diff --git a/cli/NPM_README.md b/cli/NPM_README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..6ccf9084c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cli/NPM_README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+# cypress
+
+> Testing the way it should be
+
+## Install
+
+Requires Node version >= 0.12
+
+```sh
+npm install --save-dev cypress
+```
+
+## Open Cypress desktop GUI application
+
+To open Cypress app, there are two alternatives from the
+command line
+
+```sh
+./node_modules/.bin/cypress open
+$(npm bin)/cypress open
+```
+
+or you can add new a script to your `package.json`
+
+```json
+{
+  "scripts": {
+    "open": "cypress open"
+  }
+}
+```
+
+and then call `npm run open`
+
+## Run tests
+
+To run e2e tests in headless mode execute `$(npm bin)/cypress run`
+
+## Load Cypress as an NPM module
+
+```js
+const cy = require('cypress')
+// opens desktop GUI application and returns a promise
+cy.open(options)
+// runs e2e tests in headless browser
+// and returns a promise with test results
+cy.run(options).then(results, console.error)
+```
diff --git a/cli/package.json b/cli/package.json
index 6baac04677..0e4c4313e8 100644
--- a/cli/package.json
+++ b/cli/package.json
@@ -1,27 +1,23 @@
 {
   "name": "cypress",
-  "version": "0.19.2",
+  "version": "0.0.0",
   "description": "dev build project for Cypress NPM package",
-  "main": "lib/index.js",
+  "main": "index.js",
   "bin": {
     "cypress": "bin/cypress"
   },
   "private": true,
-  "engines": {
-    "node": ">=6.5.0"
-  },
   "scripts": {
+    "pretest": "npm run lint && npm run test-dependencies",
     "test": "npm run test-unit",
     "test-unit": "mocha",
     "test-watch": "mocha --watch",
+    "test-dependencies": "deps-ok && dependency-check . --no-dev",
     "lint": "$(bin-up eslint) --fix *.js bin/* lib/*.js lib/**/*.js test/*.js test/**/*.js",
-    "pretest": "npm run lint && npm run test-dependencies",
-    "build": "babel lib -d build/lib && babel index.js -o build/index.js",
-    "prebuild": "npm run copy-bin",
-    "precopy-bin": "mkdir -p build/bin || true",
-    "copy-bin": "cp bin/cypress build/bin/cypress",
-    "size": "t=\"$(npm pack .)\"; wc -c \"${t}\"; tar tvf \"${t}\"; rm \"${t}\";",
-    "test-dependencies": "deps-ok && dependency-check . --no-dev"
+    "prebuild": "./scripts/build.sh",
+    "build": "node ./scripts/build.js",
+    "release": "cd build && releaser",
+    "size": "t=\"$(npm pack .)\"; wc -c \"${t}\"; tar tvf \"${t}\"; rm \"${t}\";"
   },
   "dependencies": {
     "bluebird": "^3.4.5",
@@ -46,8 +42,9 @@
     "yauzl": "^2.8.0"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
-    "babel-preset-es2015": "^6.24.1",
+    "@cypress/releaser": "^0.1.12",
     "babel-cli": "^6.24.1",
+    "babel-preset-es2015": "^6.24.1",
     "bin-up": "^1.0.1",
     "chai": "^3.5.0",
     "clear-module": "^2.1.0",
@@ -61,7 +58,7 @@
   },
   "files": [
     "bin",
-    "es5",
+    "lib",
     "index.js"
   ],
   "repository": {
diff --git a/cli/scripts/build.js b/cli/scripts/build.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f208d65b07
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cli/scripts/build.js
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+const _ = require('lodash')
+const path = require('path')
+const Promise = require('bluebird')
+
+const fs = Promise.promisifyAll(require('fs-extra'))
+
+// grab the current version from the root monorepo package.json
+const { version, description } = require('../../package.json')
+
+const packageJsonSrc = path.join('package.json')
+const packageJsonDest = path.join('build', 'package.json')
+
+function preparePackageForNpmRelease (json) {
+  // modify the existing package.json
+  // to prepare it for releasing to npm
+  delete json.devDependencies
+  delete json['private']
+
+  _.extend(json, {
+    version,
+    description,
+    scripts: {
+      postinstall: 'node index.js --exec install',
+      size: 't=\"$(npm pack .)\"; wc -c \"${t}\"; tar tvf \"${t}\"; rm \"${t}\";',
+    },
+  })
+
+  return json
+}
+
+fs.readJsonAsync(packageJsonSrc)
+.then(preparePackageForNpmRelease)
+.then((json) => {
+  return fs.outputJsonAsync(packageJsonDest, json, {
+    spaces: 2,
+  })
+})
diff --git a/cli/scripts/build.sh b/cli/scripts/build.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..f7b0ca5449
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cli/scripts/build.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+## copy over binary
+mkdir -p build/bin || true
+cp bin/cypress build/bin/cypress
+
+## copy readme
+cp NPM_README.md build/README.md
+
+## generate babel'd js index + lib
+babel lib -d build/lib && babel index.js -o build/index.js
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index d760e6b2b7..9afb1a1a3c 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,6 +1,11 @@
 {
   "name": "cypress-monorepo",
+  "version": "0.19.4",
+  "description": "Cypress.io end to end testing tool",
   "private": true,
+  "engines": {
+    "node": ">=6.5.0"
+  },
   "scripts": {
     "start": "node ./scripts/start.js",
     "watch": "npm run all watch",