diff --git a/aos/realtime.h b/aos/realtime.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a6b4223
--- /dev/null
+++ b/aos/realtime.h
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+#ifndef AOS_REALTIME_H_
+#define AOS_REALTIME_H_
+
+#include <string>
+
+namespace aos {
+
+// Locks everything into memory and sets the limits.  This plus InitNRT are
+// everything you need to do before SetCurrentThreadRealtimePriority will make
+// your thread RT.  Called as part of ShmEventLoop::Run()
+void InitRT();
+
+// Sets the current thread back down to non-realtime priority.
+void UnsetCurrentThreadRealtimePriority();
+
+// Sets the name of the current thread.
+// This will displayed by `top -H`, dump_rtprio, and show up in logs.
+// name can have a maximum of 16 characters.
+void SetCurrentThreadName(const ::std::string &name);
+
+// Sets the current thread's realtime priority.
+void SetCurrentThreadRealtimePriority(int priority);
+
+// Sets up this process to write core dump files.
+// This is called by Init*, but it's here for other files that want this
+// behavior without calling Init*.
+void WriteCoreDumps();
+
+void LockAllMemory();
+
+}  // namespace aos
+
+#endif  // AOS_REALTIME_H_