diff --git a/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/package.json b/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/package.json
index b3e33ebf2..9b33b0a42 100644
--- a/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/package.json
+++ b/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/package.json
@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
 {
   "name": "@pivotal-tools/jvm-launch-utils",
-  "version": "0.0.9",
+  "version": "0.0.10",
   "description": "Provides utilities useful for launching Java processes from node packages.",
   "files": [
     "src",
     "lib"
   ],
   "main": "lib/index.js",
+  "types": "lib/index.d.ts",
   "scripts": {
     "prepare": "tsc -p .",
     "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
@@ -29,5 +30,8 @@
   "devDependencies": {
     "@types/node": "^9.4.6",
     "typescript": "^2.7.2"
+  },
+  "dependencies": {
+    "file-url": "^2.0.2"
   }
 }
diff --git a/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/src/jvm-util.ts b/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/src/jvm-util.ts
index 4c4736ad2..793b27bdc 100644
--- a/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/src/jvm-util.ts
+++ b/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/src/jvm-util.ts
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ import * as FS from 'fs';
 import * as Path from 'path';
 import * as ChildProcess from 'child_process';
 import { basename } from 'path';
+import * as fileUrl from 'file-url';
 
 'use strict';
 
@@ -33,6 +34,14 @@ export interface JVM {
      * then this will return null.
      */
     getToolsJar() : string | null
+
+    /**
+     * Launch an executable jar with this jvm.
+     * This autmatically adds tools.jar to the classpath if available.
+     * WARNING: For adding tools jar to work properly, the jar must be packaged
+     * using spring-boot-maven-plugin ZIP layout.
+     */
+    jarLaunch(jar: string, vmargs?: string[], execFileOptions?: ChildProcess.ExecFileOptions) : ChildProcess.ChildProcess
 }
 
 /**
@@ -196,6 +205,18 @@ class JVMImpl implements JVM {
     getToolsJar(): string {
         return this.toolsJar();
     }
+    jarLaunch(jar: string, vmargs?: [string], execFileOptions?: ChildProcess.ExecFileOptions): ChildProcess.ChildProcess {
+        let args = [];
+        let toolsJar = this.getToolsJar();
+        if (toolsJar) {
+            args.push("-Dloader.path="+fileUrl(toolsJar));
+        }
+        if (vmargs) {
+            args.push(...vmargs);
+        }
+        args.push("-jar", jar);
+        return ChildProcess.execFile(this.getJavaExecutable(), args, execFileOptions);
+    }
 }
 
 function getJavaInfo(javaExe : string) : Promise<Map<string, string>> {
diff --git a/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/tsconfig.json b/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/tsconfig.json
index a9c928a12..fabd5d06f 100644
--- a/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/tsconfig.json
+++ b/nodejs-packages/jvm-launch-utils/tsconfig.json
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
     "target": "es6",
     "module": "commonjs",
     "outDir": "lib",
-    "sourceMap": true
+    "sourceMap": true,
+    "declaration": true
   }
 }
\ No newline at end of file