diff --git a/src/api/load.js b/src/api/load.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f212c90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/api/load.js
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+// @flow
+
+import fs from "fs-extra";
+import path from "path";
+
+import {TaskReporter} from "../util/taskReporter";
+import {loadGraph} from "../plugins/github/loadGraph";
+import {
+  type TimelineCredParameters,
+  TimelineCred,
+} from "../analysis/timeline/timelineCred";
+
+import {DEFAULT_CRED_CONFIG} from "../plugins/defaultCredConfig";
+
+import {type Project} from "../core/project";
+import {setupProjectDirectory} from "../core/project_io";
+
+export type LoadOptions = {|
+  +project: Project,
+  +params: TimelineCredParameters,
+  +sourcecredDirectory: string,
+  +githubToken: string,
+|};
+
+/**
+ * Loads and computes cred for a project.
+ *
+ * Loads the combined Graph for the specified project, saves it to disk,
+ * and computes cred for it using the provided TimelineCredParameters.
+ *
+ * A project directory will be created for the given project within the
+ * provided sourcecredDirectory, using the APIs in core/project_io. Within this
+ * project directory, there will be a `cred.json` file containing filtered
+ * timeline cred, and a `graph.json` file containing the combined graph.
+ *
+ * In the future, we should consider splitting this into cleaner, more atomic
+ * APIs (e.g. one for loading the graph; another for computing cred).
+ */
+export async function load(
+  options: LoadOptions,
+  taskReporter: TaskReporter
+): Promise<void> {
+  const {project, params, sourcecredDirectory, githubToken} = options;
+  const loadTask = `load-${options.project.id}`;
+  taskReporter.start(loadTask);
+  const cacheDirectory = path.join(sourcecredDirectory, "cache");
+  await fs.mkdirp(cacheDirectory);
+
+  // future: support loading more plugins, and merging their graphs
+  const githubOptions = {
+    repoIds: project.repoIds,
+    token: githubToken,
+    cacheDirectory,
+  };
+  const graph = await loadGraph(githubOptions, taskReporter);
+
+  const projectDirectory = await setupProjectDirectory(
+    project,
+    sourcecredDirectory
+  );
+  const graphFile = path.join(projectDirectory, "graph.json");
+  await fs.writeFile(graphFile, JSON.stringify(graph.toJSON()));
+
+  taskReporter.start("compute-cred");
+  const cred = await TimelineCred.compute(graph, params, DEFAULT_CRED_CONFIG);
+  const credJSON = cred.toJSON();
+  const credFile = path.join(projectDirectory, "cred.json");
+  await fs.writeFile(credFile, JSON.stringify(credJSON));
+  taskReporter.finish("compute-cred");
+  taskReporter.finish(loadTask);
+}
diff --git a/src/api/load.test.js b/src/api/load.test.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b5ba502
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/api/load.test.js
@@ -0,0 +1,134 @@
+// @flow
+
+import deepFreeze from "deep-freeze";
+import tmp from "tmp";
+import path from "path";
+import fs from "fs-extra";
+
+import type {Options as LoadGraphOptions} from "../plugins/github/loadGraph";
+import type {Project} from "../core/project";
+import {
+  directoryForProjectId,
+  getProjectIds,
+  loadProject,
+} from "../core/project_io";
+import {makeRepoId} from "../core/repoId";
+import {defaultWeights} from "../analysis/weights";
+import {NodeAddress} from "../core/graph";
+import {TestTaskReporter} from "../util/taskReporter";
+import {load, type LoadOptions} from "./load";
+import {DEFAULT_CRED_CONFIG} from "../plugins/defaultCredConfig";
+
+type JestMockFn = $Call<typeof jest.fn>;
+jest.mock("../plugins/github/loadGraph", () => ({
+  loadGraph: jest.fn(),
+}));
+const loadGraph: JestMockFn = (require("../plugins/github/loadGraph")
+  .loadGraph: any);
+
+jest.mock("../analysis/timeline/timelineCred", () => ({
+  TimelineCred: {compute: jest.fn()},
