diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8505393bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[submodule "vendor/proto/api-common-protos"]
+	path = vendor/proto/api-common-protos
+	url = https://github.com/googleapis/api-common-protos
diff --git a/vendor/proto/api-common-protos b/vendor/proto/api-common-protos
new file mode 160000
index 000000000..3ae3d1562
--- /dev/null
+++ b/vendor/proto/api-common-protos
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 3ae3d15623f2c1e49004b295db7a77c78a75c3b0