diff --git a/doc/readme.md b/doc/readme.md
index f08741df..7aa494f3 100644
--- a/doc/readme.md
+++ b/doc/readme.md
@@ -13,4 +13,5 @@
 ## Miscellaneous
 - [Quick Start](quick_start.md)
 - [Animations](animations.md)
+- [Tooling](tooling.md)
 - [Comparison with React/Vue](comparison.md)
diff --git a/doc/tooling.md b/doc/tooling.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..93dd1a51
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/tooling.md
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+# 🦉 Tooling 🦉
+
+## Development mode
+
+By default, Owl is in *production* mode, this means that it will try to do its
+job fast, and skip some expensive operations.  However, in some cases, it is
+convenient to have better information on what is going on, this is the purpose
+of the dev mode.
+
+Owl has a mode flag, in `owl.__info__.mode`.  Its default value is `prod`, but
+it can be set to `dev`:
+
+```js
+owl.__info__.mode = 'dev';
+```
+
+Note that templates compiled with the `prod` settings will not be recompiled.
+So, changing this setting is best done at startup.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/index.ts b/src/index.ts
index dfccbf1e..8693ca8c 100644
--- a/src/index.ts
+++ b/src/index.ts
@@ -12,12 +12,26 @@ export { Observer } from "./observer";
 // themselves in QWeb, otherwise these files will not even be loaded.
 import "./qweb_directives";
 import "./qweb_extensions";
-export { QWeb } from "./qweb_core";
+import { QWeb } from "./qweb_core";
+export { QWeb };
 
 export { connect, Store } from "./store";
 import * as _utils from "./utils";
 
-export const __info__ = {}
-
+export const __info__ = {};
 
+Object.defineProperty(__info__, "mode", {
+  get() {
+    return QWeb.dev ? "dev" : "prod";
+  },
+  set(mode: string) {
+    QWeb.dev = mode === "dev";
+    if (QWeb.dev) {
+      const url = `https://github.com/odoo/owl/blob/master/doc/tooling.md#development-mode`;
+      console.warn(
+        `Owl is running in dev mode.  This is not suitable for production use. See ${url} for more information.`
+      );
+    }
+  }
+});
 export const utils = _utils;
diff --git a/src/qweb_core.ts b/src/qweb_core.ts
index a007a7ab..4bf478b5 100644
--- a/src/qweb_core.ts
+++ b/src/qweb_core.ts
@@ -127,6 +127,9 @@ export class QWeb {
   templates: { [name: string]: Template } = {};
   utils = UTILS;
 
+  // dev mode enables better error messages or more costly validations
+  static dev: boolean = false;
+
   // the id field is useful to be able to hash qweb instances.  The current
   // use case is that component's templates are qweb dependant, and need to be
   // able to map a qweb instance to a template name.