diff --git a/lib/core/libimagrt/src/application.rs b/lib/core/libimagrt/src/application.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..74ad4b68
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/core/libimagrt/src/application.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+//
+// imag - the personal information management suite for the commandline
+// Copyright (C) 2015-2019 Matthias Beyer <mail@beyermatthias.de> and contributors
+//
+// This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+// modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
+// License as published by the Free Software Foundation; version
+// 2.1 of the License.
+//
+// This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+// Lesser General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
+// License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
+// Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
+//
+
+use runtime::Runtime;
+use clap::App;
+use failure::Fallible as Result;
+
+pub trait ImagApplication {
+    fn run(rt: Runtime) -> Result<()>;
+    fn build_cli<'a>(app: App<'a, 'a>) -> App<'a, 'a>;
+    fn name() -> &'static str;
+    fn version() -> &'static str;
+    fn description() -> &'static str;
+}
+
+
+#[macro_export]
+macro_rules! simple_imag_application_binary {
+    ($application_library:ident, $application_implementor:ident) => {
+        extern crate libimagerror;
+        extern crate failure;
+        extern crate $application_library;
+
+        use failure::{Error, Fallible as Result};
+        
+        fn main() {
+            use libimagerror::trace::MapErrTrace;
+            use libimagrt::application::ImagApplication;
+            use libimagrt::setup::generate_runtime_setup;
+            use $application_library::$application_implementor;
+            
+            let version = make_imag_version!();
+            let rt = generate_runtime_setup($application_implementor::name(),
+                                            &version,
+                                            $application_implementor::description(),
+                                            $application_implementor::build_cli);
+
+            // The error context must have a 'static lifetime
+            // Therefore, the easiest, safe, but hacky way to achieve this
+            // is to allocate a string, which is then forgotten to
+            // leak memory and return it's contents as a &'static str
+            // Because this is the very end of the application and only
+            // happens once, it should have no impact whatsoever
+            let error_context: &'static str = Box::leak(
+                format!("Failed to run {}", $application_implementor::name())
+                    .into_boxed_str()
+            );
+            $application_implementor::run(rt)
+                .map_err(|e| e.context(error_context))
+		.map_err(Error::from)
+		.map_err_trace_exit_unwrap();
+        }
+    };
+}
diff --git a/lib/core/libimagrt/src/lib.rs b/lib/core/libimagrt/src/lib.rs
index ebe8f4fc..f9d349c0 100644
--- a/lib/core/libimagrt/src/lib.rs
+++ b/lib/core/libimagrt/src/lib.rs
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ extern crate libimagutil;
 extern crate libimagerror;
 extern crate libimaginteraction;
 
+pub mod application;
 pub mod configuration;
 pub mod logger;
 pub mod io;