diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 820dfb85..1238644b 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
     - `OpenBlock` signature changed to take a logger.
  - [REMOVED] `PrefixMatcher` is considered unused so was removed.
  - [CLEANUP] `Options.WALFlushInterval` is removed as it wasn't used anywhere.
+ - [FEATURE] Add new `LiveReader` to WAL pacakge. Added to allow live tailing of a WAL segment, used by Prometheus Remote Write after refactor. The main difference between the new reader and the existing `Reader` is that for `LiveReader` a call to `Next()` that returns false does not mean that there will never be more data to read.
 
 ## 0.3.1
  - [BUGFIX] Fixed most windows test and some actual bugs for unclosed file readers.
diff --git a/compact.go b/compact.go
index ef615adb..963627f0 100644
--- a/compact.go
+++ b/compact.go
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ func (c *LeveledCompactor) plan(dms []dirMeta) ([]string, error) {
 		return res, nil
 	}
 
-	// Compact any blocks that have >5% tombstones.
+	// Compact any blocks with big enough time range that have >5% tombstones.
 	for i := len(dms) - 1; i >= 0; i-- {
 		meta := dms[i].meta
 		if meta.MaxTime-meta.MinTime < c.ranges[len(c.ranges)/2] {
diff --git a/db_test.go b/db_test.go
index bbe53ad7..7388d202 100644
--- a/db_test.go
+++ b/db_test.go
@@ -1432,7 +1432,7 @@ func TestNoEmptyBlocks(t *testing.T) {
 		testutil.Ok(t, err)
 		_, err = app.Add(defaultLabel, currentTime+1, 0)
 		testutil.Ok(t, err)
-		_, err = app.Add(defaultLabel, currentTime+rangeToTriggercompaction, 0) // ?????????????
+		_, err = app.Add(defaultLabel, currentTime+rangeToTriggercompaction-3, 0) // ?????????????
 		testutil.Ok(t, err)
 		testutil.Ok(t, app.Commit())
 		testutil.Ok(t, db.head.Delete(math.MinInt64, math.MaxInt64, defaultMatcher))
diff --git a/wal/wal.go b/wal/wal.go
index 5433fd04..fd90eb90 100644
--- a/wal/wal.go
+++ b/wal/wal.go
@@ -832,28 +832,13 @@ func (r *Reader) next() (err error) {
 		}
 		r.rec = append(r.rec, buf[:length]...)
 
-		switch r.curRecTyp {
-		case recFull:
-			if i != 0 {
-				return errors.New("unexpected full record")
-			}
-			return nil
-		case recFirst:
-			if i != 0 {
-				return errors.New("unexpected first record")
-			}
-		case recMiddle:
-			if i == 0 {
-				return errors.New("unexpected middle record")
-			}
-		case recLast:
-			if i == 0 {
-				return errors.New("unexpected last record")
-			}
+		if err := validateRecord(r.curRecTyp, i); err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+		if r.curRecTyp == recLast || r.curRecTyp == recFull {
 			return nil
-		default:
-			return errors.Errorf("unexpected record type %d", r.curRecTyp)
 		}
+
 		// Only increment i for non-zero records since we use it
 		// to determine valid content record sequences.
 		i++
@@ -904,6 +889,226 @@ func (r *Reader) Offset() int64 {
 	return r.total
 }
 
