diff --git a/mercurial/debugcommands.py b/mercurial/debugcommands.py
--- a/mercurial/debugcommands.py
+++ b/mercurial/debugcommands.py
@@ -3717,6 +3717,23 @@
         ui.writenoi18n(b' revision %s\n' % v[1])
 
 
+@command(b'debugshell', optionalrepo=True)
+def debugshell(ui, repo):
+    """run an interactive Python interpreter
+
+    The local namespace is provided with a reference to the ui and
+    the repo instance (if available).
+    """
+    import code
+
+    imported_objects = {
+        'ui': ui,
+        'repo': repo,
+    }
+
+    code.interact(local=imported_objects)
+
+
 @command(
     b'debugsuccessorssets',
     [(b'', b'closest', False, _(b'return closest successors sets only'))],
diff --git a/tests/test-completion.t b/tests/test-completion.t
--- a/tests/test-completion.t
+++ b/tests/test-completion.t
@@ -130,6 +130,7 @@
   debugrevspec
   debugserve
   debugsetparents
+  debugshell
   debugsidedata
   debugssl
   debugstrip
@@ -319,6 +320,7 @@
   debugrevspec: optimize, show-revs, show-set, show-stage, no-optimized, verify-optimized
   debugserve: sshstdio, logiofd, logiofile
   debugsetparents: 
+  debugshell: 
   debugsidedata: changelog, manifest, dir
   debugssl: 
   debugstrip: rev, force, no-backup, nobackup, , keep, bookmark, soft
diff --git a/tests/test-help.t b/tests/test-help.t
--- a/tests/test-help.t
+++ b/tests/test-help.t
@@ -1069,6 +1069,7 @@
    debugsetparents
                  manually set the parents of the current working directory
                  (DANGEROUS)
+   debugshell    run an interactive Python interpreter
    debugsidedata
                  dump the side data for a cl/manifest/file revision
    debugssl      test a secure connection to a server