diff --git a/bin/cmd.js b/bin/cmd.js
index d978228..c13bae4 100755
--- a/bin/cmd.js
+++ b/bin/cmd.js
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ var faucet = require('../');
 var minimist = require('minimist');
 var defined = require('defined');
 var which = require('npm-which');
-var tapeCmd = which.sync('tape', { cwd: process.cwd() });
+
+var tapeCmd = process.env.FAUCET_TAP_CMD || which.sync('tape', { cwd: process.cwd() });
 
 var spawn = require('child_process').spawn;
 var fs = require('fs');
@@ -15,7 +16,17 @@ var path = require('path');
 var regexTester = require('safe-regex-test');
 var jsFile = regexTester(/\.js$/i);
 
-var argv = minimist(process.argv.slice(2));
+var faucetArgs = [];
+var opts = [];
+process.argv.slice(2).forEach(function(arg) {
+    if (arg !== '-' && arg[0] === '-') {
+        opts.push(arg);
+    } else {
+        faucetArgs.push(arg);
+    }
+});
+var argv = minimist(faucetArgs);
+
 var tap = faucet({
 	width: defined(argv.w, argv.width, process.stdout.isTTY
 		? process.stdout.columns - 5
@@ -59,7 +70,8 @@ if (files.length === 0) {
 	process.exit(1);
 }
 
-var tape = spawn(tapeCmd, files);
+var tapeArgs = opts.concat(files);
+var tape = spawn(tapeCmd, tapeArgs);
 tape.stderr.pipe(process.stderr);
 tape.stdout.pipe(tap).pipe(process.stdout);
 
diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index fe5936e..122dcd5 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ var split = require('string.prototype.split');
 var trim = require('string.prototype.trim');
 var regexTester = require('safe-regex-test');
 
-var isPassing = regexTester(/^(tests|pass)\s+\d+$/);
+var isPassing = regexTester(/^(assertions|tests|pass)\s+\d+$/);
 var isFailing = regexTester(/^fail\s+\d+$/);
 
 module.exports = function (opts) {
@@ -33,6 +33,7 @@ module.exports = function (opts) {
 	}
 
 	var test;
+    var bailout = null;
 
 	tap.on('comment', function (comment) {
 		if (comment === 'fail 0') { return; } // a mocha thing
@@ -87,6 +88,12 @@ module.exports = function (opts) {
 	});
 
 	tap.on('extra', function (extra) {
+        if (/^bail out!/i.test(extra)) {
+            // faucet is incompatible with tap-parser that supports bail out
+            bailout = extra;
+            return;
+        }
+
 		if (!test || test.assertions.length === 0) { return; }
 		var last = test.assertions[test.assertions.length - 1];
 		if (!last.ok) {
@@ -123,7 +130,10 @@ module.exports = function (opts) {
 				(res.errors.length + res.fail.length) || ''
 			));
 		}
-
+        
+        if (bailout !== null) {
+            out.push('\r\x1b[1m\x1b[31m- '+ bailout + '\x1b[0m\x1b[K\n');
+        }
 		out.push(null);
 
 		dup.emit('results', res);
diff --git a/readme.markdown b/readme.markdown
index f9f13db..4d51f15 100644
--- a/readme.markdown
+++ b/readme.markdown
@@ -135,10 +135,14 @@ Once you've got a way to get TAP out of your tests, just pipe into `faucet`:
 
 ```
 usage:
-  faucet [FILES]
+  faucet [OPTIONS] [FILES]
   command | faucet
 ```
 
+The command options and files arguments are both optional. Command options begin with `-` (dash). All other arguments are files.
+
+By default, `faucet` passes the command options and files to the `tape` executable found in the [`tape` module](https://github.com/substack/tape). The environment variable `FAUCET_TAP_CMD` may override this with a a path to a different TAP-producing command.
+
 # license
 
 MIT