diff --git a/build.sh b/build.sh
index bfb679b0..6f605797 100755
--- a/build.sh
+++ b/build.sh
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 cflags+="-Wall -O3 -g -std=gnu11 -fno-strict-aliasing -Isrc -Ilib/font_renderer"
 cflags+=" $(pkg-config --cflags lua5.2) $(sdl2-config --cflags)"
 lflags="-static-libgcc -static-libstdc++"
-for package in libagg freetype2 lua5.2 x11; do
+for package in libagg freetype2 lua5.2 x11 libpcre2-8; do
   lflags+=" $(pkg-config --libs $package)"
 done
 lflags+=" $(sdl2-config --libs) -lm"
diff --git a/data/core/init.lua b/data/core/init.lua
index 8d4d84c3..1db71164 100644
--- a/data/core/init.lua
+++ b/data/core/init.lua
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 require "core.strict"
+require "core.regex"
 local common = require "core.common"
 local config = require "core.config"
 local style = require "core.style"
diff --git a/data/core/regex.lua b/data/core/regex.lua
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a8873a5f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/data/core/regex.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+
+-- So that in addition to regex.gsub(pattern, string), we can also do pattern:gsub(string).
+regex.__index = function(table, key) return regex[key]; end
+
+regex.match = function(pattern_string, string)
+  local pattern = type(pattern_string) == "userdata" and pattern_string or regex.compile(pattern_string)
+  return regex.cmatch(pattern, string)
+end
+
+-- Build off matching. For now, only support basic replacements, but capture groupings should be doable.
+-- We can even have custom group replacements and transformations and stuff in lua.
+regex.gsub = function(pattern_string, string, replacement)
+  local pattern = type(pattern_string) == "userdata" and pattern_string or regex.compile(pattern_string)
+  local offset, result, str, indices = 0, "", string
+  repeat
+    str = str:sub(offset)
+    indices = { regex.cmatch(pattern, str) }
+    if #indices > 0 then
+      result = result .. str:sub(offset, indices[1] - 1) .. replacement
+      offset = indices[2]
+    end
+  until #indices == 0 or indices[1] == indices[2]
+  return result .. str:sub(offset - 1)
+end
+
diff --git a/src/api/api.c b/src/api/api.c
index 34067a9c..5ea2e782 100644
--- a/src/api/api.c
+++ b/src/api/api.c
@@ -3,11 +3,13 @@
 
 int luaopen_system(lua_State *L);
 int luaopen_renderer(lua_State *L);
+int luaopen_regex(lua_State *L);
 
 
 static const luaL_Reg libs[] = {
   { "system",    luaopen_system     },
   { "renderer",  luaopen_renderer   },
+  { "regex",     luaopen_regex   },
   { NULL, NULL }
 };
 
diff --git a/src/api/regex.c b/src/api/regex.c
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0392d783
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/api/regex.c
@@ -0,0 +1,79 @@
+#include "api.h"
+
+#define PCRE2_CODE_UNIT_WIDTH 8
+
+#include <string.h>
+#include <pcre2.h>
+
+static int f_pcre_gc(lua_State* L) {
+  lua_rawgeti(L, -1, 1);
+  pcre2_code* re = (pcre2_code*)lua_touserdata(L, -1);
+  if (re)
+    pcre2_code_free(re);
+  return 0;
+}
+
+static int f_pcre_compile(lua_State *L) {
+  size_t len;
+  PCRE2_SIZE errorOffset;
+  int errorNumber;
+  const char* str = luaL_checklstring(L, -1, &len);
+  pcre2_code* re = pcre2_compile((PCRE2_SPTR)str, len, 0, &errorNumber, &errorOffset, NULL);
+  if (re) {
+    lua_newtable(L);
+    lua_pushlightuserdata(L, re);
+    lua_rawseti(L, -2, 1);
+    lua_getfield(L, LUA_REGISTRYINDEX, "regex");
+    lua_setmetatable(L, -2);
+    return 1;
+  }
+  PCRE2_UCHAR buffer[256];
+  pcre2_get_error_message(errorNumber, buffer, sizeof(buffer));
+  luaL_error(L, "regex compilation failed at offset %d: %s", (int)errorOffset, buffer);
+  return 0;
+}
+
+// Takes string, compiled regex, returns list of indices of matched groups (including the whole match), if a match was found.
+static int f_pcre_match(lua_State *L) {
+  size_t len;
+  const char* str = luaL_checklstring(L, -1, &len);
+  luaL_checktype(L, -2, LUA_TTABLE);
+  lua_rawgeti(L, -2, 1);
+  pcre2_code* re = (pcre2_code*)lua_touserdata(L, -1);
+  pcre2_match_data* match_data = pcre2_match_data_create_from_pattern(re, NULL);
+  int rc = pcre2_match(re, (PCRE2_SPTR)str, len, 0, 0, match_data, NULL);
+  if (rc < 0) {
+    pcre2_match_data_free(match_data);
+    if (rc != PCRE2_ERROR_NOMATCH)
+      luaL_error(L, "regex matching error %d", rc);
+    return 0;
+  }
+  PCRE2_SIZE* ovector = pcre2_get_ovector_pointer(match_data);
+  if (ovector[0] > ovector[1]) {
+    /* We must guard against patterns such as /(?=.\K)/ that use \K in an assertion
+    to set the start of a match later than its end. In the editor, we just detect this case and give up. */
+    luaL_error(L, "regex matching error: \\K was used in an assertion to set the match start after its end"); 
+    pcre2_match_data_free(match_data);
+    return 0;
+  }
+  for (int i = 0; i < rc*2; i++)
+    lua_pushnumber(L, ovector[i]+1);
+  pcre2_match_data_free(match_data);
+  return rc*2;
+}
+
+static const luaL_Reg lib[] = {
+  { "compile",  f_pcre_compile },
+  { "cmatch",   f_pcre_match },
+  { "__gc",     f_pcre_gc },
+  { NULL,       NULL }
+};
+
+int luaopen_regex(lua_State *L) {
+  luaL_newlib(L, lib);
+  lua_pushliteral(L, "regex");
+  lua_setfield(L, -2, "__name");
+  lua_pushvalue(L, -1);
+  lua_setfield(L, LUA_REGISTRYINDEX, "regex");
+  return 1;
+}