diff --git a/__tests__/fetchers.js b/__tests__/fetchers.js
index ef1551ce99..08db8199ec 100644
--- a/__tests__/fetchers.js
+++ b/__tests__/fetchers.js
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ import TarballFetcher, {LocalTarballFetcher} from '../src/fetchers/tarball-fetch
 import BaseFetcher from '../src/fetchers/base-fetcher.js';
 import CopyFetcher from '../src/fetchers/copy-fetcher.js';
 import GitFetcher from '../src/fetchers/git-fetcher.js';
+import LinkFetcher from '../src/fetchers/link-fetcher.js';
 import {NoopReporter} from '../src/reporters/index.js';
 import Config from '../src/config.js';
 import mkdir from './_temp.js';
@@ -55,6 +56,22 @@ test('CopyFetcher.fetch', async () => {
   expect(contentFoo).toBe('bar');
 });
 
+test('LinkFetcher.fetch', async () => {
+  const a = await mkdir('copy-fetcher-a');
+  await fs.writeFile(path.join(a, 'package.json'), '{}');
+  await fs.writeFile(path.join(a, 'foo'), 'bar');
+
+  const b = await mkdir('copy-fetcher-b');
+  const fetcher = new LinkFetcher(b, {
+    type: 'link',
+    reference: a,
+    registry: 'npm',
+  }, await createConfig());
+  await fetcher.fetch();
+  const stat = await fs.lstat(b);
+  expect(stat.isDirectory()).toEqual(true);
+});
+
 test('GitFetcher.fetch', async () => {
   const dir = await mkdir('git-fetcher');
   const fetcher = new GitFetcher(dir, {
diff --git a/__tests__/package-resolver.js b/__tests__/package-resolver.js
index f82dc95eda..b59e445f8d 100644
--- a/__tests__/package-resolver.js
+++ b/__tests__/package-resolver.js
@@ -52,3 +52,6 @@ addTest('react-native'); // npm
 addTest('ember-cli'); // npm
 addTest('npm:gulp'); // npm
 addTest('@polymer/iron-icon'); // npm scoped package
+addTest(`file:${__dirname}/../node_modules/babel-core`); // file
+addTest(`link:${__dirname}/../node_modules/eslint`); // existing link
+addTest(`link:./../not-created-yet`); // not existing link
diff --git a/src/fetchers/base-fetcher.js b/src/fetchers/base-fetcher.js
index ddee7fab8b..7b3f7d7736 100644
--- a/src/fetchers/base-fetcher.js
+++ b/src/fetchers/base-fetcher.js
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /* @flow */
 /* eslint no-unused-vars: 0 */
 
-import type {PackageRemote, FetchedMetadata, FetchedOverride} from '../types.js';
+import type {PackageRemote, FetchedMetadata, FetchedOverride, Manifest} from '../types.js';
 import type {RegistryNames} from '../registries/index.js';
 import type Config from '../config.js';
 import * as constants from '../constants.js';
@@ -45,6 +45,12 @@ export default class BaseFetcher {
       // fetch package and get the hash
       const {hash, resolved} = await this._fetch();
 
+      // skip any readManifest operation for link type as dest might not exist yet
+      if (this.remote.type === 'link') {
+        const mockPkg: Manifest = {_uid: '', name: '', version: 'link', _registry: this.registry};
+        return Promise.resolve({resolved, hash, dest, package: mockPkg});
+      }
+
       // load the new normalized manifest
       const pkg = await this.config.readManifest(dest, this.registry);
 
diff --git a/src/fetchers/index.js b/src/fetchers/index.js
index a366320b15..8ad090fb9d 100644
--- a/src/fetchers/index.js
+++ b/src/fetchers/index.js
@@ -3,21 +3,25 @@
 import BaseFetcher from './base-fetcher.js';
 import CopyFetcher from './copy-fetcher.js';
 import GitFetcher from './git-fetcher.js';
+import LinkFetcher from './link-fetcher.js';
 import TarballFetcher from './tarball-fetcher.js';
 
 export {BaseFetcher as base};
 export {CopyFetcher as copy};
 export {GitFetcher as git};
+export {LinkFetcher as link};
 export {TarballFetcher as tarball};
 
 export type Fetchers =
   | BaseFetcher
   | CopyFetcher
   | GitFetcher
+  | LinkFetcher
   | TarballFetcher;
 
 export type FetcherNames =
   | 'base'
   | 'copy'
   | 'git'
+  | 'link'
   | 'tarball';
diff --git a/src/fetchers/link-fetcher.js b/src/fetchers/link-fetcher.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..69f503a000
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/fetchers/link-fetcher.js
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+/* @flow */
+
+import type {FetchedOverride} from '../types.js';
+import BaseFetcher from './base-fetcher.js';
+
+export default class LinkFetcher extends BaseFetcher {
+  _fetch(): Promise<FetchedOverride> {
+    // nothing to fetch
+    return Promise.resolve({
+      hash: this.hash || '',
+      resolved: null,
+    });
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/package-linker.js b/src/package-linker.js
index 30d7d2712c..a4958f2f19 100644
--- a/src/package-linker.js
+++ b/src/package-linker.js
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ export default class PackageLinker {
 
   async copyModules(patterns: Array<string>): Promise<void> {
     let flatTree = await this.getFlatHoistedTree(patterns);
-    
+
     // sorted tree makes file creation and copying not to interfere with each other
     flatTree = flatTree.sort(function(dep1, dep2): number {
       return dep1[0].localeCompare(dep2[0]);
@@ -124,14 +124,17 @@ export default class PackageLinker {
 
