diff --git a/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/etl/Context.java b/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/etl/Context.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..72562818
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/etl/Context.java
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.sqoop.job.etl;
+
+/**
+ * The context for getting configuration values.
+ */
+public interface Context {
+
+  public String getString(String key);
+
+}
diff --git a/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/etl/MutableContext.java b/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/etl/MutableContext.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c321d749
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/etl/MutableContext.java
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.sqoop.job.etl;
+
+/**
+ * The context for getting and setting configuration values.
+ */
+public interface MutableContext extends Context {
+
+  public void setString(String key, String value);
+
+  public void setFieldNames(String[] names);
+
+}
diff --git a/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/etl/Partition.java b/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/etl/Partition.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a90d98ba
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/etl/Partition.java
@@ -0,0 +1,38 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.sqoop.job.etl;
+
+import java.io.DataInput;
+import java.io.DataOutput;
+
+/**
+ * A part of the input data partitioned by the Partitioner.
+ */
+public interface Partition {
+
+  /**
+   * Deserialize the fields of this partition from input.
+   */
+  public void readFields(DataInput in);
+
+  /**
+   * Serialize the fields of this partition to output.
+   */
+  public void write(DataOutput out);
+
+}
diff --git a/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/io/DataReader.java b/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/io/DataReader.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c7d1bb4e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/io/DataReader.java
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.sqoop.job.io;
+
+/**
+ * An intermediate layer for passing data from the MR framework
+ * to the ETL framework.
+ */
+public interface DataReader {
+
+}
diff --git a/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/io/DataWriter.java b/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/io/DataWriter.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..32786153
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spi/src/main/java/org/apache/sqoop/job/io/DataWriter.java
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+/**
+ * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+ * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+ * distributed with this work for additional information
+ * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+ * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+ * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+ * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+ *
+ *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+ *
+ * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+ * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+ * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+ * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+ * limitations under the License.
+ */
+package org.apache.sqoop.job.io;
+
+/**
+ * An intermediate layer for passing data from the ETL framework
+ * to the MR framework.
+ */
+public interface DataWriter {
+
+}