diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index d73df1022..2f359d168 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -30,6 +30,12 @@ New in spot 2.8.2.dev  (not yet released)
     variants of F[n:m] and G[n:m], but those four are only implemented
     as syntactic sugar.
 
+  Python:
+
+  - Doing "import spot.foo" will now load any spot-extra/foo.py on
+    Python's search path.  This can be used to install third-party
+    packages that want to behave as plugins for Spot.
+
 New in spot 2.8.2 (2019-09-27)
 
   Command-line tools:
diff --git a/python/spot/__init__.py b/python/spot/__init__.py
index b8400427e..738070b67 100644
--- a/python/spot/__init__.py
+++ b/python/spot/__init__.py
@@ -36,6 +36,16 @@ if 'SPOT_UNINSTALLED' in os.environ:
     # into .libs/
     __path__.extend(sys.path)
 
+# We may have third-party plugins that want to be loaded as "spot.xxx", but
+# that are installed in a different $prefix.  This sets things so that any
+# file that looks like spot-extra/xxx.py can be loaded with "import spot.xxx".
+for path in sys.path:
+    if path not in __path__:
+        path += "/spot-extra"
+        if os.path.isdir(path):
+            __path__.append(path)
+
+
 from spot.impl import *
 from spot.aux import \
      extend as _extend, \