diff --git a/mypy/build.py b/mypy/build.py
index a4817d1866c7..c99999d32a05 100644
--- a/mypy/build.py
+++ b/mypy/build.py
@@ -2410,6 +2410,10 @@ def finish_passes(self) -> None:
             manager.report_file(self.tree, self.type_map(), self.options)
 
             self.update_fine_grained_deps(self.manager.fg_deps)
+
+            if manager.options.export_ref_info:
+                write_undocumented_ref_info(self, manager.metastore, manager.options)
+
             self.free_state()
             if not manager.options.fine_grained_incremental and not manager.options.preserve_asts:
                 free_tree(self.tree)
@@ -2941,6 +2945,7 @@ def dispatch(sources: list[BuildSource], manager: BuildManager, stdout: TextIO)
         dump_all_dependencies(
             manager.modules, manager.all_types, manager.options.python_version, manager.options
         )
+
     return graph
 
 
@@ -3616,3 +3621,22 @@ def is_silent_import_module(manager: BuildManager, path: str) -> bool:
         is_sub_path(path, dir)
         for dir in manager.search_paths.package_path + manager.search_paths.typeshed_path
     )
+
+
+def write_undocumented_ref_info(state: State, metastore: MetadataStore, options: Options) -> None:
+    # This exports some dependency information in a rather ad-hoc fashion, which
+    # can be helpful for some tools. This is all highly experimental and could be
+    # removed at any time.
+
+    from mypy.refinfo import get_undocumented_ref_info_json
+
+    if not state.tree:
+        # We need a full AST for this.
+        return
+
+    _, data_file, _ = get_cache_names(state.id, state.xpath, options)
+    ref_info_file = ".".join(data_file.split(".")[:-2]) + ".refs.json"
+    assert not ref_info_file.startswith(".")
+
+    deps_json = get_undocumented_ref_info_json(state.tree)
+    metastore.write(ref_info_file, json.dumps(deps_json))
diff --git a/mypy/main.py b/mypy/main.py
index 47dea2ae9797..3f5e02ec3f79 100644
--- a/mypy/main.py
+++ b/mypy/main.py
@@ -1017,6 +1017,8 @@ def add_invertible_flag(
     add_invertible_flag(
         "--allow-empty-bodies", default=False, help=argparse.SUPPRESS, group=internals_group
     )
+    # This undocumented feature exports limited line-level dependency information.
+    internals_group.add_argument("--export-ref-info", action="store_true", help=argparse.SUPPRESS)
 
     report_group = parser.add_argument_group(
         title="Report generation", description="Generate a report in the specified format."
diff --git a/mypy/options.py b/mypy/options.py
index 92c96a92c531..077e0d4ed90a 100644
--- a/mypy/options.py
+++ b/mypy/options.py
@@ -339,6 +339,9 @@ def __init__(self) -> None:
         self.disable_recursive_aliases = False
         # Deprecated reverse version of the above, do not use.
         self.enable_recursive_aliases = False
+        # Export line-level, limited, fine-grained dependency information in cache data
+        # (undocumented feature).
+        self.export_ref_info = False
 
         self.disable_bytearray_promotion = False
         self.disable_memoryview_promotion = False
diff --git a/mypy/refinfo.py b/mypy/refinfo.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..4262824f8f97
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mypy/refinfo.py
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+"""Find line-level reference information from a mypy AST (undocumented feature)"""
+
+from __future__ import annotations
+
+from mypy.nodes import LDEF, MemberExpr, MypyFile, NameExpr, RefExpr
+from mypy.traverser import TraverserVisitor
+
+
+class RefInfoVisitor(TraverserVisitor):
+    def __init__(self) -> None:
+        super().__init__()
+        self.data: list[dict[str, object]] = []
+
+    def visit_name_expr(self, expr: NameExpr) -> None:
+        super().visit_name_expr(expr)
+        self.record_ref_expr(expr)
+
+    def visit_member_expr(self, expr: MemberExpr) -> None:
+        super().visit_member_expr(expr)
+        self.record_ref_expr(expr)
+
+    def record_ref_expr(self, expr: RefExpr) -> None:
+        fullname = None
+        if expr.kind != LDEF and "." in expr.fullname:
+            fullname = expr.fullname
+        elif isinstance(expr, MemberExpr) and not expr.fullname:
+            fullname = f"*.{expr.name}"
+        if fullname is not None:
+            self.data.append({"line": expr.line, "column": expr.column, "target": fullname})
+
+
+def get_undocumented_ref_info_json(tree: MypyFile) -> list[dict[str, object]]:
+    visitor = RefInfoVisitor()
+    tree.accept(visitor)
+    return visitor.data