diff --git a/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md b/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
index f329b0e24..987a760b4 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG_PENDING.md
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ Friendly reminder: We have a [bug bounty program](https://hackerone.com/tendermi
 
 ### FEATURES
 
+- [\#6982](https://github.com/tendermint/tendermint/pull/6982) tendermint binary has built-in suppport for running the e2e application (with state sync support) (@cmwaters).
+
 ### IMPROVEMENTS
 
 ### BUG FIXES
diff --git a/cmd/tendermint/commands/run_node.go b/cmd/tendermint/commands/run_node.go
index c174fd967..1e310f5eb 100644
--- a/cmd/tendermint/commands/run_node.go
+++ b/cmd/tendermint/commands/run_node.go
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ func AddNodeFlags(cmd *cobra.Command) {
 		"proxy-app",
 		config.ProxyApp,
 		"proxy app address, or one of: 'kvstore',"+
-			" 'persistent_kvstore' or 'noop' for local testing.")
+			" 'persistent_kvstore', 'e2e' or 'noop' for local testing.")
 	cmd.Flags().String("abci", config.ABCI, "specify abci transport (socket | grpc)")
 
 	// rpc flags
diff --git a/internal/proxy/client.go b/internal/proxy/client.go
index 072ddf3e0..ddb9a928d 100644
--- a/internal/proxy/client.go
+++ b/internal/proxy/client.go
@@ -6,11 +6,12 @@ import (
 	abciclient "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/abci/client"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/abci/example/kvstore"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/abci/types"
+	e2e "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/e2e/app"
 )
 
 // DefaultClientCreator returns a default ClientCreator, which will create a
 // local client if addr is one of: 'kvstore',
-// 'persistent_kvstore' or 'noop', otherwise - a remote client.
+// 'persistent_kvstore', 'e2e', or 'noop', otherwise - a remote client.
 //
 // The Closer is a noop except for persistent_kvstore applications,
 // which will clean up the store.
@@ -21,6 +22,12 @@ func DefaultClientCreator(addr, transport, dbDir string) (abciclient.Creator, io
 	case "persistent_kvstore":
 		app := kvstore.NewPersistentKVStoreApplication(dbDir)
 		return abciclient.NewLocalCreator(app), app
+	case "e2e":
+		app, err := e2e.NewApplication(e2e.DefaultConfig(dbDir))
+		if err != nil {
+			panic(err)
+		}
+		return abciclient.NewLocalCreator(app), noopCloser{}
 	case "noop":
 		return abciclient.NewLocalCreator(types.NewBaseApplication()), noopCloser{}
 	default:
diff --git a/test/e2e/Makefile b/test/e2e/Makefile
index 2b41cc1cd..23cf4d039 100644
--- a/test/e2e/Makefile
+++ b/test/e2e/Makefile
@@ -3,11 +3,8 @@ all: docker generator runner tests
 docker:
 	docker build --tag tendermint/e2e-node -f docker/Dockerfile ../..
 
-# We need to build support for database backends into the app in
-# order to build a binary with a Tendermint node in it (for built-in
-# ABCI testing).
-app:
-	go build -o build/app -tags badgerdb,boltdb,cleveldb,rocksdb ./app
+node:
+	go build -o build/node -tags badgerdb,boltdb,cleveldb,rocksdb ./node
 
 generator:
 	go build -o build/generator ./generator
@@ -18,4 +15,4 @@ runner:
 tests:
 	go test -o build/tests ./tests
 
