diff --git a/src/cli/commands/ls.js b/src/cli/commands/ls.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..f17afaa415
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/cli/commands/ls.js
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+'use strict'
+
+const {print, rightpad} = require('../utils')
+const Unixfs = require('ipfs-unixfs')
+
+module.exports = {
+  command: 'ls <key>',
+
+  describe: 'List files for the given directory',
+
+  builder: {
+    v: {
+      alias: 'headers',
+      desc: 'Print table headers (Hash, Size, Name).',
+      type: 'boolean',
+      default: false
+    },
+    'resolve-type': {
+      desc: 'Resolve linked objects to find out their types. (not implemented yet)',
+      type: 'boolean',
+      default: false // should be true when implemented
+    }
+  },
+
+  handler (argv) {
+    let path = argv.key
+    if (path.startsWith('/ipfs/')) {
+      path = path.replace('/ipfs/', '')
+    }
+
+    argv.ipfs.object.get(path, {enc: 'base58'}, (err, node) => {
+      if (err) {
+        throw err
+      }
+      let {data, links} = node.toJSON()
+
+      const fileDesc = Unixfs.unmarshal(data)
+      if (fileDesc.type !== 'directory') {
+        throw new Error('merkeldag node was not a directory') // TODO: support shards
+      }
+
+      if (argv['resolve-type']) {
+        throw new Error('--resolve-type not implemented yet')
+      }
+
+      if (argv.headers) {
+        links = [{multihash: 'Hash', size: 'Size', name: 'Name'}].concat(links)
+      }
+
+      const multihashWidth = Math.max.apply(null, links.map((file) => String(file.multihash).length))
+      const sizeWidth = Math.max.apply(null, links.map((file) => String(file.size).length))
+
+      links.forEach((file) => {
+        print(rightpad(file.multihash, multihashWidth + 1) +
+          rightpad(file.size, sizeWidth + 1) +
+            file.name)
+      })
+    })
+  }
+}
diff --git a/src/cli/utils.js b/src/cli/utils.js
index 4565fc316e..d44bf4b4fd 100644
--- a/src/cli/utils.js
+++ b/src/cli/utils.js
@@ -100,3 +100,11 @@ exports.createProgressBar = (totalBytes) => {
     total: totalBytes
   })
 }
+
+exports.rightpad = (val, n) => {
+  let result = String(val)
+  for (let i = result.length; i < n; ++i) {
+    result += ' '
+  }
+  return result
+}
diff --git a/test/cli/commands.js b/test/cli/commands.js
index 94ffb4aad4..e6d9059d36 100644
--- a/test/cli/commands.js
+++ b/test/cli/commands.js
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 const expect = require('chai').expect
 const runOnAndOff = require('../utils/on-and-off')
 
-const commandCount = 56
+const commandCount = 57
 
 describe('commands', () => runOnAndOff((thing) => {
   let ipfs
diff --git a/test/cli/files.js b/test/cli/files.js
index c07762e1f3..1420a63620 100644
--- a/test/cli/files.js
+++ b/test/cli/files.js
@@ -254,6 +254,46 @@ describe('files', () => runOnAndOff((thing) => {
       })
   })
 
+  it('ls', () => {
+    return ipfs('ls QmYmW4HiZhotsoSqnv2o1oUusvkRM8b9RweBoH7ao5nki2')
+      .then((out) => {
+        expect(out).to.eql(
+          'QmQQHYDwAQms78fPcvx1uFFsfho23YJNoewfLbi9AtdyJ9 123530 blocks\n' +
+          'QmPkWYfSLCEBLZu7BZt4kigGDMe3cpogMbeVf97gN2xJDN 3939   config\n' +
+          'Qma13ZrhKG52MWnwtZ6fMD8jGj8d4Q9sJgn5xtKgeZw5uz 5503   datastore\n' +
+          'QmUhUuiTKkkK8J6JZ9zmj8iNHPuNfGYcszgRumzhHBxEEU 7397   init-docs\n' +
+          'QmR56UJmAaZLXLdTT1ALrE9vVqV8soUEekm9BMd4FnuYqV 10     version\n')
+      })
+  })
+
+  it('ls -v', () => {
+    return ipfs('ls /ipfs/QmYmW4HiZhotsoSqnv2o1oUusvkRM8b9RweBoH7ao5nki2 -v')
+      .then((out) => {
+        expect(out).to.eql(
+          'Hash                                           Size   Name\n' +
+          'QmQQHYDwAQms78fPcvx1uFFsfho23YJNoewfLbi9AtdyJ9 123530 blocks\n' +
+          'QmPkWYfSLCEBLZu7BZt4kigGDMe3cpogMbeVf97gN2xJDN 3939   config\n' +
+          'Qma13ZrhKG52MWnwtZ6fMD8jGj8d4Q9sJgn5xtKgeZw5uz 5503   datastore\n' +
+          'QmUhUuiTKkkK8J6JZ9zmj8iNHPuNfGYcszgRumzhHBxEEU 7397   init-docs\n' +
+          'QmR56UJmAaZLXLdTT1ALrE9vVqV8soUEekm9BMd4FnuYqV 10     version\n')
+      })
+  })
+
+  it('ls --help', () => {
+    return ipfs('ls --help')
+      .then((out) => {
+        expect(out.split('\n').slice(1)).to.eql(['',
+          'Options:',
+          '  -q, --quiet     suppress output                                      [boolean]',
+          '  --help          Show help                                            [boolean]',
+          '  -v, --headers   Print table headers (Hash, Size, Name).',
+          '                                                      [boolean] [default: false]',
+          '  --resolve-type  Resolve linked objects to find out their types. (not',
+          '                  implemented yet)                    [boolean] [default: false]',
+          '', ''])
+      })
+  })
+
   it('get', () => {
     return ipfs('files get QmPZ9gcCEpqKTo6aq61g2nXGUhM4iCL3ewB6LDXZCtioEB')
       .then((out) => {