diff --git a/docs/ape17.rst b/docs/ape17.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b97af244
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/ape17.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,682 @@
+APE 17 Migration Guide
+======================
+
+The Astropy project is now transitioning from using astropy-helpers for
+infrastructure to more standard Python packaging tools. The motivation
+and implications of this are discussed in an Astropy Proposal for
+Enhancements: `APE 17: A roadmap for package infrastructure without
+astropy-helpers <https://github.com/astropy/astropy-APEs/blob/master/APE17.rst>`__
+
+This document is a **work in progress** and aims to provide a guide to
+migrating to using the new infrastructure described in APE 17. We assume
+that your package is currently using astropy-helpers and that you have
+used a version of the Astropy package-template in the past to set up
+your package (though this guide might still be useful if the latter is
+not the case).
+
+Throughout this guide, we will assume that your package is called
+``my-package`` and that the module is called ``my_package``. We
+deliberately choose a name where the package name is different from the
+module name, but for many cases, these will be the same.
+
+Step 1: Remove astropy-helpers
+------------------------------
+
+To remove the astropy-helpers submodule, first, run::
+
+   git rm -r astropy_helpers
+
+if ``astropy_helpers`` was the only submodule in your repository, the
+``.gitmodules`` file will be empty, you can remove this if you wish.
+
+Next you should remove the ``ah_bootstrap.py`` file::
+
+   git rm ah_bootstrap.py
+
+You can now commit your changes with::
+
+   git commit -m "Remove astropy-helpers submodule"
+
+Step 2: Update/create ``setup.cfg``
+-----------------------------------
+
+The next step is to update make sure that you have a ``setup.cfg`` file
+that contains meta-data about the package. If you already have this
+file, you will likely need to update it, and if you don’t already have
+this file, you will need to create it.
+
+This file should contain at least the following entries::
+
+   [metadata]
+   name = my-package
+   author = ...
+   author_email = ...
+   license = ...
+   license_file = LICENSE.rst
+   url = ...
+   description = ...
+   long_description = file: README.rst
+
+   [options]
+   zip_safe = False
+   packages = find:
+   install_requires =
+       numpy
+       astropy
+       ...
+   python_requires = >=3.6
+
+Replace the ``...`` with the information for your package. Make sure
+that ``license_file`` and ``long_description`` have the right filename,
+and specify your required dependencies one per line in the
+``install_requires`` section. Make sure the ``python_requires`` line is
+set to indicate the correct minimum Python version for your package.
+
+If you already had a file, make sure you remove the following entries
+(if present):
+
+-  ``package_name``
+-  ``version``
+-  ``setup_requires``
+-  ``tests_require``
+-  ``[ah_bootstrap]`` and all entries in it
+
+Step 3 - Define Optional, test, and docs dependencies
+-----------------------------------------------------
+
+Next up, add a new section to the ``setup.cfg`` file (or modify, if it
+already exists), to specify optional dependencies as well as
+dependencies required to run tests and build the documentation, for
+example::
+
+   [options.extras_require]
+   all =
+       scipy
+       matplotlib
+   test =
+       pytest-astropy
+   docs =
+       sphinx-astropy
+
+If you don’t need any optional dependencies, remove the ``all`` section.
+You will likely need to have at least ``pytest-astropy`` in the ``test``
+section and ``sphinx-astropy`` in ``docs``.
+
+Step 4 - Define package data
+----------------------------
+
+If your package includes non-Python data files, you will need to update
+how you declare which data files to include. If you have been using the
+Astropy package template, it is likely that you have functions called
+``get_package_data`` defined inside ``setup_package.py`` files. Remove
+these functions, and instead define the package data using a
+``[options.package_data]`` section inside your ``setup.cfg`` file,
+e.g.::
+
+   [options.package_data]
+   * = *.fits, *.csv
+   my_package.tests = data/*
+
+In the above example, all ``.fits`` and ``.csv`` in the package will be
+included as well as all files inside ``my_package/tests/data``.
