diff --git a/.coveragerc b/.coveragerc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..ca333961f3b46f482374b2a96e64183b660b0332
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.coveragerc
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+[run]
+branch = True
+parallel = True
+source = synapse
+
+[paths]
+source=
+   coverage
+
+[report]
+precision = 2
+ignore_errors = True
diff --git a/MANIFEST.in b/MANIFEST.in
index 25cdf0a61bd69273d8c902fad3b58d78578bd55f..d0e49713daeca8123eacfad8428090fe4cf71cd8 100644
--- a/MANIFEST.in
+++ b/MANIFEST.in
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ prune .github
 prune demo/etc
 prune docker
 prune .circleci
+prune .coveragerc
 
 exclude jenkins*
 recursive-exclude jenkins *.sh
diff --git a/changelog.d/4180.misc b/changelog.d/4180.misc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..80194b3dc0972c6919a412729aca223ccabf16ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/4180.misc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+A coveragerc file, as well as the py36-coverage tox target, have been added.
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 03ddaeb0b71b1bddabaa28abdcd8d72c475402b8..dfd9afdd495dcd31a3a7f535198727d0dbd2d15d 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ usedevelop=true
 usedevelop=true
 deps =
     {[base]deps}
-     psycopg2
+    psycopg2
 setenv =
     {[base]setenv}
     SYNAPSE_POSTGRES = 1
@@ -101,11 +101,22 @@ usedevelop=true
 [testenv:py36]
 usedevelop=true
 
+
+[testenv:py36-coverage]
+usedevelop=true
+deps =
+    {[base]deps}
+    coverage
+commands =
+    /usr/bin/find "{toxinidir}" -name '*.pyc' -delete
+    python -m coverage run -m twisted.trial {env:TRIAL_FLAGS:} {posargs:tests} {env:TOXSUFFIX:}
+
+
 [testenv:py36-postgres]
 usedevelop=true
 deps =
     {[base]deps}
-     psycopg2
+    psycopg2
 setenv =
     {[base]setenv}
     SYNAPSE_POSTGRES = 1