diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d95a371
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[submodule "ion-c"]
+	path = ion-c
+	url = https://github.com/amzn/ion-c.git
diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7821e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+# This file is automatically @generated by Cargo.
+# It is not intended for manual editing.
+[[package]]
+name = "ansi_term"
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+
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+checksum = "d9b39be18770d11421cdb1b9947a45dd3f37e93092cbf377614828a319d5fee8"
+dependencies = [
+ "hermit-abi",
+ "libc",
+ "winapi",
+]
+
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+dependencies = [
+ "ansi_term",
+ "atty",
+ "bitflags",
+ "strsim",
+ "textwrap",
+ "unicode-width",
+ "vec_map",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "cmake"
+version = "0.1.44"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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+ "cc",
+]
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+dependencies = [
+ "libc",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "ion-cli"
+version = "0.1.0"
+dependencies = [
+ "clap",
+ "cmake",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "libc"
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+ "unicode-width",
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+[[package]]
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+dependencies = [
+ "winapi-i686-pc-windows-gnu",
+ "winapi-x86_64-pc-windows-gnu",
+]
+
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+[[package]]
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diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fc72ade
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+[package]
+name = "ion-cli"
+version = "0.1.0"
+authors = ["The Ion Team <ion-team@amazon.com>"]
+edition = "2018"
+description = "Command line tool for working with the Ion data format."
+repository = "https://github.com/amzn/ion-cli"
+
+# See more keys and their definitions at https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/manifest.html
+
+[dependencies]
+clap = "~2.27.0"
+libc = "0.2"
+
+[build-dependencies]
+cmake = "0.1.44"
+
+[[bin]]
+name = "ion"
+test = false
+bench = false
+
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 847260c..7824c7a 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
-## My Project
+## `ion-cli`
 
-TODO: Fill this README out!
+_This package is considered experimental. It is under active/early development,
+and the API is subject to change._
 
-Be sure to:
+## Developer notes
 
-* Change the title in this README
-* Edit your repository description on GitHub
+Run the following command to initialize all of the necessary git submodules.
+```
+git submodule update --init --recursive
+```
 
 ## Security
 
@@ -13,5 +16,4 @@ See [CONTRIBUTING](CONTRIBUTING.md#security-issue-notifications) for more inform
 