+
+Step 5 - Update your ``setup.py`` file
+--------------------------------------
+
+If you don’t have any compiled (e.g. C or Cython) extensions in your
+package, you can replace your existing ``setup.py`` file with the
+following:
+
+.. code:: python
+
+   #!/usr/bin/env python
+
+   import os
+   import sys
+   from setuptools import setup
+
+   TEST_HELP = """
+   Note: running tests is no longer done using 'python setup.py test'. Instead
+   you will need to run:
+
+       tox -e test
+
+   If you don't already have tox installed, you can install it with:
+
+       pip install tox
+
+   If you only want to run part of the test suite, you can also use pytest
+   directly with::
+
+       pip install -e .
+       pytest
+
+   For more information, see:
+
+     http://docs.astropy.org/en/latest/development/testguide.html#running-tests
+   """
+
+   if 'test' in sys.argv:
+       print(TEST_HELP)
+       sys.exit(1)
+
+   DOCS_HELP = """
+   Note: building the documentation is no longer done using
+   'python setup.py build_docs'. Instead you will need to run:
+
+       tox -e build_docs
+
+   If you don't already have tox installed, you can install it with:
+
+       pip install tox
+
+   For more information, see:
+
+     http://docs.astropy.org/en/latest/install.html#builddocs
+   """
+
+   if 'build_docs' in sys.argv or 'build_sphinx' in sys.argv:
+       print(DOCS_HELP)
+       sys.exit(1)
+
+   setup(use_scm_version={'write_to': os.path.join('my_package', 'version.py')})
+
+Step 6: add a ``pyproject.toml`` file
+-------------------------------------
+
+The ``pyproject.toml`` file is used to declare dependencies needed to
+run ``setup.py`` and build the package. If your package doesn’t have any
+compiled extensions, the file should contain:
+
+.. code:: toml
+
+   [build-system]
+   requires = ["setuptools",
+               "wheel"]
+   build-backend = 'setuptools.build_meta'
+
+Step 7 - Handling C/Cython extensions
+-------------------------------------
+
+If your package has no compiled C/Cython extensions, you can skip this
+step. Otherwise, if you have C or Cython extensions, you can either
+define your extensions manually inside the ``setup.py`` file or make use
+of the `extension-helpers <https://extension-helpers.readthedocs.io>`__
+package to collect extensions in a similar way to astropy-helpers.
+
+Step 7a - Defining extensions manually
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+You can define extensions manually as described
+`here <https://oa-packaging-guide-preview.readthedocs.io/en/latest/extensions.html#defining-extensions-in-setup-py>`__.
+If you do this, you can remove all ``setup_package.py`` files in your
+package.
+
+If you have Cython extensions or your extensions use the NumPy C API,
+proceed to Step 7c, otherwise you can proceed to Step 8.
+
+Step 7b - Using extension-helpers
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+You can use the extension-helpers package to:
+
+-  Automatically define extensions for Cython files
+-  Pick up extensions declared in ``setup_package.py`` files, as
+   described in the `extension-helpers
+   documentation <https://extension-helpers.readthedocs.io/en/latest/>`__.
+
+The latter works by looking through all the ``setup_package.py`` files
+in your package and executing the ``get_extensions()`` functions, which
+each should return a list of extensions. Check through your existing
+``setup_package.py`` files (if any), and make sure that any
+``astropy_helpers`` imports are changed to ``extension_helpers``.
+
+Next, add:
+
+.. code:: python
+
+   from extension_helpers.setup_helpers import get_extensions
+
+just under the following lines at the top of the ``setup.py`` file:
+
+.. code:: python
+
+   import sys
+   from setuptools import setup
+
+In addition, in the same file, change:
+
+.. code:: python
+
+   setup(use_scm_version={'write_to': os.path.join('my_package', 'version.py')})
+
+to
+
+.. code:: python
+
+   setup(use_scm_version={'write_to': os.path.join('my_package', 'version.py')},
+         ext_modules=get_extensions())
+
+If you have Cython extensions or your extensions use the NumPy C API,
+proceed to Step 7c, otherwise you can proceed to Step 8.