-.PHONY: all app docker generator runner tests
+.PHONY: all docker generator runner tests node
diff --git a/test/e2e/README.md b/test/e2e/README.md
index d737120c1..00bce5ad8 100644
--- a/test/e2e/README.md
+++ b/test/e2e/README.md
@@ -142,10 +142,42 @@ Docker does not enable IPv6 by default. To do so, enter the following in
 }
 ```
 
-## Benchmarking testnets
+## Benchmarking Testnets
 
 It is also possible to run a simple benchmark on a testnet. This is done through the `benchmark` command. This manages the entire process: setting up the environment, starting the test net, waiting for a considerable amount of blocks to be used (currently 100), and then returning the following metrics from the sample of the blockchain:
 
 - Average time to produce a block
 - Standard deviation of producing a block
 - Minimum and maximum time to produce a block
+
+## Running Individual Nodes
+
+The E2E test harness is designed to run several nodes of varying configurations within docker. It is also possible to run a single node in the case of running larger, geographically-dispersed testnets. To run a single node you can either run:
+
+**Built-in**
+
+```bash
+make node
+tendermint init validator
+TMHOME=$HOME/.tendermint ./build/node ./node/built-in.toml
+```
+
+To make things simpler the e2e application can also be run in the tendermint binary
+by running
+
+```bash
+tendermint start --proxy-app e2e
+```
+
+However this won't offer the same level of configurability of the application.
+
+**Socket**
+
+```bash
+make node
+tendermint init validator
+tendermint start
+./build/node ./node.socket.toml
+```
+
+Check `node/config.go` to see how the settings of the test application can be tweaked.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/e2e/app/app.go b/test/e2e/app/app.go
index 26b10d32a..0a0194c98 100644
--- a/test/e2e/app/app.go
+++ b/test/e2e/app/app.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-package main
+package app
 
 import (
 	"bytes"
@@ -27,6 +27,55 @@ type Application struct {
 	restoreChunks   [][]byte
 }
 
+// Config allows for the setting of high level parameters for running the e2e Application
+// KeyType and ValidatorUpdates must be the same for all nodes running the same application.
+type Config struct {
+	// The directory with which state.json will be persisted in. Usually $HOME/.tendermint/data
+	Dir string `toml:"dir"`
+
+	// SnapshotInterval specifies the height interval at which the application
+	// will take state sync snapshots. Defaults to 0 (disabled).
+	SnapshotInterval uint64 `toml:"snapshot_interval"`
+
+	// RetainBlocks specifies the number of recent blocks to retain. Defaults to
+	// 0, which retains all blocks. Must be greater that PersistInterval,
+	// SnapshotInterval and EvidenceAgeHeight.
+	RetainBlocks uint64 `toml:"retain_blocks"`
+
+	// KeyType sets the curve that will be used by validators.
+	// Options are ed25519 & secp256k1
+	KeyType string `toml:"key_type"`
+
+	// PersistInterval specifies the height interval at which the application
+	// will persist state to disk. Defaults to 1 (every height), setting this to
+	// 0 disables state persistence.
+	PersistInterval uint64 `toml:"persist_interval"`
+
+	// ValidatorUpdates is a map of heights to validator names and their power,
+	// and will be returned by the ABCI application. For example, the following
+	// changes the power of validator01 and validator02 at height 1000:
+	//
+	// [validator_update.1000]
+	// validator01 = 20
+	// validator02 = 10
+	//
+	// Specifying height 0 returns the validator update during InitChain. The
+	// application returns the validator updates as-is, i.e. removing a
+	// validator must be done by returning it with power 0, and any validators
+	// not specified are not changed.
+	//
+	// height <-> pubkey <-> voting power
+	ValidatorUpdates map[string]map[string]uint8 `toml:"validator_update"`
+}
+
+func DefaultConfig(dir string) *Config {
+	return &Config{
+		PersistInterval:  1,
+		SnapshotInterval: 100,
+		Dir:              dir,
+	}
+}
+
 // NewApplication creates the application.
 func NewApplication(cfg *Config) (*Application, error) {
 	state, err := NewState(filepath.Join(cfg.Dir, "state.json"), cfg.PersistInterval)
@@ -134,7 +183,7 @@ func (app *Application) Commit() abci.ResponseCommit {
 		if err != nil {
 			panic(err)
 		}
-		logger.Info("Created state sync snapshot", "height", snapshot.Height)
+		app.logger.Info("Created state sync snapshot", "height", snapshot.Height)
 	}
 	retainHeight := int64(0)
 	if app.cfg.RetainBlocks > 0 {
