diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -43,3 +43,6 @@ ipython==5.1.0
 
 ## test related requirements
 -r requirements_test.txt
+
+## uncomment to add the debug libraries
+#-r requirements_debug.txt
diff --git a/requirements_debug.txt b/requirements_debug.txt
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements_debug.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+## special libraries we could extend the requirements.txt file with to add some
+## custom libraries useful for debug and memory tracing
+
+## uncomment inclusion of this file in requirements.txt run make generate-pkgs and nix-shell
+
+objgraph
+memory-profiler
+pympler