diff --git a/mfr/__init__.py b/mfr/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e69de29b
diff --git a/mfr/tasks/__init__.py b/mfr/tasks/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b28aa8c6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mfr/tasks/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+from mfr.tasks.app import app
+from mfr.tasks.render import render
+from mfr.tasks.core import celery_task
+from mfr.tasks.core import backgrounded
+from mfr.tasks.core import wait_on_celery
+from mfr.tasks.exceptions import WaitTimeOutError
+
+__all__ = [
+    'app',
+    'render',
+    'celery_task',
+    'backgrounded',
+    'wait_on_celery',
+    'WaitTimeOutError',
+]
diff --git a/mfr/tasks/app.py b/mfr/tasks/app.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4ad3321b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mfr/tasks/app.py
@@ -0,0 +1,44 @@
+import logging
+
+from celery import Celery
+from celery.signals import task_failure
+
+import sentry_sdk
+from sentry_sdk.integrations.celery import CeleryIntegration
+from sentry_sdk.integrations.logging import LoggingIntegration
+
+from mfr.settings import config
+from mfr.version import __version__
+from mfr.tasks import settings as tasks_settings
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+app = Celery()
+app.config_from_object(tasks_settings)
+
+
+def register_signal():
+    """Adapted from `raven.contrib.celery.register_signal`. Remove args and
+    kwargs from logs so that keys aren't leaked to Sentry.
+    """
+    def process_failure_signal(sender, task_id, *args, **kwargs):
+        scope = sentry_sdk.get_current_scope()
+        scope.set_tag('task_id', task_id)
+        scope.set_tag('task', sender)
+        sentry_sdk.capture_exception()
+
+    task_failure.connect(process_failure_signal, weak=False)
+
+
+sentry_dsn = config.get_nullable('SENTRY_DSN', None)
+if sentry_dsn:
+    sentry_logging = LoggingIntegration(
+        level=logging.INFO,  # Capture INFO level and above as breadcrumbs
+        event_level=None,   # Do not send logs of any level as events
+    )
+    sentry_sdk.init(
+        sentry_dsn,
+        release=__version__,
+        integrations=[CeleryIntegration(), sentry_logging]
+    )
+    register_signal()
diff --git a/mfr/tasks/core.py b/mfr/tasks/core.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..59a6342a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mfr/tasks/core.py
@@ -0,0 +1,135 @@
+import os
+import pickle
+import asyncio
+import logging
+import functools
+
+from celery.backends.base import DisabledBackend
+
+from mfr.tasks.app import app
+from mfr.tasks import settings
+from mfr.tasks import exceptions
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+def ensure_event_loop():
+    """Ensure the existance of an eventloop
+    Useful for contexts where get_event_loop() may
+    raise an exception.
+    :returns: The new event loop
+    :rtype: BaseEventLoop
+    """
+    try:
+        return asyncio.get_event_loop()
+    except (AssertionError, RuntimeError):
+        asyncio.set_event_loop(asyncio.new_event_loop())
+
+    # Note: No clever tricks are used here to dry up code
+    # This avoids an infinite loop if settings the event loop ever fails
+    return asyncio.get_event_loop()
+
+
+def __coroutine_unwrapper(func):
+    @functools.wraps(func)
+    def wrapped(*args, **kwargs):
+        return ensure_event_loop().run_until_complete(func(*args, **kwargs))
+    wrapped.as_async = func
+    return wrapped
+
+
+async def backgrounded(func, *args, **kwargs):
+    """Runs the given function with the given arguments in
+    a background thread
+    """
+    loop = asyncio.get_event_loop()
+    if asyncio.iscoroutinefunction(func):
+        func = __coroutine_unwrapper(func)
+
+    return (await loop.run_in_executor(
+        None,  # None uses the default executer, ThreadPoolExecuter
+        functools.partial(func, *args, **kwargs)
+    ))
+
+
+def backgroundify(func):
+    @functools.wraps(func)
+    async def wrapped(*args, **kwargs):
+        return await backgrounded(func, *args, **kwargs)
+    return wrapped
+
+
+def adhoc_file_backend(func, was_bound=False, basepath=None):
+    basepath = basepath or settings.ADHOC_BACKEND_PATH
+
+    @functools.wraps(func)
+    def wrapped(task, *args, **kwargs):
+        if was_bound:
+            args = (task,) + args
+
+        try:
+            result = func(*args, **kwargs)
+        except Exception as e:
+            result = e
+
+        with open(os.path.join(basepath, task.request.id), 'wb') as result_file:
+            pickle.dump(result, result_file)
+
+        if isinstance(result, Exception):
+            raise result
+        return result
+    return wrapped
+
+
+def celery_task(func, *args, **kwargs):
+    """A wrapper around Celery.task. When the wrapped method is called it will be called using
+    Celery's Task.delay function and run in a background thread.
+
+    If the celery backend is disabled, the task will be wrapped in a function that will write the
+    result to disk using the pickle serialization protocol.
+    """
+    task_func = __coroutine_unwrapper(func)
+
+    if isinstance(app.backend, DisabledBackend):