diff --git a/test/e2e/app/snapshots.go b/test/e2e/app/snapshots.go
index 4ddb7ecdc..4ef20375f 100644
--- a/test/e2e/app/snapshots.go
+++ b/test/e2e/app/snapshots.go
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 // nolint: gosec
-package main
+package app
 
 import (
 	"encoding/json"
diff --git a/test/e2e/app/state.go b/test/e2e/app/state.go
index b34680c1b..441926453 100644
--- a/test/e2e/app/state.go
+++ b/test/e2e/app/state.go
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 //nolint: gosec
-package main
+package app
 
 import (
 	"crypto/sha256"
diff --git a/test/e2e/docker/Dockerfile b/test/e2e/docker/Dockerfile
index 68c7bc836..260df23f3 100644
--- a/test/e2e/docker/Dockerfile
+++ b/test/e2e/docker/Dockerfile
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ COPY . .
 RUN make build && cp build/tendermint /usr/bin/tendermint
 COPY test/e2e/docker/entrypoint* /usr/bin/
 
-RUN cd test/e2e && make app && cp build/app /usr/bin/app
+RUN cd test/e2e && make node && cp build/node /usr/bin/app
 
 # Set up runtime directory. We don't use a separate runtime image since we need
 # e.g. leveldb and rocksdb which are already installed in the build image.
diff --git a/test/e2e/node/built-in.toml b/test/e2e/node/built-in.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..0a2146a58
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e/node/built-in.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+snapshot_interval = 100
+persist_interval = 1
+chain_id = "test-chain"
+protocol = "builtin"
diff --git a/test/e2e/app/config.go b/test/e2e/node/config.go
similarity index 80%
rename from test/e2e/app/config.go
rename to test/e2e/node/config.go
index d7e776538..fa7dcc497 100644
--- a/test/e2e/app/config.go
+++ b/test/e2e/node/config.go
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ import (
 	"fmt"
 
 	"github.com/BurntSushi/toml"
+
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/e2e/app"
 )
 
 // Config is the application configuration.
@@ -22,10 +24,21 @@ type Config struct {
 	PrivValServer    string                      `toml:"privval_server"`
 	PrivValKey       string                      `toml:"privval_key"`
 	PrivValState     string                      `toml:"privval_state"`
-	Misbehaviors     map[string]string           `toml:"misbehaviors"`
 	KeyType          string                      `toml:"key_type"`
 }
 
+// App extracts out the application specific configuration parameters
+func (cfg *Config) App() *app.Config {
+	return &app.Config{
+		Dir:              cfg.Dir,
+		SnapshotInterval: cfg.SnapshotInterval,
+		RetainBlocks:     cfg.RetainBlocks,
+		KeyType:          cfg.KeyType,
+		ValidatorUpdates: cfg.ValidatorUpdates,
+		PersistInterval:  cfg.PersistInterval,
+	}
+}
+
 // LoadConfig loads the configuration from disk.
 func LoadConfig(file string) (*Config, error) {
 	cfg := &Config{
diff --git a/test/e2e/app/main.go b/test/e2e/node/main.go
similarity index 98%
rename from test/e2e/app/main.go
rename to test/e2e/node/main.go
index 1d6806524..222a6883f 100644
--- a/test/e2e/app/main.go
+++ b/test/e2e/node/main.go
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ import (
 	grpcprivval "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/privval/grpc"
 	privvalproto "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/proto/tendermint/privval"
 	rpcserver "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/rpc/jsonrpc/server"
+	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/e2e/app"
 	e2e "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/test/e2e/pkg"
 )
 
@@ -97,7 +98,7 @@ func run(configFile string) error {
 
 // startApp starts the application server, listening for connections from Tendermint.
 func startApp(cfg *Config) error {
-	app, err := NewApplication(cfg)
+	app, err := app.NewApplication(cfg.App())
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
@@ -118,7 +119,7 @@ func startApp(cfg *Config) error {
 //
 // FIXME There is no way to simply load the configuration from a file, so we need to pull in Viper.
 func startNode(cfg *Config) error {
-	app, err := NewApplication(cfg)
+	app, err := app.NewApplication(cfg.App())
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
diff --git a/test/e2e/node/socket.toml b/test/e2e/node/socket.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2f7913e62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/e2e/node/socket.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+snapshot_interval = 100
+persist_interval = 1
+chain_id = "test-chain"
+protocol = "socket"
+listen = "tcp://127.0.0.1:26658"