+// NewLiveReader returns a new live reader.
+func NewLiveReader(r io.Reader) *LiveReader {
+	return &LiveReader{rdr: r}
+}
+
+// Reader reads WAL records from an io.Reader. It buffers partial record data for
+// the next read.
+type LiveReader struct {
+	rdr        io.Reader
+	err        error
+	rec        []byte
+	hdr        [recordHeaderSize]byte
+	buf        [pageSize]byte
+	readIndex  int   // Index in buf to start at for next read.
+	writeIndex int   // Index in buf to start at for next write.
+	total      int64 // Total bytes processed during reading in calls to Next().
+	index      int   // Used to track partial records, should be 0 at the start of every new record.
+}
+
+func (r *LiveReader) Err() error {
+	return r.err
+}
+
+func (r *LiveReader) TotalRead() int64 {
+	return r.total
+}
+
+func (r *LiveReader) fillBuffer() error {
+	n, err := r.rdr.Read(r.buf[r.writeIndex:len(r.buf)])
+	r.writeIndex += n
+	return err
+}
+
+// Shift the buffer up to the read index.
+func (r *LiveReader) shiftBuffer() {
+	copied := copy(r.buf[0:], r.buf[r.readIndex:r.writeIndex])
+	r.readIndex = 0
+	r.writeIndex = copied
+}
+
+// Next returns true if r.rec will contain a full record.
+// False does not indicate that there will never be more data to
+// read for the current io.Reader.
+func (r *LiveReader) Next() bool {
+	for {
+		if r.buildRecord() {
+			return true
+		}
+		if r.err != nil && r.err != io.EOF {
+			return false
+		}
+		if r.readIndex == pageSize {
+			r.shiftBuffer()
+		}
+		if r.writeIndex != pageSize {
+			if err := r.fillBuffer(); err != nil {
+				// We expect to get EOF, since we're reading the segment file as it's being written.
+				if err != io.EOF {
+					r.err = err
+				}
+				return false
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+// Record returns the current record.
+// The returned byte slice is only valid until the next call to Next.
+func (r *LiveReader) Record() []byte {
+	return r.rec
+}
+
+// Rebuild a full record from potentially partial records. Returns false
+// if there was an error or if we weren't able to read a record for any reason.
+// Returns true if we read a full record. Any record data is appeneded to
+// LiveReader.rec
+func (r *LiveReader) buildRecord() bool {
+	for {
+		// Check that we have data in the internal buffer to read.
+		if r.writeIndex <= r.readIndex {
+			return false
+		}
+
+		// Attempt to read a record, partial or otherwise.
+		temp, n, err := readRecord(r.buf[r.readIndex:r.writeIndex], r.hdr[:], r.total)
+		r.readIndex += n
+		r.total += int64(n)
+		if err != nil {
+			r.err = err
+			return false
+		}
+
+		if temp == nil {
+			return false
+		}
+
+		rt := recType(r.hdr[0])
+
+		if rt == recFirst || rt == recFull {
+			r.rec = r.rec[:0]
+		}
+		r.rec = append(r.rec, temp...)
+
+		if err := validateRecord(rt, r.index); err != nil {
+			r.err = err
+			r.index = 0
+			return false
+		}
+		if rt == recLast || rt == recFull {
+			r.index = 0
+			return true
+		}
+		// Only increment i for non-zero records since we use it
+		// to determine valid content record sequences.
+		r.index++
+	}
+}
+
+// Returns an error if the recType and i indicate an invalid record sequence.
+// As an example, if i is > 0 because we've read some amount of a partial record
+// (recFirst, recMiddle, etc. but not recLast) and then we get another recFirst or recFull
+// instead of a recLast or recMiddle we would have an invalid record.
+func validateRecord(typ recType, i int) error {
+	switch typ {
+	case recFull:
+		if i != 0 {
+			return errors.New("unexpected full record")
+		}
+		return nil
+	case recFirst:
+		if i != 0 {
+			return errors.New("unexpected first record, dropping buffer")
+		}
+		return nil
+	case recMiddle:
+		if i == 0 {
+			return errors.New("unexpected middle record, dropping buffer")
+		}
+		return nil
+	case recLast:
+		if i == 0 {
+			return errors.New("unexpected last record, dropping buffer")
+		}
+		return nil
+	default:
+		return errors.Errorf("unexpected record type %d", typ)
+	}
+}
+
+// Read a sub-record (see recType) from the buffer. It could potentially
+// be a full record (recFull) if the record fits within the bounds of a single page.
+// Returns a byte slice of the record data read, the number of bytes read, and an error
+// if there's a non-zero byte in a page term record or the record checksum fails.
+// TODO(callum) the EOF errors we're returning from this function should theoretically
+// never happen, add a metric for them.
+func readRecord(buf []byte, header []byte, total int64) ([]byte, int, error) {
+	readIndex := 0
+	header[0] = buf[0]
+	readIndex++
+	total++
+
+	// The rest of this function is mostly from Reader.Next().
+	typ := recType(header[0])
+	// Gobble up zero bytes.
+	if typ == recPageTerm {
+		// We are pedantic and check whether the zeros are actually up to a page boundary.
+		// It's not strictly necessary but may catch sketchy state early.
+		k := pageSize - (total % pageSize)
+		if k == pageSize {
+			return nil, 1, nil // Initial 0 byte was last page byte.
+		}
+
+		if k <= int64(len(buf)-readIndex) {
+			for _, v := range buf[readIndex : int64(readIndex)+k] {
+				readIndex++
+				if v != 0 {
+					return nil, readIndex, errors.New("unexpected non-zero byte in page term bytes")
+				}
+			}
+			return nil, readIndex, nil
+		}
+		// Not enough bytes to read the rest of the page term rec.
+		// This theoretically should never happen, since we're only shifting the
+		// internal buffer of the live reader when we read to the end of page.
+		// Treat this the same as an EOF, it's an error we would expect to see.
+		return nil, 0, io.EOF
+	}
+
+	if readIndex+recordHeaderSize-1 > len(buf) {
+		// Treat this the same as an EOF, it's an error we would expect to see.
+		return nil, 0, io.EOF
+	}
+
+	copy(header[1:], buf[readIndex:readIndex+len(header[1:])])
+	readIndex += recordHeaderSize - 1
+	total += int64(recordHeaderSize - 1)
+	var (
+		length = binary.BigEndian.Uint16(header[1:])
+		crc    = binary.BigEndian.Uint32(header[3:])
+	)
+	readTo := int(length) + readIndex
+	if readTo > len(buf) {
+		if (readTo - readIndex) > pageSize {
+			return nil, 0, errors.Errorf("invalid record, record size would be larger than max page size: %d", int(length))
+		}
+		// Not enough data to read all of the record data.
+		// Treat this the same as an EOF, it's an error we would expect to see.
+		return nil, 0, io.EOF
+	}
+	recData := buf[readIndex:readTo]
+	readIndex += int(length)
+	total += int64(length)
+
+	// TODO(callum) what should we do here, throw out the record? We should add a metric at least.
+	if c := crc32.Checksum(recData, castagnoliTable); c != crc {
+		return recData, readIndex, errors.Errorf("unexpected checksum %x, expected %x", c, crc)
+	}
+	return recData, readIndex, nil
+}
+
 func min(i, j int) int {
 	if i < j {
 		return i
diff --git a/wal/wal_test.go b/wal/wal_test.go
index 8ac14ebc..f95b2123 100644
--- a/wal/wal_test.go
+++ b/wal/wal_test.go
@@ -17,15 +17,107 @@ package wal
 import (
 	"bytes"
 	"encoding/binary"
+	"fmt"
 	"hash/crc32"
+	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"math/rand"
 	"os"
+	"path"
+	"sync"
 	"testing"
+	"time"
 
