diff --git a/contributing/streaming/README.md b/contributing/streaming/README.md
index 400b0b680b..ef56bcc0ae 100644
--- a/contributing/streaming/README.md
+++ b/contributing/streaming/README.md
@@ -8,6 +8,8 @@ sends events as they occur, and the client maintains a materialized view of the
 At the time of writing only the service health endpoint uses streaming, but more endpoints
 will be added in the future.
 
+See [adding a topic](./adding-a-topic.md) for a guide on adding new topics to streaming.
+
 ## Overview
 
 The diagram below shows the components that are used in streaming, and how they fit into
diff --git a/contributing/streaming/adding-a-topic.md b/contributing/streaming/adding-a-topic.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..7f474c1f4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/contributing/streaming/adding-a-topic.md
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+
+# Adding a new topic to streaming
+
+This document is a guide for adding a new streaming topic.
+
+1. Add the name of the topic to the [proto/pbsubscribe/subscribe.proto Topic enum][1].
+   Run `make proto` to generate the Go code from the protobuf.
+2. Add a `FromChanges` function to the list of change functions in
+   [agent/consul/state.processDBChanges][2]. The `FromChanges` function should examine the
+   list of `Changes` and return a list of events that subscriptions would need to update
+   their view.
+3. Add a snapshot function to [agent/consul/state.newSnapshotHandlers][3]. The snapshot
+   function should produce a set of events to create the initial state of the view.
+   Generally these are all "create" events.
+4. Add a new `Payload` type, similar to [agent/consul/state.EventPayloadCheckServiceNode][6].
+   This type will be used in the `Payload` field of the event.
+5. Create the protobuf for the payload, and add the `Payload` type to the `oneof` in
+   [proto/pbsubscrube/subscribe.proto Event.Payload][7]. This may require creating other
+   protobuf types as well, to encode anything in the payload. Run `make proto` to generate
+   the Go code from the protobuf.
+6. Add another case to [agent/rpc/subscribe.setPayload][8] to convert from the Payload
+   type in `state`, to the protobuf type. This may require either writing or generating a
+   function to convert between the types.
+7. Add a new cache-type that uses [agent/submatview.Materializer][4] similar to
+   [agent/cache-types/streaming_health_services.go][5].
+
+
+[1]: https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/blob/v1.9.4/proto/pbsubscribe/subscribe.proto#L37-L45
+[2]: https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/blob/v1.9.4/agent/consul/state/memdb.go#L188-L192
+[3]: https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/blob/v1.9.4/agent/consul/state/memdb.go#L205-L209
+[4]: https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/blob/v1.9.4/agent/submatview/materializer.go#L76
+[5]: https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/blob/v1.9.4/agent/cache-types/streaming_health_services.go
+[6]: https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/blob/v1.9.4/agent/consul/state/catalog_events.go#L12-L46
+[7]: https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/blob/v1.9.4/proto/pbsubscribe/subscribe.proto#L95-L117
+[8]: https://github.com/hashicorp/consul/blob/v1.9.4/agent/rpc/subscribe/subscribe.go#L161-L168