diff --git a/bin/index.js b/bin/index.js
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..f62e9c02
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/index.js
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env node
+
+const path = require('path');
+const fs = require('fs');
+
+const jsonata = require('../src/jsonata');
+
+/**
+ * cli usage:
+ *   jsonata <json-file> <expression>
+ *   cat my-file.json | jsonata <expression>
+ * @returns {{expression: string, object: {}}}
+ */
+function parseArgs() {
+    const args = process.argv.slice(2);
+
+    if (args.length === 2) { // file and expression given
+        const [jsonFile, expression] = args;
+
+        let object;
+        try {
+            object = require(path.resolve(jsonFile));
+        } catch (error) {
+            // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
+            console.error(`failed to load json file ${jsonFile}`, error);
+            process.exit(1);
+        }
+
+        return { object, expression };
+    } else if (args.length === 1) { // expression given, read file contents from stdin
+        const fileData = fs.readFileSync(0).toString();
+
+        let object;
+        try {
+            object = JSON.parse(fileData);
+        } catch (error) {
+            // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
+            console.error(`failed to load json string from stdin`, error);
+            process.exit(2);
+        }
+
+        return { object, expression: args[0] };
+    } else {
+        // eslint-disable-next-line no-console
+        console.error('invalid number of arguments', process.argv);
+        process.exit(3);
+    }
+}
+
+const { expression, object } = parseArgs();
+const result = jsonata(expression).evaluate(object);
+// eslint-disable-next-line no-console
+console.log(JSON.stringify(result, null, 2));
diff --git a/jsdoc.json b/jsdoc.json
index 748152de..9a2d220e 100644
--- a/jsdoc.json
+++ b/jsdoc.json
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
   },
   "source": {
     "includePattern": ".+\\.js(doc)?$",
-    "excludePattern": "(^|\\/|\\\\)_|node_modules|doc|coverage"
+    "excludePattern": "(^|\\/|\\\\)_|node_modules|doc|coverage|bin"
   },
   "plugins": [],
   "templates": {
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index c72ab13f..5a39d7c1 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -10,6 +10,9 @@
     "type": "git",
     "url": "https://github.com/jsonata-js/jsonata.git"
   },
+  "bin": {
+    "jsonata": "bin/index.js"
+  },
   "scripts": {
     "pretest": "npm run lint",
     "mocha": "node ./node_modules/istanbul/lib/cli.js cover --report cobertura --report html ./node_modules/mocha/bin/_mocha -- \"test/**/*.js\"",