 	"github.com/prometheus/tsdb/testutil"
 )
 
+type record struct {
+	t recType
+	b []byte
+}
+
+var data = make([]byte, 100000)
+var testReaderCases = []struct {
+	t    []record
+	exp  [][]byte
+	fail bool
+}{
+	// Sequence of valid records.
+	{
+		t: []record{
+			{recFull, data[0:200]},
+			{recFirst, data[200:300]},
+			{recLast, data[300:400]},
+			{recFirst, data[400:800]},
+			{recMiddle, data[800:900]},
+			{recPageTerm, make([]byte, pageSize-900-recordHeaderSize*5-1)}, // exactly lines up with page boundary.
+			{recLast, data[900:900]},
+			{recFirst, data[900:1000]},
+			{recMiddle, data[1000:1200]},
+			{recMiddle, data[1200:30000]},
+			{recMiddle, data[30000:30001]},
+			{recMiddle, data[30001:30001]},
+			{recLast, data[30001:32000]},
+		},
+		exp: [][]byte{
+			data[0:200],
+			data[200:400],
+			data[400:900],
+			data[900:32000],
+		},
+	},
+	// Exactly at the limit of one page minus the header size
+	{
+		t: []record{
+			{recFull, data[0 : pageSize-recordHeaderSize]},
+		},
+		exp: [][]byte{
+			data[:pageSize-recordHeaderSize],
+		},
+	},
+	// More than a full page, this exceeds our buffer and can never happen
+	// when written by the WAL.
+	{
+		t: []record{
+			{recFull, data[0 : pageSize+1]},
+		},
+		fail: true,
+	},
+	// Invalid orders of record types.
+	{
+		t:    []record{{recMiddle, data[:200]}},
+		fail: true,
+	},
+	{
+		t:    []record{{recLast, data[:200]}},
+		fail: true,
+	},
+	{
+		t: []record{
+			{recFirst, data[:200]},
+			{recFull, data[200:400]},
+		},
+		fail: true,
+	},
+	{
+		t: []record{
+			{recFirst, data[:100]},
+			{recMiddle, data[100:200]},
+			{recFull, data[200:400]},
+		},
+		fail: true,
+	},
+	// Non-zero data after page termination.
+	{
+		t: []record{
+			{recFull, data[:100]},
+			{recPageTerm, append(make([]byte, 1000), 1)},
+		},
+		exp:  [][]byte{data[:100]},
+		fail: true,
+	},
+}
+
 func encodedRecord(t recType, b []byte) []byte {
 	if t == recPageTerm {
 		return append([]byte{0}, b...)
@@ -39,95 +131,7 @@ func encodedRecord(t recType, b []byte) []byte {
 
