diff --git a/beetsplug/limit.py b/beetsplug/limit.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..20b1ff263
--- /dev/null
+++ b/beetsplug/limit.py
@@ -0,0 +1,95 @@
+# This file is part of beets.
+#
+# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
+# a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
+# "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
+# without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
+# distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+# permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
+# the following conditions:
+#
+# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
+# included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+from beets.dbcore import FieldQuery
+from beets.plugins import BeetsPlugin
+from beets.ui import Subcommand, decargs, print_
+from collections import deque
+from itertools import islice
+
+
+def lslimit(lib, opts, args):
+    """Query command with head/tail"""
+    
+    head = opts.head
+    tail = opts.tail
+
+    if head and tail:
+        raise RuntimeError("Only use one of --head and --tail")
+    
+    query = decargs(args)
+    if opts.album:
+        objs = lib.albums(query)
+    else:
+        objs = lib.items(query)
+    
+    if head:
+        objs = islice(objs, head)
+    elif tail:
+        objs = deque(objs, tail)
+
+    for obj in objs:
+        print_(format(obj))
+
+
+lslimit_cmd = Subcommand(
+    "lslimit", 
+    help="query with optional head or tail"
+)
+
+lslimit_cmd.parser.add_option(
+    '--head', 
+    action='store', 
+    type="int",
+    default=None
+)
+
+lslimit_cmd.parser.add_option(
+    '--tail',
+    action='store', 
+    type="int",
+    default=None
+)
+
+lslimit_cmd.parser.add_all_common_options()
+lslimit_cmd.func = lslimit
+
+
+class LsLimitPlugin(BeetsPlugin):
+    def commands(self):
+        return [lslimit_cmd]
+
+
+class HeadPlugin(BeetsPlugin):
+    """Head of an arbitrary query.
+    
+    This allows a user to limit the results of any query to the first
+    `pattern` rows. Example usage: return first 10 tracks `beet ls '<10'`.
+    """
+    
+    def queries(self):
+
+        class HeadQuery(FieldQuery):
+            """Singleton query implementation that tracks result count."""
+            n = 0
+            include = True
+            @classmethod
+            def value_match(cls, pattern, value):
+                cls.n += 1
+                if cls.include:
+                    cls.include = cls.n <= int(pattern)
+                return cls.include
+        
+        return {
+            "<": HeadQuery
+        }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/docs/plugins/limit.rst b/docs/plugins/limit.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7265ac34d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/plugins/limit.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+Limit Query Plugin
+==================
+
+``limit`` is a plugin to limit a query to the first or last set of 
+results. We also provide a query prefix ``'<n'`` to inline the same 
+behavior in the ``list`` command. They are analagous to piping results: 
+
+    $ beet [list|ls] [QUERY] | [head|tail] -n n
+
+There are two provided interfaces:
+
+1. ``beet lslimit [--head n | --tail n] [QUERY]`` returns the head or 
+tail of a query
+
+2. ``beet [list|ls] [QUERY] '<n'`` returns the head of a query
+
+There are two differences in behavior: 
+
+1. The query prefix does not support tail.
+
+2. The query prefix could appear anywhere in the query but will only 
+have the same behavior as the ``lslimit`` command and piping to ``head`` 
+when it appears last.
+
+Performance for the query previx is much worse due to the current  
+singleton-based implementation. 
+
+So why does the query prefix exist? Because it composes with any other 
+query-based API or plugin (see :doc:`/reference/query`). For example, 
+you can use the query prefix in ``smartplaylists`` (see :doc:`/plugins/
+smartplaylists`) to limit the number of tracks in a smart playlist for 
+applications like most played and recently added.
+
+Configuration
+=============
+
+Enable the ``last`` plugin in your configuration (see 
+:ref:`using-plugins`).
+
+Examples
+========
+
+First 10 tracks
+
+    $ beet ls | head -n 10
+    $ beet lslimit --head 10
+    $ beet ls '<10'
+
+100 mostly recently released tracks
+
+    $ beet lslimit --tail 100 year+ month+ day+
+    $ beet ls year- month- day- '<100'