diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 1a016c49f..b0509860d 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -4655,11 +4655,17 @@ dependencies = [
 name = "spk-workspace"
 version = "0.42.0"
 dependencies = [
+ "format_serde_error",
  "glob",
+ "miette",
  "rstest 0.18.2",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
+ "serde_yaml 0.9.27",
+ "spk-schema-foundation",
  "spk-solve",
+ "tempfile",
+ "thiserror",
 ]
 
 [[package]]
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index fca9b084e..1ca8b2365 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -60,6 +60,7 @@ dunce = "1.0.4"
 dyn-clone = "1.0"
 enum_dispatch = "0.3.13"
 flatbuffers = "23.5.26"
+format_serde_error = { version = "0.3", default-features = false }
 fuser = "0.14.0"
 futures = "0.3.28"
 futures-core = "0.3.28"
diff --git a/crates/spk-schema/Cargo.toml b/crates/spk-schema/Cargo.toml
index b83acc60d..17db94761 100644
--- a/crates/spk-schema/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/spk-schema/Cargo.toml
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ config = { workspace = true }
 data-encoding = "2.3"
 dunce = { workspace = true }
 enum_dispatch = { workspace = true }
-format_serde_error = { version = "0.3", default-features = false, features = [
+format_serde_error = { workspace = true, default-features = false, features = [
     "serde_yaml",
     "colored",
 ] }
diff --git a/crates/spk-schema/crates/foundation/Cargo.toml b/crates/spk-schema/crates/foundation/Cargo.toml
index a1c785bb5..6524bb0d8 100644
--- a/crates/spk-schema/crates/foundation/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/spk-schema/crates/foundation/Cargo.toml
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ async-trait = { workspace = true }
 colored = { workspace = true }
 data-encoding = "2.3"
 enum_dispatch = { workspace = true }
-format_serde_error = { version = "0.3", default-features = false, features = [
+format_serde_error = { workspace = true, default-features = false, features = [
     "serde_yaml",
     "colored",
 ] }
diff --git a/crates/spk-schema/crates/ident/Cargo.toml b/crates/spk-schema/crates/ident/Cargo.toml
index 5ceafa9a6..44e72b5e4 100644
--- a/crates/spk-schema/crates/ident/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/spk-schema/crates/ident/Cargo.toml
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ migration-to-components = ["spk-schema-foundation/migration-to-components"]
 
 [dependencies]
 colored = { workspace = true }
-format_serde_error = { version = "0.3", default-features = false, features = [
+format_serde_error = { workspace = true, default-features = false, features = [
     "serde_yaml",
     "colored",
 ] }
diff --git a/crates/spk-storage/Cargo.toml b/crates/spk-storage/Cargo.toml
index e34b78ddc..04803882b 100644
--- a/crates/spk-storage/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/spk-storage/Cargo.toml
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ colored = { workspace = true }
 dashmap = "5.4.0"
 data-encoding = "2.3.0"
 enum_dispatch = { workspace = true }
-format_serde_error = { version = "0.3", default-features = false, features = [
+format_serde_error = { workspace = true, default-features = false, features = [
     "serde_yaml",
     "colored",
 ] }
diff --git a/crates/spk-workspace/Cargo.toml b/crates/spk-workspace/Cargo.toml
index 052877405..ad5f125bc 100644
--- a/crates/spk-workspace/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/spk-workspace/Cargo.toml
@@ -19,7 +19,13 @@ sentry = ["spk-solve/sentry"]
 serde = { workspace = true, features = ["derive"] }
 glob = { workspace = true }
 spk-solve = { workspace = true }
+thiserror = { workspace = true }
+miette = { workspace = true }
+serde_yaml = { workspace = true }
+spk-schema-foundation = { workspace = true }
+format_serde_error = { workspace = true }
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 rstest = { workspace = true }
 serde_json = { workspace = true }
+tempfile = { workspace = true }
diff --git a/crates/spk-workspace/src/error.rs b/crates/spk-workspace/src/error.rs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..80aa8d156
--- /dev/null
+++ b/crates/spk-workspace/src/error.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+use std::path::PathBuf;
+
+#[derive(thiserror::Error, miette::Diagnostic, Debug)]
+pub enum LoadWorkspaceError {
+    #[error(
+        "workspace not found, no {} in {0:?} or any parent",
+        crate::Workspace::FILE_NAME
+    )]
+    WorkspaceNotFound(PathBuf),
+    #[error("'{}' not found in {0:?}", crate::Workspace::FILE_NAME)]
+    NoWorkspaceFile(PathBuf),
+    #[error(transparent)]
+    ReadFailed(std::io::Error),
+    #[error(transparent)]
+    InvalidYaml(format_serde_error::SerdeError),
+}
diff --git a/crates/spk-workspace/src/lib.rs b/crates/spk-workspace/src/lib.rs
index 9e3d3cbc2..30e6a8e47 100644
--- a/crates/spk-workspace/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/spk-workspace/src/lib.rs
@@ -1 +1,4 @@
+pub mod error;
 mod spec;
+
+pub use spec::Workspace;
diff --git a/crates/spk-workspace/src/spec.rs b/crates/spk-workspace/src/spec.rs
index 70272223f..1aa4f9b0d 100644
--- a/crates/spk-workspace/src/spec.rs
+++ b/crates/spk-workspace/src/spec.rs
@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
+use std::path::Path;
+
 use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
+use spk_schema_foundation::FromYaml;
+
+use crate::error::LoadWorkspaceError;
 