 // TestReader feeds the reader a stream of encoded records with different types.
 func TestReader(t *testing.T) {
-	data := make([]byte, 100000)
-	_, err := rand.Read(data)
-	testutil.Ok(t, err)
-
-	type record struct {
-		t recType
-		b []byte
-	}
-	cases := []struct {
-		t    []record
-		exp  [][]byte
-		fail bool
-	}{
-		// Sequence of valid records.
-		{
-			t: []record{
-				{recFull, data[0:200]},
-				{recFirst, data[200:300]},
-				{recLast, data[300:400]},
-				{recFirst, data[400:800]},
-				{recMiddle, data[800:900]},
-				{recPageTerm, make([]byte, pageSize-900-recordHeaderSize*5-1)}, // exactly lines up with page boundary.
-				{recLast, data[900:900]},
-				{recFirst, data[900:1000]},
-				{recMiddle, data[1000:1200]},
-				{recMiddle, data[1200:30000]},
-				{recMiddle, data[30000:30001]},
-				{recMiddle, data[30001:30001]},
-				{recLast, data[30001:32000]},
-			},
-			exp: [][]byte{
-				data[0:200],
-				data[200:400],
-				data[400:900],
-				data[900:32000],
-			},
-		},
-		// Exactly at the limit of one page minus the header size
-		{
-			t: []record{
-				{recFull, data[0 : pageSize-recordHeaderSize]},
-			},
-			exp: [][]byte{
-				data[:pageSize-recordHeaderSize],
-			},
-		},
-		// More than a full page, this exceeds our buffer and can never happen
-		// when written by the WAL.
-		{
-			t: []record{
-				{recFull, data[0 : pageSize+1]},
-			},
-			fail: true,
-		},
-		// Invalid orders of record types.
-		{
-			t:    []record{{recMiddle, data[:200]}},
-			fail: true,
-		},
-		{
-			t:    []record{{recLast, data[:200]}},
-			fail: true,
-		},
-		{
-			t: []record{
-				{recFirst, data[:200]},
-				{recFull, data[200:400]},
-			},
-			fail: true,
-		},
-		{
-			t: []record{
-				{recFirst, data[:100]},
-				{recMiddle, data[100:200]},
-				{recFull, data[200:400]},
-			},
-			fail: true,
-		},
-		// Non-zero data after page termination.
-		{
-			t: []record{
-				{recFull, data[:100]},
-				{recPageTerm, append(make([]byte, 1000), 1)},
-			},
-			exp:  [][]byte{data[:100]},
-			fail: true,
-		},
-	}
-	for i, c := range cases {
+	for i, c := range testReaderCases {
 		t.Logf("test %d", i)
 