+
+Step 7c - Cython and Numpy build-time dependencies
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+If your compiled extensions rely on the NumPy C API, you will need to
+declare Numpy as a build-time dependency in ``pyproject.toml``. Note
+that as described in `APE
+17 <https://github.com/astropy/astropy-APEs/blob/master/APE17.rst#build-time-dependencies>`__,
+you need to pin the build-time Numpy dependency to the **oldest**
+supported Numpy version for each Python version. However, rather than
+doing this manually, you can add the ``oldest-supported-numpy`` package
+to your ``pyproject.toml`` file:
+
+.. code:: toml
+
+   [build-system]
+   requires = ["setuptools",
+               "wheel",
+               "oldest-supported-numpy"]
+   build-backend = 'setuptools.build_meta'
+
+If you have Cython extensions, you will need to also add an entry for
+Cython, pinning it to a recent version:
+
+.. code:: toml
+
+   [build-system]
+   requires = ["setuptools",
+               "wheel",
+               "cython==0.29.14"]
+   build-backend = 'setuptools.build_meta'
+
+Whenever a new major Python version is released, you will likely need to
+update this pinning to use the most recent Cython version available.
+
+Step 8 - Using setuptools_scm
+-----------------------------
+
+The `setuptools_scm <https://pypi.org/project/setuptools-scm/>`__
+package is now recommended to manage the version numbers for your
+package. The way this works is that instead of setting the version
+number manually in e.g. \ ``setup.cfg`` or elsewhere in your package,
+the version number is based on git tags.
+
+First, define ``setup_requires`` inside the ``[options]`` section of
+your ``setup.cfg`` file::
+
+   [options]
+   ...
+   setup_requires = setuptools_scm
+   ...
+
+Next, add ``setuptools_scm`` as a build-time dependency in the
+``requires`` list of your ``pyproject.toml`` file:
+
+.. code:: toml
+
+   [build-system]
+   requires = ["setuptools",
+               "setuptools_scm",
+               ...
+
+Check your ``.gitignore`` and make sure that you have a line containing::
+
+   my_package/version.py
+
+Finally, edit your ``my_package/_astropy_init.py`` file and remove the
+following lines:
+
+.. code:: python
+
+   try:
+       from .version import githash as __githash__
+   except ImportError:
+       __githash__ = ''
+
+and remove ``'__githash__'`` from the ``__all__`` list at the top of the
+file.
+
+The git hash is now contained in the version number, so this is no
+longer needed.
+
+Step 9 - Configuring pytest
+---------------------------
+
+To make sure that pytest works properly, you can set a few options in a
+``[tool:pytest]`` section in your ``setup.cfg`` file::
+
+   [tool:pytest]
+   testpaths = "my_package" "docs"
+   astropy_header = true
+   doctest_plus = enabled
+   text_file_format = rst
+   addopts = --doctest-rst
+
+For the ``testpaths`` line, make sure you replace ``my_package`` with
+the name of your package.
+
+The remaining options ensure that the output from pytest includes a
+header that lists dependencies and system information, and also ensure
+that the ``.rst`` files are picked up and tested by pytest.
+
+Step 10 - Update ``MANIFEST.in``
+--------------------------------
+
+Edit your ``MANIFEST.in`` file to remove the following lines, if present
+(and any other line related to ``astropy_helpers``)::
+
+   include ez_setup.py
+   include ah_bootstrap.py
+
+   # the next few stanzas are for astropy_helpers.  It's derived from the
+   # astropy_helpers/MANIFEST.in, but requires additional includes for the actual
+   # package directory and egg-info.
+
+   include astropy_helpers/README.rst
+   include astropy_helpers/CHANGES.rst
+   include astropy_helpers/LICENSE.rst
+   recursive-include astropy_helpers/licenses *
+
+   include astropy_helpers/ez_setup.py
+   include astropy_helpers/ah_bootstrap.py
+
+   recursive-include astropy_helpers/astropy_helpers *.py *.pyx *.c *.h
+   recursive-include astropy_helpers/astropy_helpers.egg-info *
+   # include the sphinx stuff with "*" because there are css/html/rst/etc.
+   recursive-include astropy_helpers/astropy_helpers/sphinx *
+
+   prune astropy_helpers/build
+   prune astropy_helpers/astropy_helpers/tests
+
+Then add a new line near the top with the following::
+
+   include pyproject.toml
+
+Step 11 - Updating your documentation configuration
+---------------------------------------------------
+
+You will need to edit the ``docs/conf.py`` file to make sure it does not
+use astropy-helpers. If you see a code block such as:
+
+.. code:: python
+
+    try:
+       import astropy_helpers
+    except ImportError:
+       # Building from inside the docs/ directory?
