diff --git a/cmd/barak/main.go b/cmd/barak/main.go
index 1da935c87..4c056e6be 100644
--- a/cmd/barak/main.go
+++ b/cmd/barak/main.go
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"errors"
+	"flag"
 	"fmt"
 	"io"
 	"io/ioutil"
@@ -51,9 +52,17 @@ var barak = struct {
 func main() {
 	fmt.Printf("New Barak Process (PID: %d)\n", os.Getpid())
 
-	// read options from stdin.
+	// read flags to change options file.
+	var optionsBytes []byte
+	var optionsFile string
 	var err error
-	optionsBytes, err := ioutil.ReadAll(os.Stdin)
+	flag.StringVar(&optionsFile, "options-file", "", "Read options from file instead of stdin")
+	flag.Parse()
+	if optionsFile != "" {
+		optionsBytes, err = ioutil.ReadFile(optionsFile)
+	} else {
+		optionsBytes, err = ioutil.ReadAll(os.Stdin)
+	}
 	if err != nil {
 		panic(Fmt("Error reading input: %v", err))
 	}
diff --git a/cmd/debora/README.md b/cmd/debora/README.md
index 6ff6218aa..4262d01c7 100644
--- a/cmd/debora/README.md
+++ b/cmd/debora/README.md
@@ -7,4 +7,7 @@
 
 # Build tendermint from source
 ./build/debora run -- build_tendermint bash -c "cd $GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint; make"
+
+# Build and run tendermint
+./build/debora run -- tendermint bash -c "cd \$GOPATH/src/github.com/tendermint/tendermint; make; ./build/tendermint node"
 ```