diff --git a/docs/vulkan/index.rst b/docs/vulkan/index.rst
index 9f715f0fd9d..58e387d6f97 100644
--- a/docs/vulkan/index.rst
+++ b/docs/vulkan/index.rst
@@ -8,3 +8,5 @@ hardware-agnostic bits in common code.
 
 .. toctree::
    :maxdepth: 2
+
+   renderpass
diff --git a/docs/vulkan/renderpass.rst b/docs/vulkan/renderpass.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..4d853b04027
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/vulkan/renderpass.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+Render Passes
+=============
+
+The Vulkan runtime code in Mesa provides several helpful utilities ot make
+managing render passes easier.
+
+
+VK_KHR_create_renderpass2
+-------------------------
+
+It is strongly recommended that drivers implement VK_KHR_create_renderpass2
+directly and not bother implementing the old Vulkan 1.0 entrypoints.  If a
+driver does not implement them, the following will be implemented in common
+code in terms of their VK_KHR_create_renderpass2 counterparts:
+
+ - :cpp:func:`vkCreateRenderPass`
+ - :cpp:func:`vkCmdBeginRenderPass`
+ - :cpp:func:`vkCmdNextSubpass`
+ - :cpp:func:`vkCmdEndRenderPass`
+
+
+Common VkRenderPass implementation
+----------------------------------
+
+The Vulkan runtime code in Mesa provides a common implementation of
+:cpp:type:`VkRenderPass` called :cpp:struct:`vk_render_pass` which drivers
+can optionally use.  Unlike most Vulkan runtime structs, it's not really
+designed to be used as a base for a driver-specific struct.  It does,
+however, contain all the information passed to
+:cpp:func:`vkCreateRenderPass2` so it can be used in a driver so long as
+that driver doesn't need to do any additional compilation at
+:cpp:func:`vkCreateRenderPass2` time.  If a driver chooses to use
+:cpp:struct:`vk_render_pass`, the Vulkan runtime provides implementations
+of :cpp:func:`vkCreateRenderPass2` and :cpp:func:`vkDestroyRenderPass`.
+
+
+VK_KHR_dynamic_rendering
+------------------------
+
+For drivers which don't need to do subpass combining, it is recommended
+that they skip implementing render passess entirely and implement
+VK_KHR_dynamic_rendering instead.  If they choose to do so, the runtime
+will provide the following, implemented in terms of
+:cpp:func:`vkCmdBeginRendering` and :cpp:func:`vkCmdEndRendering`:
+
+ - :cpp:func:`vkCmdBeginRenderPass2`
+ - :cpp:func:`vkCmdNextSubpass2`
+ - :cpp:func:`vkCmdEndRenderPass2`
+
+We also provide a no-op implementation of
+:cpp:func:`vkGetRenderAreaGranularity` which returns a render area
+granularity of 1x1.
+
+Drivers which wish to use the common render pass imlementation in this way
+**must** also support a Mesa-specific pseudo-extension which optionally
+provides an initial image layout for each attachment at
+:cpp:func:`vkCmdBeginRendering` time.  This is required for us to combine
+render pass clears with layout transitions, often from
+:cpp:enum:`VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_UNDEFINED`.  On at least Intel and AMD,
+combining these transitions with clears is important for performance.
+
+.. doxygenstruct:: VkRenderingAttachmentInitialLayoutInfoMESA
+   :members:
+
+Because render passes and subpass indices are also passed into
+:cpp:func:`vkCmdCreateGraphicsPipelines` and
+:cpp:func:`vkCmdExecuteCommands` which we can't implement on the driver's
+behalf, we provide a couple of helpers for getting the render pass
+information in terms of the relevant VK_KHR_dynamic_rendering:
+
+.. doxygenfunction:: vk_get_pipeline_rendering_create_info
+
+.. doxygenfunction:: vk_get_command_buffer_inheritance_rendering_info
+
+Apart from handling layout transitions, the common render pass
+implementation mostly ignores input attachments.  It is expected that the
+driver call :cpp:func:`nir_lower_input_attachments` to turn them into
+texturing operations.  The driver **must** support texturing from an input
+attachment at the same time as rendering to it in order to support Vulkan
+subpass self-dependencies.  To assist drivers, we provide self-dependency
+information through another Mesa-specific pseudo-extension:
+
+.. doxygenstruct:: VkRenderingSelfDependencyInfoMESA
+   :members:
+
+vk_render_pass reference
+------------------------
+
+The following is a reference for the :cpp:struct:`vk_render_pass` structure
+and its substructures.
+
+.. doxygenstruct:: vk_render_pass
+   :members:
+
+.. doxygenstruct:: vk_render_pass_attachment
+   :members:
+
+.. doxygenstruct:: vk_subpass
+   :members:
+
+.. doxygenstruct:: vk_subpass_attachment
+   :members:
+
+.. doxygenstruct:: vk_subpass_dependency
+   :members: