diff --git a/lib/cli.js b/lib/cli.js
index 9b72f6d1..8f18fb09 100755
--- a/lib/cli.js
+++ b/lib/cli.js
@@ -2,40 +2,81 @@
 
 // cli.js
 // JSON5 command-line interface.
-//
-// This is pretty minimal for now; just supports compiling files via `-c`.
-// TODO More useful functionality, like output path, watch, etc.?
 
 var FS = require('fs');
 var JSON5 = require('./json5');
 var Path = require('path');
+var Transform = require('stream').Transform;
+var streams = require('./streams');
+var yargs = require('yargs')
+        .help('h').alias('h', 'help')
+        .option('c', {
+            alias: 'compile',
+            describe: 'Compiles JSON5 files into sibling JSON files with the same basenames.',
+            type: 'boolean'
+        })
+        .option('stdin', {
+            describe: 'read JSON5 from STDIN, write JSON to STDOUT',
+            type: 'boolean'
+        })
+        .option('indent', {
+            describe: 'intentation level for pretty-printing JSON',
+            default: 4
+        })
+        .option('o', {
+            describe: 'optimize',
+            type: 'boolean',
+        })
+        .strict()
+        .check(function(argv, opts) {
+            if (argv.c && argv.stdin) {
+                throw new Error('conflicting options: -c and --stdin');
+            }
 
-var USAGE = [
-    'Usage: json5 -c path/to/file.json5 ...',
-    'Compiles JSON5 files into sibling JSON files with the same basenames.',
-].join('\n');
+            if (argv.c && argv._.length === 0) {
+                throw new Error('-c set, but no JSON5 files given');
+            }
 
-// if valid, args look like [node, json5, -c, file1, file2, ...]
-var args = process.argv;
+            if (!argv.c && !argv.stdin) {
+                throw new Error('not enough options');
+            }
 
-if (args.length < 4 || args[2] !== '-c') {
-    console.error(USAGE);
-    process.exit(1);
-}
+            return true;
+        });
+
+var argv = yargs.argv;
+
+function compileFiles(files, indent) {
+    var cwd = process.cwd();
+
+    // iterate over each file and convert JSON5 files to JSON:
+    files.forEach(function (file) {
+        var path = Path.resolve(cwd, file);
+        var basename = Path.basename(path, '.json5');
+        var dirname = Path.dirname(path);
 
-var cwd = process.cwd();
-var files = args.slice(3);
+        var json5 = FS.readFileSync(path, 'utf8');
+        var obj = JSON5.parse(json5);
+        var json = JSON.stringify(obj, null, indent) + (indent ? "\n" : '');
 
-// iterate over each file and convert JSON5 files to JSON:
-files.forEach(function (file) {
-    var path = Path.resolve(cwd, file);
-    var basename = Path.basename(path, '.json5');
-    var dirname = Path.dirname(path);
+        path = Path.join(dirname, basename + '.json');
+        FS.writeFileSync(path, json, 'utf8');
+    });
+}
+
+function streamInOut(input, output, indent)  {
+    var splitIntoDocs = new streams.CharacterGateStream('}]');
+    var transcoder = new streams.JSON5toJSONstream();
+    input.pipe(splitIntoDocs)
+        // .pipe(streams.LoggerStream('split'))
+        .pipe(transcoder)
+        // .pipe(streams.LoggerStream('json'))
+        .pipe(output);
+}
 
-    var json5 = FS.readFileSync(path, 'utf8');
-    var obj = JSON5.parse(json5);
-    var json = JSON.stringify(obj, null, 4); // 4 spaces; TODO configurable?
+function main() {
+    if (argv.c) return compileFiles(argv._, argv.indent);
+    if (argv.stdin) return streamInOut(process.stdin, process.stdout, argv.indent);
+}
 
