diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index a4b386d072b558..fde716ac78ef42 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -6,6 +6,6 @@ __pycache__
 .*.swp
 .*.swo
 libcereal*.a
-libmessaging.a
+libmessaging.*
 services.h
 
diff --git a/SConscript b/SConscript
index 8971cf10918bac..dae850f9dc2d13 100644
--- a/SConscript
+++ b/SConscript
@@ -18,17 +18,29 @@ env.Library('cereal', [
     'gen/cpp/log.capnp.c++',
   ])
 
-env.Library('messaging', [
-    'messaging/messaging.cc',
-    'messaging/impl_zmq.cc',
-    'messaging/impl_msgq.cc',
-    'messaging/msgq.cc',
-  ])
-
-env.Program('messaging/bridge', ['messaging/bridge.cc'], LIBS=['messaging', 'zmq'])
-
 env.Command(
   ['services.h'],
   ['service_list.yaml', 'services.py'],
   'python3 cereal/services.py > $TARGET')
 
+messaging_deps = [
+  'messaging/messaging.cc',
+  'messaging/impl_zmq.cc',
+  'messaging/impl_msgq.cc',
+  'messaging/msgq.cc',
+]
+
+messaging_lib = env.Library('messaging', messaging_deps)
+
+# note, this rebuilds the deps shared
+env.SharedLibrary('messaging', messaging_deps)
+
+env.Program('messaging/bridge', ['messaging/bridge.cc'], LIBS=['messaging', 'zmq'])
+
+# different target?
+#env.Program('messaging/demo', ['messaging/demo.cc'], LIBS=['messaging', 'zmq'])
+
+env.Command(['messaging/messaging_pyx.so'],
+  [messaging_lib, 'messaging/messaging_pyx_setup.py', 'messaging/messaging_pyx.pyx', 'messaging/messaging.pxd'],
+  "cd cereal/messaging && python3 messaging_pyx_setup.py build_ext --inplace")
+
diff --git a/messaging/.gitignore b/messaging/.gitignore
index f35c26e8208ce5..0ddca76dd01300 100644
--- a/messaging/.gitignore
+++ b/messaging/.gitignore
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ demo
 bridge
 test_runner
 *.o
+*.os
 *.d
 *.a
 *.so
+messaging_pyx.cpp
diff --git a/messaging/__init__.py b/messaging/__init__.py
index 57b592dc2fe12b..9327f5079f8e08 100644
--- a/messaging/__init__.py
+++ b/messaging/__init__.py
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 import os
 import subprocess
 
-can_dir = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
-subprocess.check_call(["make", "-j3"], cwd=can_dir)
+# must be build with scons
 from .messaging_pyx import Context, Poller, SubSocket, PubSocket # pylint: disable=no-name-in-module, import-error
 
 from cereal import log