diff --git a/helper/backend/backend.go b/helper/backend/backend.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b540245142
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helper/backend/backend.go
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+package backend
+
+import (
+	"github.com/hashicorp/vault/vault"
+)
+
+// Backend is an implementation of vault.LogicalBackend that allows
+// the implementer to code a backend using a much more programmer-friendly
+// framework that handles a lot of the routing and validation for you.
+//
+// This is recommended over implementing vault.LogicalBackend directly.
+type Backend struct {
+	Paths []*Path
+}
+
+// Path is a single path that the backend responds to.
+type Path struct {
+	// Pattern is the pattern of the URL that matches this path.
+	//
+	// This should be a valid regular expression. Named captures will be
+	// exposed as fields that should map to a schema in Fields. If a named
+	// capture is not a field in the Fields map, then it will be ignored.
+	Pattern string
+
+	// Fields is the mapping of data fields to a schema describing that
+	// field. Named captures in the Pattern also map to fields. If a named
+	// capture name matches a PUT body name, the named capture takes
+	// priority.
+	//
+	// Note that only named capture fields are available in every operation,
+	// whereas all fields are avaiable in the Write operation.
+	Fields map[string]*FieldSchema
+
+	// Root if not blank, denotes that this path requires root
+	// privileges and the path pattern that is the root path. This can't
+	// be a regular expression and must be an exact path. It may have a
+	// trailing '*' to denote that it is a prefix, and not an exact match.
+	Root string
+
+	// Callback is what is called when this path is requested with
+	// a valid set of data.
+	Callback func(*vault.Request, *FieldData) (*vault.Response, error)
+}
+
+// FieldSchema is a basic schema to describe the format of a path field.
+type FieldSchema struct {
+	Type FieldType
+}
+
+func (t FieldType) Zero() interface{} {
+	switch t {
+	case TypeString:
+		return ""
+	case TypeInt:
+		return 0
+	case TypeBool:
+		return false
+	default:
+		panic("unknown type: " + t.String())
+	}
+}
diff --git a/helper/backend/field_data.go b/helper/backend/field_data.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d9117d5d85
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helper/backend/field_data.go
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+package backend
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+
+	"github.com/mitchellh/mapstructure"
+)
+
+// FieldData is the structure passed to the callback to handle a path
+// containing the populated parameters for fields. This should be used
+// instead of the raw (*vault.Request).Data to access data in a type-safe
+// way.
+type FieldData struct {
+	Raw    map[string]interface{}
+	Schema map[string]*FieldSchema
+}
+
+// Get gets the value for the given field. If the key is an invalid field,
+// FieldData will panic. If you want a safer version of this method, use
+// GetOk. If the field k is not set, the default value (if set) will be
+// returned, otherwise the zero value will be returned.
+func (d *FieldData) Get(k string) interface{} {
+	schema, ok := d.Schema[k]
+	if !ok {
+		panic(fmt.Sprintf("field %s not in the schema", k))
+	}
+
+	value, ok := d.GetOk(k)
+	if !ok {
+		value = schema.Type.Zero()
+	}
+
+	return value
+}
+
+// GetOk gets the value for the given field. The second return value
+// will be false if the key is invalid or the key is not set at all.
+func (d *FieldData) GetOk(k string) (interface{}, bool) {
+	schema, ok := d.Schema[k]
+	if !ok {
+		return nil, false
+	}
+
+	result, ok, err := d.GetOkErr(k)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(fmt.Sprintf("error reading %s: %s", k, err))
+	}
+
+	if ok && result == nil {
+		result = schema.Type.Zero()
+	}
+
+	return result, ok
+}
+
+// GetOkErr is the most conservative of all the Get methods. It returns
+// whether key is set or not, but also an error value. The error value is
+// non-nil if the field doesn't exist or there was an error parsing the
+// field value.
+func (d *FieldData) GetOkErr(k string) (interface{}, bool, error) {
+	schema, ok := d.Schema[k]
+	if !ok {
+		return nil, false, fmt.Errorf("unknown field: %s", k)
+	}
+
+	switch schema.Type {
+	case TypeBool:
+		fallthrough
+	case TypeInt:
+		fallthrough
+	case TypeString:
+		return d.getPrimitive(k, schema)
+	default:
+		return nil, false,
+			fmt.Errorf("unknown field type %s for field %s", schema.Type, k)
+	}
+}
+
+func (d *FieldData) getPrimitive(
+	k string, schema *FieldSchema) (interface{}, bool, error) {
+	raw, ok := d.Raw[k]
+	if !ok {
+		return nil, false, nil
+	}
+
+	switch schema.Type {
+	case TypeBool:
+		var result bool
+		if err := mapstructure.WeakDecode(raw, &result); err != nil {
+			return nil, true, err
+		}
+
+		return result, true, nil
+	case TypeInt:
+		var result int
+		if err := mapstructure.WeakDecode(raw, &result); err != nil {
+			return nil, true, err
+		}
+
+		return result, true, nil
+	case TypeString:
+		var result string
+		if err := mapstructure.WeakDecode(raw, &result); err != nil {
+			return nil, true, err
+		}
+
+		return result, true, nil
+	default:
+		panic(fmt.Sprintf("Unknown type: %s", schema.Type))
+	}
+}
diff --git a/helper/backend/field_data_test.go b/helper/backend/field_data_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..116df2d95f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helper/backend/field_data_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+package backend
+
+import (
+	"reflect"
+	"testing"
+)
+
+func TestFieldDataGet(t *testing.T) {
+	cases := map[string]struct {
+		Schema map[string]*FieldSchema
+		Raw    map[string]interface{}
+		Key    string
+		Value  interface{}
+	}{
+		"string type, string value": {
+			map[string]*FieldSchema{
+				"foo": &FieldSchema{Type: TypeString},
+			},
+			map[string]interface{}{
+				"foo": "bar",
+			},
+			"foo",
+			"bar",
+		},
+
+		"string type, int value": {
+			map[string]*FieldSchema{
+				"foo": &FieldSchema{Type: TypeString},
+			},
+			map[string]interface{}{
+				"foo": 42,
+			},
+			"foo",
+			"42",
+		},
+
+		"string type, unset value": {
+			map[string]*FieldSchema{
+				"foo": &FieldSchema{Type: TypeString},
+			},
+			map[string]interface{}{},
+			"foo",
+			"",
+		},
+
+		"int type, int value": {
+			map[string]*FieldSchema{
+				"foo": &FieldSchema{Type: TypeInt},
+			},
+			map[string]interface{}{
+				"foo": 42,
+			},
+			"foo",
+			42,
+		},
+
+		"bool type, bool value": {
+			map[string]*FieldSchema{
+				"foo": &FieldSchema{Type: TypeBool},
+			},
+			map[string]interface{}{
+				"foo": false,
+			},
+			"foo",
+			false,
+		},
+	}
+
+	for name, tc := range cases {
+		data := &FieldData{
+			Raw:    tc.Raw,
+			Schema: tc.Schema,
+		}
+
+		actual := data.Get(tc.Key)
+		if !reflect.DeepEqual(actual, tc.Value) {
+			t.Fatalf(
+				"bad: %s\n\nExpected: %#v\nGot: %#v",
+				name, tc.Value, actual)
+		}
+	}
+}
diff --git a/helper/backend/field_type.go b/helper/backend/field_type.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..80289170fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helper/backend/field_type.go
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+package backend
+
+//go:generate stringer -type=FieldType field_type.go
+
+// FieldType is the enum of types that a field can be.
+type FieldType uint
+
+const (
+	TypeInvalid FieldType = 0
+	TypeString  FieldType = iota
+	TypeInt
+	TypeBool
+)
+
+// FieldType has more methods defined on it in backend.go. They aren't
+// in this file since stringer doesn't like that.
diff --git a/helper/backend/fieldtype_string.go b/helper/backend/fieldtype_string.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..3f537a9377
--- /dev/null
+++ b/helper/backend/fieldtype_string.go
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+// generated by stringer -type=FieldType field_type.go; DO NOT EDIT
+
+package backend
+
+import "fmt"
+
+const _FieldType_name = "TypeInvalidTypeStringTypeIntTypeBool"
+
+var _FieldType_index = [...]uint8{0, 11, 21, 28, 36}
+
+func (i FieldType) String() string {
+	if i+1 >= FieldType(len(_FieldType_index)) {
+		return fmt.Sprintf("FieldType(%d)", i)
+	}
+	return _FieldType_name[_FieldType_index[i]:_FieldType_index[i+1]]
+}