 #[cfg(test)]
 #[path = "spec_test.rs"]
@@ -10,6 +15,53 @@ pub struct Workspace {
     pub recipes: Vec<glob::Pattern>,
 }
 
+impl Workspace {
+    pub const FILE_NAME: &str = "workspace.spk.yaml";
+
+    /// Load a workspace from its root directory on disk
+    pub fn load<P: AsRef<Path>>(root: P) -> Result<Self, LoadWorkspaceError> {
+        let root = root
+            .as_ref()
+            .canonicalize()
+            .map_err(|_| LoadWorkspaceError::NoWorkspaceFile(root.as_ref().into()))?;
+
+        let workspace_file = std::fs::read_to_string(root.join(Workspace::FILE_NAME))
+            .map_err(LoadWorkspaceError::ReadFailed)?;
+        Workspace::from_yaml(workspace_file).map_err(LoadWorkspaceError::InvalidYaml)
+    }
+
+    /// Load the workspace for a given dir, looking at parent directories
+    /// as necessary to find the workspace root
+    pub fn discover<P: AsRef<Path>>(cwd: P) -> Result<Self, LoadWorkspaceError> {
+        let cwd = if cwd.as_ref().is_absolute() {
+            cwd.as_ref().to_owned()
+        } else {
+            // prefer PWD if available, since it may be more representative of
+            // how the user arrived at the current dir and avoids dereferencing
+            // symlinks that could otherwise make error messages harder to understand
+            match std::env::var("PWD").ok() {
+                Some(pwd) => Path::new(&pwd).join(cwd),
+                None => std::env::current_dir().unwrap_or_default().join(cwd),
+            }
+        };
+        let mut candidate = cwd.clone();
+        let mut last_found = None;
+
+        loop {
+            if candidate.join(Workspace::FILE_NAME).is_file() {
+                last_found = Some(candidate.clone());
+            }
+            if !candidate.pop() {
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+        match last_found {
+            Some(path) => Self::load(path),
+            None => Err(LoadWorkspaceError::WorkspaceNotFound(cwd)),
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 mod glob_from_str {
     use serde::{Deserializer, Serialize, Serializer};
 
diff --git a/crates/spk-workspace/src/spec_test.rs b/crates/spk-workspace/src/spec_test.rs
index ff1ee8f77..7a075ab14 100644
--- a/crates/spk-workspace/src/spec_test.rs
+++ b/crates/spk-workspace/src/spec_test.rs
@@ -1,7 +1,20 @@
-use rstest::rstest;
+use rstest::{fixture, rstest};
 
 use super::Workspace;
 
+#[fixture]
+pub fn tmpdir() -> tempfile::TempDir {
+    tempfile::Builder::new()
+        .prefix("spk-test-")
+        .tempdir()
+        .expect("create a temp directory for test files")
+}
+
+const EMPTY_WORKSPACE: &str = r#"
+api: v0/workspace
+recipes: []
+"#;
+
 #[rstest]
 fn test_workspace_roundtrip() {
     let workspace = Workspace {
@@ -16,3 +29,41 @@ fn test_workspace_roundtrip() {
 
     assert_eq!(workspace, deserialized);
 }
+
+#[rstest]
+fn test_empty_workspace_loading(tmpdir: tempfile::TempDir) {
+    let root = tmpdir.path();
+    std::fs::write(root.join(Workspace::FILE_NAME), EMPTY_WORKSPACE).unwrap();
+    let _workspace = Workspace::load(root).expect("failed to load empty workspace");
+}
+
+#[rstest]
+fn test_must_have_file(tmpdir: tempfile::TempDir) {
+    let root = tmpdir.path();
+    Workspace::load(root).expect_err("workspace should fail to load for empty dir");
+}
+
+#[rstest]
+#[case("", "")]
+#[case("my-workspace", "my-workspace/src/packages")]
+#[should_panic]
+#[case("my-workspace", "other-dir")]
+#[case("", "")]
+#[case("my-workspace", "my-workspace/src/packages")]
+#[should_panic]
+#[case("my-workspace", "other-dir/src/packages")]
+fn test_workspace_discovery(
+    tmpdir: tempfile::TempDir,
+    #[case] workspace_root: &str,
+    #[case] discovery_start: &str,
+) {
+    let dir = tmpdir.path();
+    let root = dir.join(workspace_root);
+    let cwd = dir.join(discovery_start);
+
+    std::fs::create_dir_all(&cwd).unwrap();
+    std::fs::create_dir_all(&root).unwrap();
+    std::fs::write(root.join(Workspace::FILE_NAME), EMPTY_WORKSPACE).unwrap();
+
+    Workspace::discover(&cwd).expect("failed to load workspace");
+}
diff --git a/workspace.spk.yml b/workspace.spk.yml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cc340e414
--- /dev/null
+++ b/workspace.spk.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+api: v0/workspace
+
+recipes:
+  - packages/**.spk.yml