diff --git a/lib/directories.zsh b/lib/directories.zsh
index b3a478d47..1896945f4 100644
--- a/lib/directories.zsh
+++ b/lib/directories.zsh
@@ -30,6 +30,9 @@ cd () {
     cd ../../../..
   elif [[ "x$*" == "x......" ]]; then
     cd ../../../../..
+  elif [ -d ~/.autoenv ]; then
+    source ~/.autoenv/activate.sh
+    autoenv_cd "$@"
   else
     builtin cd "$@"
   fi
diff --git a/plugins/autoenv/autoenv.plugin.zsh b/plugins/autoenv/autoenv.plugin.zsh
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..ca5666979
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/autoenv/autoenv.plugin.zsh
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# The use_env call below is a reusable command to activate/create a new Python
+# virtualenv, requiring only a single declarative line of code in your .env files.
+# It only performs an action if the requested virtualenv is not the current one.
+use_env() {
+    typeset venv
+    venv="$1"
+    if [[ "${VIRTUAL_ENV:t}" != "$venv" ]]; then
+        if workon | grep -q "$venv"; then
+            workon "$venv"
+        else
+            echo -n "Create virtualenv $venv now? (Yn) "
+            read answer
+            if [[ "$answer" == "Y" ]]; then
+                mkvirtualenv "$venv"
+            fi
+        fi
+    fi
+}