+       if os.path.basename(os.getcwd()) == 'docs':
+           a_h_path = os.path.abspath(os.path.join('..', 'astropy_helpers'))
+           if os.path.isdir(a_h_path):
+               sys.path.insert(1, a_h_path)
+
+   # Load all of the global Astropy configuration
+   from astropy_helpers.sphinx.conf import *
+
+   # Get configuration information from setup.cfg
+   try:
+       from ConfigParser import ConfigParser
+   except ImportError:
+       from configparser import ConfigParser
+
+you should change it to:
+
+.. code:: python
+
+   try:
+       from sphinx_astropy.conf.v1 import *  # noqa
+   except ImportError:
+       print('ERROR: the documentation requires the sphinx-astropy package to be installed')
+       sys.exit(1)
+
+   # Get configuration information from setup.cfg
+   from configparser import ConfigParser
+   conf = ConfigParser()
+
+Find and replace any instances of ``package_name`` in the file with
+``name``.
+
+TODO: there are probably some more changes here for older packages,
+might need to really just make a new template ``conf.py`` to use.
+
+Step 12 - Setting up tox
+------------------------
+
+`tox <https://tox.readthedocs.io/en/latest/>`__ is a tool for automating
+commands, which is well suited to e.g. running tests for your package or
+building the documentation. One of the benefits of using tox is that it
+will (by default) create a source distribution for your package and
+install it into a virtual environment before running tests or building
+docs, which means that it will be a good test of whether e.g. you have
+declared the package data correctly.
+
+Given the set-up described in the previous steps, you should be able to
+create a ``tox.ini`` file at the root of your package with the following
+content:
+
+*Suggestion: add ``package_name = my_package`` and then replace
+``my_package`` throughout with ``[tox]package_name`` to avoid needing to
+change package name in multiple places.*
+
+::
+
+   [tox]
+   envlist =
+       py{36,37,38}-test{,-alldeps,-devdeps}
+       build_docs
+       codestyle
+   requires =
+       setuptools >= 30.3.0
+       pip >= 19.3.1
+   isolated_build = true
+
+   [testenv]
+   passenv =
+       HOME
+       WINDIR
+       LC_ALL
+       LC_CTYPE
+       CC
+       CFLAGS
+   changedir =
+       test: .tmp/{envname}
+       build_docs: docs
+   description =
+       test: run tests with pytest
+       build_docs: invoke sphinx-build to build the HTML docs
+       alldeps: run tests with all optional dependencies
+       devdeps: run tests with numpy and astropy dev versions
+   deps =
+       astropylts: astropy==4.0rc2
+       numpy116: numpy==1.16.*
+       numpy117: numpy==1.17.*
+       numpy118: numpy==1.18.*
+       devdeps: git+https://github.com/numpy/numpy.git#egg=numpy
+       devdeps: git+https://github.com/astropy/astropy.git#egg=astropy
+   extras =
+       test: test
+       build_docs: docs
+       alldeps: all
+   commands =
+       test: pytest --pyargs my_package {toxinidir}/docs {posargs}
+       build_docs: sphinx-build -W -b html . _build/html {posargs}
+
+   [testenv:codestyle]
+   skip_install = true
+   description = check package code style
+   deps = pycodestyle
+   commands = pycodestyle my_package
+
+Replace instances of ``my_package`` with your module name. To try this
+out, you should be able to do the following:
+
+Run tests with minimal dependencies::
+
+   tox -e test
+
+Run tests with astropy LTS and Numpy 1.16::
+
+   tox -e test-astropylts-numpy116
+
+Run tests with all optional dependencies::
+
+   tox -e test-all
+
+Run tests with minimal dependencies and the latest developer version of
+numpy and astropy::
+
+   tox -e test-dev
+
+Build the documentation::
+
+   tox -e build_docs
+
+Run code style checks on your code::
+
+   tox -e codestyle
+
+The ``{posargs}`` corresponds to arguments passed to ``tox`` after a
+``--`` separator - for example to make pytest verbose in a ``test``
+environment, you can do::
+
+   tox -e test -- -v
+
+Step 13 - Updating your Continuous Integration
+----------------------------------------------
+
+This step will depend on what continuous integration services you use.
