diff --git a/spacy/analysis.py b/spacy/analysis.py
index c2600048f..41591661c 100644
--- a/spacy/analysis.py
+++ b/spacy/analysis.py
@@ -173,3 +173,24 @@ def print_summary(nlp, pretty=True, no_print=False):
         msg.good("No problems found.")
     if no_print:
         return {"overview": overview, "problems": problems}
+
+
+def count_pipeline_interdependencies(pipeline):
+    """Count how many subsequent components require an annotation set by each
+    component in the pipeline.
+    """
+    pipe_assigns = []
+    pipe_requires = []
+    for name, pipe in pipeline:
+        pipe_assigns.append(set(getattr(pipe, "assigns", [])))
+        pipe_requires.append(set(getattr(pipe, "requires", [])))
+    counts = []
+    for i, assigns in enumerate(pipe_assigns):
+        count = 0
+        for requires in pipe_requires[i+1:]:
+            if assigns.intersection(requires):
+                count += 1
+        counts.append(count)
+    return counts
+
+
diff --git a/spacy/language.py b/spacy/language.py
index f770cda2c..8c44cf26b 100644
--- a/spacy/language.py
+++ b/spacy/language.py
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ from .vocab import Vocab
 from .lemmatizer import Lemmatizer
 from .lookups import Lookups
 from .analysis import analyze_pipes, analyze_all_pipes, validate_attrs
+from .analysis import count_pipeline_interdependencies
 from .gold import Example
 from .scorer import Scorer
 from .util import link_vectors_to_models, create_default_optimizer, registry
@@ -545,13 +546,14 @@ class Language(object):
 
         if component_cfg is None:
             component_cfg = {}
+        component_deps = count_pipeline_interdependencies(self.pipeline)
         # Determine whether component should set annotations. In theory I guess
         # we should do this by inspecting the meta? Or we could just always
         # say "yes"
-        for name, proc in self.pipeline:
+        for i, (name, proc) in enumerate(self.pipeline):
             component_cfg.setdefault(name, {})
             component_cfg[name].setdefault("drop", drop)
-            component_cfg[name].setdefault("set_annotations", False)
+            component_cfg[name]["set_annotations"] = bool(component_deps[i])
         for name, proc in self.pipeline:
             if not hasattr(proc, "update"):
                 continue
diff --git a/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_analysis.py b/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_analysis.py
index cda39f6ee..e608f2c34 100644
--- a/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_analysis.py
+++ b/spacy/tests/pipeline/test_analysis.py
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import spacy.language
 from spacy.language import Language, component
 from spacy.analysis import print_summary, validate_attrs
 from spacy.analysis import get_assigns_for_attr, get_requires_for_attr
+from spacy.analysis import count_pipeline_interdependencies
 from mock import Mock, ANY
 import pytest
 
@@ -161,3 +162,19 @@ def test_analysis_validate_attrs_remove_pipe():
     with pytest.warns(None) as record:
         nlp.remove_pipe("c2")
     assert not record.list
+
+
+def test_pipe_interdependencies():
+    class Fancifier:
+        name = "fancifier"
+        assigns = ("doc._.fancy",)
+        requires = tuple()
+    
+    class FancyNeeder:
+        name = "needer"
+        assigns = tuple()
+        requires = ("doc._.fancy",)
+
+    pipeline = [("fancifier", Fancifier()), ("needer", FancyNeeder())]
+    counts = count_pipeline_interdependencies(pipeline)
+    assert counts == [1, 0]