diff --git a/mercurial/hg.py b/mercurial/hg.py
--- a/mercurial/hg.py
+++ b/mercurial/hg.py
@@ -1092,9 +1092,9 @@ def outgoing(ui, repo, dest, opts):
     recurse()
     return 0 # exit code is zero since we found outgoing changes
 
-def verify(repo):
+def verify(repo, level=None):
     """verify the consistency of a repository"""
-    ret = verifymod.verify(repo)
+    ret = verifymod.verify(repo, level=level)
 
     # Broken subrepo references in hidden csets don't seem worth worrying about,
     # since they can't be pushed/pulled, and --hidden can be used if they are a
diff --git a/mercurial/verify.py b/mercurial/verify.py
--- a/mercurial/verify.py
+++ b/mercurial/verify.py
@@ -22,9 +22,12 @@ from . import (
     util,
 )
 
-def verify(repo):
+VERIFY_DEFAULT = 0
+
+def verify(repo, level=None):
     with repo.lock():
-        return verifier(repo).verify()
+        v = verifier(repo, level)
+        return v.verify()
 
 def _normpath(f):
     # under hg < 2.4, convert didn't sanitize paths properly, so a
@@ -34,10 +37,13 @@ def _normpath(f):
     return f
 
 class verifier(object):
-    def __init__(self, repo):
+    def __init__(self, repo, level=None):
         self.repo = repo.unfiltered()
         self.ui = repo.ui
         self.match = repo.narrowmatch()
+        if level is None:
+            level = VERIFY_DEFAULT
+        self._level = level
         self.badrevs = set()
         self.errors = 0
         self.warnings = 0