 		var buf []byte
@@ -154,6 +158,192 @@ func TestReader(t *testing.T) {
 	}
 }
 
+func TestReader_Live(t *testing.T) {
+	for i, c := range testReaderCases {
+		t.Logf("test %d", i)
+		dir, err := ioutil.TempDir("", fmt.Sprintf("live_reader_%d", i))
+		t.Logf("created dir %s", dir)
+		testutil.Ok(t, err)
+		defer os.RemoveAll(dir)
+
+		// we're never going to have more than a single segment file per test case right now
+		f, err := os.Create(path.Join(dir, "00000000"))
+		testutil.Ok(t, err)
+
+		// live reader doesn't work on readers created from bytes buffers,
+		// since we need to be able to write more data to the thing we're
+		// reading from after the reader has been created
+		wg := sync.WaitGroup{}
+		// make sure the reader doesn't start until at least one record is written
+		wg.Add(1)
+		go func() {
+			for i, rec := range c.t {
+				rec := encodedRecord(rec.t, rec.b)
+				n, err := f.Write(rec)
+				testutil.Ok(t, err)
+				testutil.Assert(t, n > 0, "no bytes were written to wal")
+				if i == 0 {
+					wg.Done()
+				}
+			}
+		}()
+		sr, err := OpenReadSegment(SegmentName(dir, 0))
+		testutil.Ok(t, err)
+		lr := NewLiveReader(sr)
+		j := 0
+		wg.Wait()
+	caseLoop:
+		for {
+			for ; lr.Next(); j++ {
+				rec := lr.Record()
+				t.Log("j: ", j)
+				testutil.Equals(t, c.exp[j], rec, "Bytes within record did not match expected Bytes")
+				if j == len(c.exp)-1 {
+					break caseLoop
+				}
+
+			}
+
+			// Because reads and writes are happening concurrently, unless we get an error we should
+			// attempt to read records again.
+			if j == 0 && lr.Err() == nil {
+				continue
+			}
+
+			if !c.fail && lr.Err() != nil {
+				t.Fatalf("unexpected error: %s", lr.Err())
+			}
+			if c.fail && lr.Err() == nil {
+				t.Fatalf("expected error but got none:\n\tinput: %+v", c.t)
+			}
+			if lr.Err() != nil {
+				t.Log("err: ", lr.Err())
+				break
+			}
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+func TestWAL_FuzzWriteRead_Live(t *testing.T) {
+	const count = 5000
+	const segmentSize = int64(128 * 1024 * 1204)
+	var input [][]byte
+	lock := sync.RWMutex{}
+	var recs [][]byte
+	var index int
+
+	// Get size of segment.
+	getSegmentSize := func(dir string, index int) (int64, error) {
+		i := int64(-1)
+		fi, err := os.Stat(SegmentName(dir, index))
+		if err == nil {
+			i = fi.Size()
+		}
+		return i, err
+	}
+
+	readSegment := func(r *LiveReader) {
+		for r.Next() {
+			rec := r.Record()
+			lock.RLock()
+			l := len(input)
+			lock.RUnlock()
+			if index >= l {
+				t.Fatalf("read too many records")
+			}
+			lock.RLock()
+			if !bytes.Equal(input[index], rec) {
+				t.Fatalf("record %d (len %d) does not match (expected len %d)",
+					index, len(rec), len(input[index]))
+			}
+			lock.RUnlock()
+			index++
+		}
+		if r.Err() != io.EOF {
+			testutil.Ok(t, r.Err())
+		}
+	}
+
+	dir, err := ioutil.TempDir("", "wal_fuzz_live")
+	t.Log("created dir: ", dir)
+	testutil.Ok(t, err)
+	defer func() {
+		os.RemoveAll(dir)
+	}()
+
+	w, err := NewSize(nil, nil, dir, 128*pageSize)
+	testutil.Ok(t, err)
+
+	go func() {
+		for i := 0; i < count; i++ {
+			var sz int64
+			switch i % 5 {
+			case 0, 1:
+				sz = 50
+			case 2, 3:
+				sz = pageSize
+			default:
+				sz = pageSize * 8
+			}
+
+			rec := make([]byte, rand.Int63n(sz))
+			_, err := rand.Read(rec)
+			testutil.Ok(t, err)
+			lock.Lock()
+			input = append(input, rec)
+			lock.Unlock()
+			recs = append(recs, rec)
+
+			// Randomly batch up records.
+			if rand.Intn(4) < 3 {
+				testutil.Ok(t, w.Log(recs...))
+				recs = recs[:0]
+			}
+		}
+		testutil.Ok(t, w.Log(recs...))
+	}()
+
+	m, _, err := w.Segments()
+	testutil.Ok(t, err)
+
+	seg, err := OpenReadSegment(SegmentName(dir, m))
+	testutil.Ok(t, err)
+
+	r := NewLiveReader(seg)
+	segmentTicker := time.NewTicker(100 * time.Millisecond)
+	readTicker := time.NewTicker(10 * time.Millisecond)
+	for {
+		select {
+		case <-segmentTicker.C:
+			// check if new segments exist
+			_, last, err := w.Segments()
+			testutil.Ok(t, err)
+			if last > seg.i {
+				for {
+					readSegment(r)
+					if r.Err() != io.EOF {
+						testutil.Ok(t, r.Err())
+					}
+					size, err := getSegmentSize(dir, seg.i)
+					testutil.Ok(t, err)
+					// make sure we've read all of the current segment before rotating
+					if r.TotalRead() == size {
+						break
+					}
+				}
+				seg, err = OpenReadSegment(SegmentName(dir, seg.i+1))
+				testutil.Ok(t, err)
+				r = NewLiveReader(seg)
+			}
+		case <-readTicker.C:
+			readSegment(r)
+		}
+		if index == count {
+			break
+		}
+	}
+	testutil.Ok(t, r.Err())
+}
 func TestWAL_FuzzWriteRead(t *testing.T) {
 	const count = 25000