+        task_func = adhoc_file_backend(
+            task_func,
+            was_bound=kwargs.pop('bind', False)
+        )
+        kwargs['bind'] = True
+
+    logger.debug(f'celery_task: task_func:({task_func})')
+
+    task = app.task(task_func, **kwargs)
+    task.adelay = backgroundify(task.delay)
+
+    return task
+
+
+@backgroundify
+async def wait_on_celery(result, interval=None, timeout=None, basepath=None):
+    timeout = timeout or settings.WAIT_TIMEOUT
+    interval = interval or settings.WAIT_INTERVAL
+    basepath = basepath or settings.ADHOC_BACKEND_PATH
+
+    waited = 0
+
+    while True:
+        if isinstance(app.backend, DisabledBackend):
+            try:
+                with open(os.path.join(basepath, result.id), 'rb') as result_file:
+                    data = pickle.load(result_file)
+                if isinstance(data, Exception):
+                    raise data
+                return data
+            except FileNotFoundError:
+                pass
+        else:
+            if result.ready():
+                if result.failed():
+                    raise result.result
+                return result.result
+
+        if waited > timeout:
+            raise exceptions.WaitTimeOutError
+        await asyncio.sleep(interval)
+        waited += interval
diff --git a/mfr/tasks/exceptions.py b/mfr/tasks/exceptions.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..46ddb8f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mfr/tasks/exceptions.py
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+class MfrTaskError(Exception):
+    pass
+
+
+class WaitTimeOutError(MfrTaskError):
+    pass
diff --git a/mfr/tasks/render.py b/mfr/tasks/render.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0bcbd125
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mfr/tasks/render.py
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+import logging
+
+from mfr.tasks import core
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+@core.celery_task
+async def render(*args, **kwargs):
+    logger.critical(f'Received task with {args=} and {kwargs=}')
diff --git a/mfr/tasks/settings.py b/mfr/tasks/settings.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..dfdc0ad8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mfr/tasks/settings.py
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+import os
+
+from kombu import Queue, Exchange
+
+from mfr import settings
+
+
+config = settings.child('TASKS_CONFIG')
+
+WAIT_TIMEOUT = int(config.get('WAIT_TIMEOUT', 20))
+WAIT_INTERVAL = float(config.get('WAIT_INTERVAL', 0.5))
+ADHOC_BACKEND_PATH = config.get('ADHOC_BACKEND_PATH', '/tmp')
+
+broker_url = config.get(
+    'BROKER_URL',
+    'amqp://{}:{}//'.format(
+        os.environ.get('RABBITMQ_PORT_5672_TCP_ADDR', ''),
+        os.environ.get('RABBITMQ_PORT_5672_TCP_PORT', ''),
+    )
+)
+
+task_default_queue = config.get('CELERY_DEFAULT_QUEUE', 'mfr')
+task_queues = (
+    Queue('mfr', Exchange('mfr'), routing_key='mfr'),
+)
+
+task_always_eager = config.get_bool('CELERY_ALWAYS_EAGER', False)
+result_backend = config.get_nullable('CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND', 'rpc://')
+result_persistent = config.get_bool('CELERY_RESULT_PERSISTENT', True)
+worker_disable_rate_limits = config.get_bool('CELERY_DISABLE_RATE_LIMITS', True)
+result_expires = int(config.get('CELERY_TASK_RESULT_EXPIRES', 60))
+task_create_missing_queues = config.get_bool('CELERY_CREATE_MISSING_QUEUES', False)
+task_acks_late = True
+worker_hijack_root_logger = False
+task_eager_propagates = True
+
+imports = [
+    'mfr.tasks.render',
+]
diff --git a/poetry.lock b/poetry.lock
index f1a95e34..a61ec2c4 100644
--- a/poetry.lock
+++ b/poetry.lock
@@ -4129,7 +4129,7 @@ yarl = "1.17.0"
 type = "git"
 url = "https://github.com/CenterForOpenScience/waterbutler.git"
 reference = "feature/buff-worms"
-resolved_reference = "85e5aebe9c72768820a0367101db5cf9fc361dfd"
+resolved_reference = "75d049732ff161a3e3979b7aac67ce922e56d47f"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "wcwidth"
@@ -4452,4 +4452,4 @@ propcache = ">=0.2.0"
 [metadata]
 lock-version = "2.1"
 python-versions = "^3.13"
-content-hash = "a1bb6d0d549dccb62b77695b28a912d67e8a45ed48f0ff83d46cc5289d67b54a"
+content-hash = "c72ab4a656dbde2aad8f98b0aa39d0ebb04b8b4f097c3060bbac98ae670c71dc"
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index d68b3b45..f8c158da 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ openpyxl = "^3.1"
 
 waterbutler = { git = "https://github.com/CenterForOpenScience/waterbutler.git", branch = "feature/buff-worms" }
 markupsafe = "2.0.1"
+celery = "5.5.0"
 
 [tool.poetry.group.dev]
 optional = true
diff --git a/tasks.py b/tasks.py
index 4860de4d..f4f7c2af 100644
--- a/tasks.py
+++ b/tasks.py
@@ -58,3 +58,15 @@ def server(ctx):
 
     from mfr.server.app import serve
     serve()
+
+@task
+def celery(ctx, loglevel='INFO', hostname='%h', concurrency=None):
+    from mfr.tasks.app import app
+    command = ['worker']
+    if loglevel:
+        command.extend(['--loglevel', loglevel])
+    if hostname:
+        command.extend(['--hostname', hostname])
+    if concurrency:
+        command.extend(['--concurrency', concurrency])
+    app.worker_main(command)