 ## License
 
-This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License.
-
+This project is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/build.rs b/build.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3279e0f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+use cmake::Config;
+use std::fs::create_dir_all;
+use std::path::Path;
+use std::process;
+
+fn main() {
+    let build_dir = Path::new("./ion-c/build/release");
+
+    // Create the ion-c build directory if necessary
+    if !build_dir.is_dir() {
+        println!("Creating build directory {}", build_dir.display());
+        if let Err(error) = create_dir_all(build_dir) {
+            eprintln!("Could not create build directory: {:?}", error);
+            process::exit(1);
+        }
+    }
+
+    // Configure and run CMake
+    Config::new("ion-c")
+        .define("CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE", "Release")
+        .out_dir("./ion-c/build/release")
+        .build();
+
+    // Output lines that start with "cargo:" are interpreted by Cargo. See the docs for details:
+    // https://doc.rust-lang.org/cargo/reference/build-scripts.html#outputs-of-the-build-script
+
+    // The `ion` executable statically links to the `ion-c` CLI. The following output tells Cargo
+    // which libraries to link against and in which directories they can be found.
+
+    // ion_events library
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-search=native=./ion-c/build/release/build/tools/events");
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-lib=static=ion_events_static");
+
+    // ion_c library
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-search=native=./ion-c/build/release/build/ionc");
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-lib=static=ionc_static");
+
+    // decNumber library
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-search=native=./ion-c/build/release/build/decNumber");
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-lib=static=decNumberStatic");
+
+    // C++ library
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-search=native=/usr/lib");
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-lib=c++");
+
+    // ion-c CLI library
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-search=native=./ion-c/build/release/build/tools/cli/");
+    println!("cargo:rustc-link-lib=static=ion_cli_main");
+
+    // Only rebuild ion-c if that submodule directory is updated
+    println!("cargo:rereun-if-changed={}", build_dir.display());
+    // ...or if this build script is changed.
+    println!("cargo:rereun-if-changed=build.rs");
+}
diff --git a/ion-c b/ion-c
new file mode 160000
index 0000000..65561ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ion-c
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 65561ef3441947b8a07b3700cc972f344162cdad
diff --git a/src/bin/ion/commands/dump.rs b/src/bin/ion/commands/dump.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..873c6de
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/bin/ion/commands/dump.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,96 @@
+use clap::{App, Arg, ArgMatches};
+
+use libc::c_char;
+use libc::c_int;
+use std::ffi::CString;
+use std::ptr;
+
+// ion_c_cli_main is a C function that lives in the ion-c CLI, to which ion-cli is
+// statically linked.
+extern "C" {
+    fn ion_c_cli_main(argc: c_int, argv: *const *const c_char);
+}
+
+fn run_ion_c_cli(args: &[&str]) {
+    // Convert the length-prefixed Rust str arguments to null-terminated C strings
+    let argv_as_c_str = args
+        .iter()
+        .map(|arg| CString::new(*arg).unwrap())
+        .collect::<Vec<CString>>();
+
+    // Convert the C strings to char * pointers. Note: it's important that we collect()
+    // the values below into a separate vector from the values above; it guarantees that
+    // the memory being pointed to will still be valid by the time the ion_c_cli accesses it.
+    let mut argv_as_char_star = argv_as_c_str
+        .iter()
+        .map(|arg| arg.as_ptr())
+        .collect::<Vec<*const c_char>>();
+
+    // The number of arguments as a C int
+    let argc = argv_as_char_star.len() as c_int;
+
+    // Programs sometimes rely on argv being null-terminated, so we'll push a null onto the array.
+    argv_as_char_star.push(ptr::null());
+
+    let argv = argv_as_char_star.as_ptr();
+
+    unsafe {
+        ion_c_cli_main(argc, argv);
+    }
+}
+
+pub fn app() -> App<'static, 'static> {
+    App::new("dump")
+        .about("Prints Ion in the requested format")
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("format")
+                .long("format")
+                .short("f")
+                .takes_value(true)
+                .default_value("pretty")
+                .possible_values(&["binary", "text", "pretty"])
+                .help("Output format"),
+        )
+        .arg(
+            Arg::with_name("output")
+                .long("output")
+                .short("o")
+                .takes_value(true)
+                .help("Output file [default: STDOUT]"),
+        )
+        .arg(
+            // All argv entries after the program name (argv[0])
+            // and any `clap`-managed options are considered input files.
+            Arg::with_name("input")
+                .index(1)
+                .multiple(true)
+                .help("Input file [default: STDIN]"),
+        )
+}
+
+pub fn run(command_name: &str, matches: &ArgMatches<'static>) {
+    let mut args: Vec<&str> = vec![command_name, "process"];
+
+    // -f pretty|text|binary
+    if let Some(format) = matches.value_of("format") {
+        args.push("-f");
+        args.push(format);
+    }
+
+    // -o filename
+    if let Some(output_file) = matches.value_of("output") {
+        args.push("-o");
+        args.push(output_file);
+    }
+
+    // ...files
+    if let Some(input_file_iter) = matches.values_of("input") {
+        for input_file in input_file_iter {
+            args.push(input_file);
+        }
+    } else {
+        args.push("-"); // Signifies STDIN
+    }
+
+    run_ion_c_cli(&args);
+}
diff --git a/src/bin/ion/commands/mod.rs b/src/bin/ion/commands/mod.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8482b20
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/bin/ion/commands/mod.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+use clap::{App, ArgMatches};
+
+pub mod dump;
+
+// Creates a Vec of CLI configurations for all of the available built-in commands
+pub fn built_in_commands() -> Vec<App<'static, 'static>> {
+    vec![dump::app()]
+}
+
+// Maps the given command name to the entry point for that command if it exists
+pub fn runner_for_built_in_command(command_name: &str) -> Option<fn(&str, &ArgMatches<'static>)> {
+    let runner = match command_name {
+        "dump" => dump::run,
+        _ => return None,
+    };
+    Some(runner)
+}
diff --git a/src/bin/ion/main.rs b/src/bin/ion/main.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da3f168
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/bin/ion/main.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+mod commands;
+
+use crate::commands::{built_in_commands, runner_for_built_in_command};
+use clap::{crate_authors, crate_version, App, AppSettings};
+
+const PROGRAM_NAME: &str = "ion";
+
+fn main() {
+    let mut app = App::new(PROGRAM_NAME)
+        .version(crate_version!())
+        .author(crate_authors!())
+        .setting(AppSettings::SubcommandRequiredElseHelp)
+        .setting(AppSettings::TrailingVarArg);
+
+    for command in built_in_commands() {
+        app = app.subcommand(command);
+    }
+
+    let args = app.get_matches();
+    let (command_name, command_args) = args.subcommand();
+
+    if let Some(runner) = runner_for_built_in_command(command_name) {
+        // If a runner is registered for the given command name, command_args is guaranteed to
+        // be defined.
+        runner(command_name, command_args.unwrap());
+    } else {
+        let message = format!(
+            "The requested command ('{}') is not supported and clap did not generate an error message.",
+            command_name
+        );
+        unreachable!(message);
+    }
+}