-    path = Path.join(dirname, basename + '.json');
-    FS.writeFileSync(path, json, 'utf8');
-});
+main();
diff --git a/lib/streams.js b/lib/streams.js
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b013018b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/streams.js
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+var JSON5 = require('./json5');
+var Transform = require('stream').Transform;
+var inherits = require('util').inherits;
+
+/**
+ * This stream tries to parse its input as JSON5.
+ * If it succeeds, it emits the resulting object as a JSON string.
+ * Hint: feed on one character at a time to ensure best results.
+ */
+function TryJSON5toJSONstream(indents) {
+    Transform.call(this, {encoding: 'utf8'});
+
+    this._buffer = '';
+    this._indents = indents === undefined ? 4 : indents;
+}
+
+inherits(TryJSON5toJSONstream, Transform);
+
+TryJSON5toJSONstream.prototype._transform = function(chunk, encoding, callback) {
+    this._buffer += chunk;
+    var value;
+    try {
+        value = JSON5.parse(this._buffer);
+        this._buffer = '';
+    } catch (err) {
+        callback();
+        return;
+    }
+    this.push(this._stringify(value));
+    callback();
+};
+
+TryJSON5toJSONstream.prototype._flush = function(callback) {
+    var data = this._buffer.trim();
+    var value;
+    if (data) {
+        try {
+            value = JSON5.parse(data);
+        } catch (err) {
+            this.emit('error', err);
+            return;
+        }
+        this.push(this._stringify(value));
+    }
+
+    callback();
+};
+
+TryJSON5toJSONstream.prototype._stringify = function stringify(obj) {
+    return JSON.stringify(obj, null, this._indents) + (this._indents ? "\n" : '');
+};
+
+
+/**
+ * CharacterGateStream
+ * Emits chunks of characters delimited some values.
+ * Useful for splitting up input streams of JSON5 into bite-sized portions for
+ * the parser.
+ */
+
+function CharacterGateStream(chars) {
+    Transform.call(this, {encoding: 'utf8'});
+    this._chars = chars;
+    this._buffer = '';
+}
+
+inherits(CharacterGateStream, Transform);
+
+CharacterGateStream.prototype._transform = function(chunk, _, callback) {
+    chunk = '' + chunk;
+    for (var i=0; i<chunk.length; i++) {
+        if (this._chars.indexOf(chunk[i]) > -1) {
+            this._buffer += chunk.slice(0, i + 1);
+            this.push(this._buffer);
+            this._buffer = '';
+
+            // reset to begining of remaining chunk
+            chunk = chunk.slice(i + 1);
+            i = 0;
+        }
+    }
+    // no matches in remaining chars so add them to buff anyways
+    this._buffer += chunk;
+    callback();
+};
+
+CharacterGateStream.prototype._flush = function(callback) {
+    if (this._buffer) this.push(this._buffer);
+    callback();
+};
+
+
+/**
+ * a utility function to create a transform that logs everything it sees.
+ */
+function logger(title) {
+    var stream = new Transform({encoding: 'utf8'});
+    stream._transform = function(chunk, enc, cb) {
+        console.log(title, '' + chunk);
+        this.push(chunk);
+        cb();
+    };
+    return stream;
+}
+
+
+module.exports = {
+    JSON5toJSONstream: TryJSON5toJSONstream,
+    CharacterGateStream: CharacterGateStream,
+    logger: logger
+};
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 81b62724..3806e3ca 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -14,7 +14,9 @@
     ],
     "main": "lib/json5.js",
     "bin": "lib/cli.js",
-    "dependencies": {},
+    "dependencies": {
+        "yargs": "^3.32.0"
+    },
     "devDependencies": {
         "gulp": "^3.9.0",
         "gulp-jshint": "^1.11.2",
diff --git a/package.json5 b/package.json5
index 45742dfc..1fcd30e8 100644
--- a/package.json5
+++ b/package.json5
@@ -16,7 +16,9 @@
     ],
     main: 'lib/json5.js',
     bin: 'lib/cli.js',
-    dependencies: {},
+    dependencies: {
+      yargs: '^3.32.0',
+    },
     devDependencies: {
         gulp: '^3.9.0',
         'gulp-jshint': '^1.11.2',