     //
     const queue: Map<string, CopyQueueItem> = new Map();
-    for (const [dest, {pkg, loc: src}] of flatTree) {
+    for (const [dest, {pkg, loc}] of flatTree) {
+      const remote = pkg._remote || {type: ''};
       const ref = pkg._reference;
+      const src = remote.type === 'link' ? remote.reference : loc;
       invariant(ref, 'expected package reference');
       ref.setLocation(dest);
 
       queue.set(dest, {
         src,
         dest,
+        type: remote.type,
         onFresh() {
           if (ref) {
             ref.setFresh(true);
@@ -148,7 +151,15 @@ export default class PackageLinker {
       if (await fs.exists(loc)) {
         const files = await fs.readdir(loc);
         for (const file of files) {
-          possibleExtraneous.add(path.join(loc, file));
+          // scoped packages
+          if (file.startsWith('@')) {
+            const scopedFiles = await fs.readdir(path.join(loc, file));
+            for (const scopedFile of scopedFiles) {
+              possibleExtraneous.add(path.join(loc, file, scopedFile));
+            }
+          } else {
+            possibleExtraneous.add(path.join(loc, file));
+          }
         }
       }
     }
diff --git a/src/resolvers/exotics/link-resolver.js b/src/resolvers/exotics/link-resolver.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9025967510
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/resolvers/exotics/link-resolver.js
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+/* @flow */
+
+import type {Manifest} from '../../types.js';
+import type {RegistryNames} from '../../registries/index.js';
+import type PackageRequest from '../../package-request.js';
+import ExoticResolver from './exotic-resolver.js';
+import * as util from '../../util/misc.js';
+
+const path = require('path');
+
+export default class FileResolver extends ExoticResolver {
+  constructor(request: PackageRequest, fragment: string) {
+    super(request, fragment);
+    this.loc = util.removePrefix(fragment, 'link:');
+  }
+
+  loc: string;
+
+  static protocol = 'link';
+
+  resolve(): Promise<Manifest> {
+    let loc = this.loc;
+    if (!path.isAbsolute(loc)) {
+      loc = path.join(this.config.cwd, loc);
+    }
+
+    const registry: RegistryNames = 'npm';
+    const manifest: Manifest = {_uid: '', name: '', version: 'link', _registry: registry};
+
+    manifest._remote = {
+      type: 'link',
+      registry,
+      reference: loc,
+    };
+
+    manifest._uid = manifest.version;
+
+    return Promise.resolve(manifest);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/resolvers/index.js b/src/resolvers/index.js
index e6f010cb7a..4fe960aad1 100644
--- a/src/resolvers/index.js
+++ b/src/resolvers/index.js
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import ExoticGit from './exotics/git-resolver.js';
 import ExoticTarball from './exotics/tarball-resolver.js';
 import ExoticGitHub from './exotics/github-resolver.js';
 import ExoticFile from './exotics/file-resolver.js';
+import ExoticLink from './exotics/link-resolver.js';
 import ExoticGitLab from './exotics/gitlab-resolver.js';
 import ExoticGist from './exotics/gist-resolver.js';
 import ExoticBitbucket from './exotics/bitbucket-resolver.js';
@@ -25,6 +26,7 @@ export const exotics = {
   tarball: ExoticTarball,
   github: ExoticGitHub,
   file: ExoticFile,
+  link: ExoticLink,
   gitlab: ExoticGitLab,
   gist: ExoticGist,
   bitbucket: ExoticBitbucket,
diff --git a/src/util/fs.js b/src/util/fs.js
index 0943b8500e..69d642a9b4 100644
--- a/src/util/fs.js
+++ b/src/util/fs.js
@@ -37,6 +37,7 @@ const noop = () => {};
 export type CopyQueueItem = {
   src: string,
   dest: string,
+  type?: string,
   onFresh?: ?() => void,
   onDone?: ?() => void,
 };
@@ -113,11 +114,23 @@ async function buildActionsForCopy(
 
   //
   async function build(data): Promise<void> {
-    const {src, dest} = data;
+    const {src, dest, type} = data;
     const onFresh = data.onFresh || noop;
     const onDone = data.onDone || noop;
     files.add(dest);
 
+    if (type === 'link') {
+      await mkdirp(path.dirname(dest));
+      onFresh();
+      actions.push({
+        type: 'symlink',
+        dest,
+        linkname: src,
+      });
+      onDone();
+      return;
+    }
+
     if (events.ignoreBasenames.indexOf(path.basename(src)) >= 0) {
       // ignored file
       return;