+}));
+const timelineCredCompute: JestMockFn = (require("../analysis/timeline/timelineCred")
+  .TimelineCred.compute: any);
+
+describe("api/load", () => {
+  const fakeTimelineCred = deepFreeze({
+    toJSON: () => ({is: "fake-timeline-cred"}),
+  });
+  const fakeGraph = deepFreeze({toJSON: () => ({is: "fake-graph"})});
+  beforeEach(() => {
+    jest.clearAllMocks();
+    loadGraph.mockResolvedValue(fakeGraph);
+    timelineCredCompute.mockResolvedValue(fakeTimelineCred);
+  });
+  const project: Project = deepFreeze({
+    id: "foo",
+    repoIds: [makeRepoId("foo", "bar")],
+  });
+  const githubToken = "EXAMPLE_TOKEN";
+  const weights = defaultWeights();
+  // Tweaks the weights so that we can ensure we aren't overriding with default weights
+  weights.nodeManualWeights.set(NodeAddress.empty, 33);
+  // Deep freeze will freeze the weights, too
+  const params = deepFreeze({alpha: 0.05, intervalDecay: 0.5, weights});
+  const example = () => {
+    const sourcecredDirectory = tmp.dirSync().name;
+    const taskReporter = new TestTaskReporter();
+    const options: LoadOptions = {
+      sourcecredDirectory,
+      githubToken,
+      params,
+      project,
+    };
+    return {options, taskReporter, sourcecredDirectory};
+  };
+
+  it("sets up a project directory for the project", async () => {
+    const {options, taskReporter, sourcecredDirectory} = example();
+    await load(options, taskReporter);
+    expect(await getProjectIds(sourcecredDirectory)).toEqual([project.id]);
+    expect(await loadProject(project.id, sourcecredDirectory)).toEqual(project);
+  });
+
+  it("calls github loadGraph with the right options", async () => {
+    const {options, taskReporter, sourcecredDirectory} = example();
+    await load(options, taskReporter);
+    const cacheDirectory = path.join(sourcecredDirectory, "cache");
+    const expectedLoadGraphOptions: LoadGraphOptions = {
+      repoIds: project.repoIds,
+      token: githubToken,
+      cacheDirectory,
+    };
+    expect(loadGraph).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      expectedLoadGraphOptions,
+      taskReporter
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("saves the resultant graph to disk", async () => {
+    const {options, taskReporter, sourcecredDirectory} = example();
+    await load(options, taskReporter);
+    const projectDirectory = directoryForProjectId(
+      project.id,
+      sourcecredDirectory
+    );
+    const graphFile = path.join(projectDirectory, "graph.json");
+    const graphJSON = JSON.parse(await fs.readFile(graphFile));
+    expect(graphJSON).toEqual(fakeGraph.toJSON());
+  });
+
+  it("calls TimelineCred.compute with the right graph and options", async () => {
+    const {options, taskReporter} = example();
+    await load(options, taskReporter);
+    expect(timelineCredCompute).toHaveBeenCalledWith(
+      fakeGraph,
+      params,
+      DEFAULT_CRED_CONFIG
+    );
+  });
+
+  it("saves the resultant cred.json to disk", async () => {
+    const {options, taskReporter, sourcecredDirectory} = example();
+    await load(options, taskReporter);
+    const projectDirectory = directoryForProjectId(
+      project.id,
+      sourcecredDirectory
+    );
+    const credFile = path.join(projectDirectory, "cred.json");
+    const credJSON = JSON.parse(await fs.readFile(credFile));
+    expect(credJSON).toEqual(fakeTimelineCred.toJSON());
+  });
+
+  it("gives the right tasks to the TaskReporter", async () => {
+    const {options, taskReporter} = example();
+    await load(options, taskReporter);
+    expect(taskReporter.activeTasks()).toEqual([]);
+    expect(taskReporter.entries()).toEqual([
+      {type: "START", taskId: "load-foo"},
+      {type: "START", taskId: "compute-cred"},
+      {type: "FINISH", taskId: "compute-cred"},
+      {type: "FINISH", taskId: "load-foo"},
+    ]);
+  });
+});