diff --git a/compositor/WindowManager.vala b/compositor/WindowManager.vala
index 791805a5..83ef3e90 100644
--- a/compositor/WindowManager.vala
+++ b/compositor/WindowManager.vala
@@ -208,6 +208,7 @@ namespace GreeterCompositor {
 
             Idle.add (() => {
                 // let the session manager move to the next phase
+                Systemd.Daemon.notify (true, "READY=1");
                 display.get_context ().notify_ready ();
                 ShellClientsManager.init (this);
 
diff --git a/compositor/meson.build b/compositor/meson.build
index e8453310..f2f188c2 100644
--- a/compositor/meson.build
+++ b/compositor/meson.build
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ gtk_dep = [dependency('gtk+-3.0'), dependency('gdk-x11-3.0')]
 gee_dep = dependency('gee-0.8')
 m_dep = meson.get_compiler('c').find_library('m', required: false)
 posix_dep = meson.get_compiler('vala').find_library('posix', required: false)
+systemd_dep = dependency('libsystemd')
 
 # Mutter is a complicated library with many API changes, copied from Gala.
 mutter_dep = []
@@ -133,7 +134,7 @@ executable(
   meson.project_name()+'-compositor',
   compositor_files,
   config_header,
-  dependencies: [glib_dep, gtk_dep, gee_dep, m_dep, posix_dep, mutter_dep, gnome_desktop_dep, pantheon_desktop_shell_dep],
+  dependencies: [glib_dep, gtk_dep, gee_dep, m_dep, posix_dep, mutter_dep, systemd_dep, gnome_desktop_dep, pantheon_desktop_shell_dep],
   vala_args: vala_flags,
   c_args: compositor_c_args,
   build_rpath: mutter_typelib_dir,
diff --git a/vapi/libsystemd.vapi b/vapi/libsystemd.vapi
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..54bc3a68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/vapi/libsystemd.vapi
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+[CCode (cheader_filename = "systemd/sd-daemon.h")]
+namespace Systemd.Daemon {
+    [CCode (cname="sd_notify")]
+    int notify([CCode (type="int")]bool unset_environment, string state);
+
+    [CCode (cname="sd_notifyf")]
+    int notifyf([CCode (type="int")]bool unset_environment, string format, ...);
+
+    [CCode (cname="sd_pid_notify")]
+    int pid_notify(Posix.pid_t pid, [CCode (type="int")]bool unset_environment, string state);
+
+    [CCode (cname="sd_pid_notifyf")]
+    int pid_notifyf(Posix.pid_t pid, [CCode (type="int")]bool unset_environment, string format, ...);
+
+    [CCode (cname="sd_pid_notify_with_fds")]
+    int pid_notify_with_fds(Posix.pid_t pid, [CCode (type="int")]bool unset_environment, string state, int[] fds);
+}
+