diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b7a885f..292e150 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -4,3 +4,4 @@ Gemfile.lock
 *.orig
 *.rej
 *.patch
+tmp/aruba/
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 1d1f6aa..824d958 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -3,5 +3,6 @@ rvm:
   - 1.9.2
   - 1.9.3
   - 2.0.0
+script: "rake spec features"
 notifications:
   email: false
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 23933af..790d9b5 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -25,6 +25,24 @@ Install
 Usage
 -----
 
+The formatter may be used by either passing the `-f|--format` flag to `rspec` or with the included `check_rspec` script.  The later sets the appropriate exit status for a failing Nagios/Icinga plugin.
+
+### `check_rspec`
+
+    Usage: check_rspec [options] [--] [passed to rspec]
+
+    Specific options:
+        -t, --timeout TIMEOUT            default: 30.0 (seconds)
+        -h, --help                       Show this message
+
+Any options to `check_rspec` not prefixed with `-` or `--` are passed directly
+on to the `rspec` utility.  If you need to pass an option flag you may
+terminated `check_rspec`'s option parsing with a bare `--`. 
+
+    check_rspec -- -e 'foo' trivial_spec.rb
+
+### `rspec`
+
     rspec -f RSpec::Nagios::Formatter
 
 See the documentation on [rspec --format](https://www.relishapp.com/rspec/rspec-core/v/2-6/docs/command-line/format-option)
@@ -55,3 +73,10 @@ Support
 -------
 