+Broadly speaking, unless there are dependencies you need that can only
+be installed with conda, you should no longer need to use ci-helpers.
+
+The recommended approach is to use the tox file to set up the different
+configurations you want to use, and to then keep the CI configuration as
+simple as possible. For example, if you wanted to set up a Travis CI
+file to run the tox environments defined in Step 10, you could use a
+configuration such as:
+
+.. code:: yaml
+
+   language: c
+
+   sudo: false
+
+   env:
+       global:
+           - TOXENV=''
+           - TOXARGS=''
+           - TOXPOSARGS=''
+
+   matrix:
+
+       include:
+
+           # Run the default test environment on
+           # all major platforms
+
+           - os: linux
+             python: 3.8
+             env: TOXENV='test'
+
+           - os: osx
+             env: PYTHON_VERSION=3.7 TOXENV='test'
+
+           - os: windows
+             env: PYTHON_VERSION=3.7 TOXENV='test'
+
+           # Run the test-dev-all environment and pass the
+           # --remote-data to demonstrate passing positional
+           # arguments for pytest
+           - os: linux
+             python: 3.7
+             env: TOXENV="test-all-dev"
+                  TOXPOSARGS="--remote-data=astropy"
+
+           # Build the docs
+           - os: linux
+             python: 3.7
+             env: TOXENV="build_docs"
+
+           # Run pycodestyle checks
+           - os: linux
+             python: 3.7
+             env: TOXENV="pycodestyle"
+
+   before_install:
+
+       # We need a full clone to make sure setuptools_scm
+       # works properly
+       - git fetch --unshallow .
+       - git fetch --depth=1000000
+
+   install:
+
+       - if [[ $TRAVIS_OS_NAME == osx || $TRAVIS_OS_NAME == windows ]]; then
+           git clone git://github.com/astropy/ci-helpers.git;
+           source ci-helpers/travis/setup_conda.sh;
+         fi
+
+       - pip install tox --upgrade
+
+   script:
+       - tox -e $TOXENV $TOXARGS -- $TOXPOSARGS
+
+   after_success:
+       - pip install codecov
+       - codecov
+
+Note that the above shouldn’t be used as-is - it just shows how one can
+configure Travis to use tox, optionally using conda via ci-helpers to
+set up Python on MacOS X and Windows, but you should adapt your existing
+CI configuration rather than using the above.
+
+Step 14 - Update ReadTheDocs configuration
+------------------------------------------
+
+With the set-up described in this migration guide, you should be able to
+simplify the configuration for ReadTheDocs. This can be done via a
+``readthedocs.yml`` or ``.readthedocs.yml`` file (the latter is
+recommended). This file just needs to contain:
+
+.. code:: yaml
+
+   version: 2
+
+   build:
+     image: latest
+
+   python:
+     version: 3.7
+     install:
+       - method: pip
+         path: .
+         extra_requirements:
+           - docs
+           - all
+
+If you don’t have the ``all`` extras_require defined, you can remove
+that line.
+
+If you don’t need to build non-HTML formats for the docs (e.g. epub),
+you can also add the following line at the end of your
+``.readthedocs.yml`` file:
+
+.. code:: yaml
+
+   formats: []
+
+Step 15 - Final cleanup
+-----------------------
+
+Once you’ve made the above changes, you should be able to remove the
+following sections from your ``setup.cfg`` file:
+
+-  ``[build_docs]``
+-  ``[build_sphinx]``
+-  ``[upload_docs]``
+
+You should also add ``pip-wheel-metadata`` to your ``.gitignore`` file.
+
+TODO: there will likely be more things that can be removed
+
+Things to add: version.py file in .gitignore, coveragerc, conftest.py
diff --git a/docs/index.rst b/docs/index.rst
index ada6814f..0dfc7411 100644
--- a/docs/index.rst
+++ b/docs/index.rst
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ documentation, read the :ref:`next-steps` for further information.
    options
    nextsteps
    updating
+   ape17
 
 
 Removal of Python 2 support