::CompactorHandler, server::CompactorServer};
+use hyper::{Body, Request, Response};
+use metric::Registry;
+use trace::TraceCollector;
+
+use crate::influxdb_ioxd::{
+    http::error::{HttpApiError, HttpApiErrorCode, HttpApiErrorSource},
+    rpc::{add_service, serve_builder, setup_builder, RpcBuilderInput},
+    server_type::{common_state::CommonServerState, RpcError, ServerType},
+};
+
+#[derive(Debug)]
+pub struct CompactorServerType<C: CompactorHandler> {
+    server: CompactorServer<C>,
+    trace_collector: Option<Arc<dyn TraceCollector>>,
+}
+
+impl<C: CompactorHandler> CompactorServerType<C> {
+    pub fn new(server: CompactorServer<C>, common_state: &CommonServerState) -> Self {
+        Self {
+            server,
+            trace_collector: common_state.trace_collector(),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+#[async_trait]
+impl<C: CompactorHandler + std::fmt::Debug + 'static> ServerType for CompactorServerType<C> {
+    type RouteError = IoxHttpError;
+
+    /// Return the [`metric::Registry`] used by the compactor.
+    fn metric_registry(&self) -> Arc<Registry> {
+        self.server.metric_registry()
+    }
+
+    /// Returns the trace collector for compactor traces.
+    fn trace_collector(&self) -> Option<Arc<dyn TraceCollector>> {
+        self.trace_collector.as_ref().map(Arc::clone)
+    }
+
+    /// Just return "not found".
+    async fn route_http_request(
+        &self,
+        _req: Request<Body>,
+    ) -> Result<Response<Body>, Self::RouteError> {
+        Err(IoxHttpError::NotFound)
+    }
+
+    /// Provide a placeholder gRPC service.
+    async fn server_grpc(self: Arc<Self>, builder_input: RpcBuilderInput) -> Result<(), RpcError> {
+        let builder = setup_builder!(builder_input, self);
+        serve_builder!(builder);
+
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
+    async fn join(self: Arc<Self>) {
+        self.server.join().await;
+    }
+
+    fn shutdown(&self) {
+        self.server.shutdown();
+    }
+}
+
+/// Simple error struct, we're not really providing an HTTP interface for the compactor.
+#[derive(Debug)]
+pub enum IoxHttpError {
+    NotFound,
+}
+
+impl IoxHttpError {
+    fn status_code(&self) -> HttpApiErrorCode {
+        match self {
+            IoxHttpError::NotFound => HttpApiErrorCode::NotFound,
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+impl Display for IoxHttpError {
+    fn fmt(&self, f: &mut std::fmt::Formatter<'_>) -> std::fmt::Result {
+        write!(f, "{:?}", self)
+    }
+}
+
+impl std::error::Error for IoxHttpError {}
+
+impl HttpApiErrorSource for IoxHttpError {
+    fn to_http_api_error(&self) -> HttpApiError {
+        HttpApiError::new(self.status_code(), self.to_string())
+    }
+}
diff --git a/influxdb_iox/src/influxdb_ioxd/server_type/mod.rs b/influxdb_iox/src/influxdb_ioxd/server_type/mod.rs
index 59da6bf504..b3f0cee1e7 100644
--- a/influxdb_iox/src/influxdb_ioxd/server_type/mod.rs
+++ b/influxdb_iox/src/influxdb_ioxd/server_type/mod.rs
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ use trace::TraceCollector;
 use crate::influxdb_ioxd::{http::error::HttpApiErrorSource, rpc::RpcBuilderInput};
 
 pub mod common_state;
+pub mod compactor;
 pub mod database;
 pub mod ingester;
 pub mod router;