 Please log tickets and issues at [github](https://github.com/jhoblitt/rspec-nagios-formatter)
+
+See Also
+--------
+
+* [cucumber-nagios](http://auxesis.github.io/cucumber-nagios/)
+* [RSpec](https://github.com/rspec/rspec)
+* [Icinga Plugins](http://docs.icinga.org/latest/en/plugins.html)
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 9c7e45c..d85fad9 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -6,3 +6,10 @@ RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:spec)
 task :default => [
   :spec,
 ]
+
+require 'cucumber'
+require 'cucumber/rake/task'
+Cucumber::Rake::Task.new(:features) do |t|
+  t.cucumber_opts = "features --format pretty -x"
+  t.fork = false
+end
diff --git a/bin/check_rspec b/bin/check_rspec
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..df7371c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/check_rspec
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env ruby
+
+require 'optparse'
+require 'open3'
+require 'timeout'
+
+EXIT_CRITICAL = 2
+
+options = { :timeout => 30.0 }
+option_parser = OptionParser.new do |opts|
+  opts.banner = "Usage: check_rspec [options] [--] [passed to rspec]"
+  opts.separator ""
+  opts.separator "Specific options:"
+
+  opts.on("-t", "--timeout TIMEOUT", "default: 30.0 (seconds)", Float) do |t|
+    options[:timeout] = t
+  end
+
+  opts.on_tail("-h", "--help", "Show this message") do
+    puts opts
+    exit
+  end
+end
+
+option_parser.parse!
+
+cmd  = ['rspec', '--format', 'RSpec::Nagios::Formatter', ARGV]
+cmd_stdout, cmd_stderr, cmd_status = nil
+
+begin
+  Timeout::timeout(options[:timeout]) {
+    cmd_stdout, cmd_stderr, cmd_status = Open3.capture3(cmd.join(' '))
+  }
+rescue Timeout::Error
+  puts "RSPEC Critical - timeout after #{options[:timeout]} seconds"
+  exit EXIT_CRITICAL
+end
+
+puts cmd_stdout
+unless cmd_status.exitstatus == 0
+  exit EXIT_CRITICAL
+end
diff --git a/features/check_rspec/options.feature b/features/check_rspec/options.feature
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1e2780a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/features/check_rspec/options.feature
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+Feature: command line options
+  In order to modifiy the behavior of check_rspec
+  As an Icinga administrator
+  I want to be able to set command line options
+
+Scenario: run a passing rspec test
+  Given a file named "trivial_spec.rb" with:
+    """
+    describe do
+      it { true.should == true }
+    end
+    """
+  When I successfully run `check_rspec trivial_spec.rb`
+  Then the stdout should contain:
+    """
+    RSPEC OK
+    """
+
+Scenario: run a failing rspec test
+  Given a file named "trivial_spec.rb" with:
+    """
+    describe do
+      it { true.should == false }
+    end
+    """
+  When I run `check_rspec trivial_spec.rb`
+  Then the exit status should be 2
+  And the stdout should contain:
+    """
+    RSPEC Critical
+    """
+
+Scenario: run a test with --timeout
+  Given a file named "trivial_spec.rb" with:
+    """
+    describe do
+      it { true.should == true }
+    end
+    """
+  When I successfully run `check_rspec --timeout 1 trivial_spec.rb`
+  Then the stdout should contain:
+    """
+    RSPEC OK
+    """
+
+Scenario: run a test with --timeout that times out
+  Given a file named "trivial_spec.rb" with:
+    """
+    describe do
+      it { sleep(1) }
+    end
+    """
+  When I run `check_rspec --timeout 0.5 trivial_spec.rb`
+  Then the exit status should be 2
+  And the stdout should contain:
+    """
+    RSPEC Critical - timeout after 0.5 seconds
+    """
+
+Scenario: view usage with -h
+  When I successfully run `check_rspec -h`
+  And the stdout should contain:
+    """
+    Usage: check_rspec [options] [--] [passed to rspec]
+
+    Specific options:
+        -t, --timeout TIMEOUT            default: 30.0 (seconds)
+        -h, --help                       Show this message
+    """
+
+Scenario: view usage with --help
+  When I successfully run `check_rspec --help`
+  And the stdout should contain:
+    """
+    Usage: check_rspec [options] [--] [passed to rspec]
+
+    Specific options:
+        -t, --timeout TIMEOUT            default: 30.0 (seconds)
+        -h, --help                       Show this message
+    """
+
+Scenario: pass options to rspec
+  Given a file named "trivial_spec.rb" with:
+    """
+    describe 'foo' do
+      it { true.should == true }
+    end
+    describe 'bar' do
+      it { true.should == true }
+    end
+    """
+  When I successfully run `check_rspec -- -e 'foo' trivial_spec.rb`
+  Then the stdout should contain:
+    """
+    RSPEC OK - 1 example
+    """
diff --git a/features/check_rspec/run.feature b/features/check_rspec/run.feature
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..12a13e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/features/check_rspec/run.feature
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+Feature: run rspec tests
+  In order to monitor the enviroment
+  As an Icinga administrator
+  I want to get RSpec test results in Icinga plugin format
+
+Scenario: run a passing rspec test
+  Given a file named "trivial_spec.rb" with:
+    """
+    describe do
+      it { true.should == true }
+    end
+    """
+  When I successfully run `check_rspec trivial_spec.rb`
+  Then it should pass with regexp:
+    """
+    ^RSPEC OK - 1 example, 0 failures, finished in 0.\d+ seconds | examples=1 passing=1 failures=0 pending=0 conformance=100% time=0.\d+s$
+    """
+
+Scenario: run a failing rspec test
+  Given a file named "trivial_spec.rb" with:
+    """
+    describe do
+      it { true.should == false }
+    end
+    """
+  When I run `check_rspec trivial_spec.rb`
+  Then the exit status should be 2
+  And it should fail with regexp:
+    """
+    ^RSPEC Critical - 1 example, 1 failures, finished in 0.\d+ seconds | examples=1 passing=0 failures=1 pending=0 conformance=0% time=0.\d+s$
+    """
diff --git a/features/support/env.rb b/features/support/env.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fb0a661
--- /dev/null
+++ b/features/support/env.rb
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+require 'aruba/cucumber'
diff --git a/lib/rspec/nagios/formatter.rb b/lib/rspec/nagios/formatter.rb
index 65148bc..2d6fc9d 100644
--- a/lib/rspec/nagios/formatter.rb
+++ b/lib/rspec/nagios/formatter.rb
@@ -14,17 +14,16 @@ def dump_summary(duration, example_count, failure_count, pending_count)
   def summary_line(duration, example_count, failure_count, pending_count)
     passing_count = example_count - failure_count
     # conformance is expressed as a percentage
-    # if example_count is zero we need to aviod div by 0
+    # if example_count is zero we need to avoid div by 0
     if example_count > 0
       conformance  = passing_count / example_count.to_f
       conformance *= 100
-      #conformance   = "%.2f" % conformance
       conformance  = conformance.round(0)
     else
       conformance  = 0
     end
     # limit duration precision to microseconds
-    time          = duration.round(6)
+    time = duration.round(6)
 
     summary = 'RSPEC'
     if failure_count == 0
diff --git a/rspec-nagios-formatter.gemspec b/rspec-nagios-formatter.gemspec
index 389a4df..02d5400 100644
--- a/rspec-nagios-formatter.gemspec
+++ b/rspec-nagios-formatter.gemspec
@@ -18,10 +18,11 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.add_development_dependency("rspec-expectations", ">= 2.0.0")
   s.add_development_dependency("rspec-mocks", ">= 2.0.0")
   s.add_development_dependency("rake", ">= 10.0.0")
+  s.add_development_dependency('aruba', '~> 0.4.6')
 
   s.rubygems_version = ">= 1.6.1"
   s.files            = `git ls-files`.split("\n")
   s.test_files       = `git ls-files -- {spec,features}/*`.split("\n")
-#  s.executables      = `git ls-files -- bin/*`.split("\n").map{ |f| File.basename(f) }
+  s.executables      = `git ls-files -- bin/*`.split("\n").map{ |f| File.basename(f) }
   s.require_path     = "lib"
 end