diff --git a/doc/api/cluster.markdown b/doc/api/cluster.markdown
index 6e02f484860..11184a5799c 100644
--- a/doc/api/cluster.markdown
+++ b/doc/api/cluster.markdown
@@ -4,14 +4,22 @@ A single instance of Node runs in a single thread. To take advantage of
 multi-core systems the user will sometimes want to launch a cluster of Node
 processes to handle the load.
 
-By starting node with the `cluster` argument, Node will detect the number of
-CPUs on the machine and start that many processes. For example suppose we
-had a simple HTTP server in server.js:
+The cluster module allows you to easily create a network of processes all
+which share server ports.
 
-    require('http').createServer(function(req, res) {
+  var cluster = require('cluster');
+  var http = require('http');
+
+  if (!cluster.isWorker()) {
+    // Start the master process, fork workers.
+    cluster.startMaster({ workers: 2 });
+  } else {
+    // Worker processes have a http server.
+    http.Server(function(req, res) {
       res.writeHead(200);
-      res.end('hello world\n');
+      res.end("hello world\n");
     }).listen(8000);
+  }
 
 If we start it like this
 
diff --git a/lib/cluster.js b/lib/cluster.js
index 75bcfa560a2..38229c99869 100644
--- a/lib/cluster.js
+++ b/lib/cluster.js
@@ -48,22 +48,47 @@ var queryIds = 0;
 var queryCallbacks = {};
 
 
-exports.start = function() {
+
+// Used to check if this process is a worker or not.
+// Returns boolean.
+exports.isWorker = function() {
+  return 'NODE_WORKER_ID' in process.env;
+};
+
+
+// Call this from the master process. It will start child workers.
+//
+// options.workerFilename
+// Specifies the script to execute for the child processes. Default is
+// process.argv[1]
+//
+// options.args 
+// Specifies program arguments for the workers. The Default is
+// process.argv.slice(2)
+//
+// options.workers
+// The number of workers to start. Defaults to os.cpus().length.
+exports.startMaster = function(options) {
   amMaster = true;
 
-  if (process.argv.length < 1) {
-    console.error('Usage: node cluster script.js');
-    process.exit(1);
+  if (!options) {
+    options = {};
   }
 
-  var args = process.argv.slice(2);
-  var scriptFilename = args.shift();
+  if (!options.workerFilename) {
+    options.workerFilename = process.argv[1];
+  }
 
-  var cpus = require('os').cpus().length;
-  console.error("Detected " + cpus + " cpus");
+  if (!options.args) {
+    options.args = process.argv.slice(2);
+  }
 
-  for (var i = 0; i < cpus; i++) {
-    forkWorker(scriptFilename, args);
+  if (!options.workers) {
+    options.workers = require('os').cpus().length;
+  }
+
+  for (var i = 0; i < options.workers; i++) {
+    forkWorker(options.workerFilename, options.args);
   }
 
   process.on('uncaughtException', function(e) {
@@ -118,7 +143,7 @@ function handleWorkerMessage(worker, message) {
 }
 
 
-function forkWorker(scriptFilename, args) {
+function forkWorker(workerFilename, args) {
   var id = ++ids;
   var envCopy = {};
 
@@ -128,7 +153,7 @@ function forkWorker(scriptFilename, args) {
 
   envCopy['NODE_WORKER_ID'] = id;
 
-  var worker = fork(scriptFilename, args, {
+  var worker = fork(workerFilename, args, {
     env: envCopy
   });
 
diff --git a/src/node.cc b/src/node.cc
index f846115c729..377fbe64ab2 100644
--- a/src/node.cc
+++ b/src/node.cc
@@ -2261,7 +2261,6 @@ static void ParseDebugOpt(const char* arg) {
 static void PrintHelp() {
   printf("Usage: node [options] [ -e script | script.js ] [arguments] \n"
          "       node debug script.js [arguments] \n"
-         "       node cluster script.js [arguments] \n"
          "\n"
          "Options:\n"
          "  -v, --version        print node's version\n"
diff --git a/src/node.js b/src/node.js
index 863cf1693a4..520ddae5e98 100644
--- a/src/node.js
+++ b/src/node.js
@@ -68,10 +68,6 @@
       var d = NativeModule.require('_debugger');
       d.start();
 
-    } else if (process.argv[1] == 'cluster') {
-      var cluster = NativeModule.require('cluster');
-      cluster.start();
-
     } else if (process._eval != null) {
       // User passed '-e' or '--eval' arguments to Node.
       var Module = NativeModule.require('module');