diff --git a/.coveragerc b/.coveragerc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f0d55c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.coveragerc
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[run]
+omit=ncbi_acc_download/__main__.py
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cc81680
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+*.swp
+*.pyc
+ncbi_acc_download.egg-info/*
+.coverage
+htmlcov/*
+.cache/*
+dist/*
+
+# Pycharm
+.idea/*
+
diff --git a/LICENSE b/LICENSE
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8dada3e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE
@@ -0,0 +1,201 @@
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+   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+   You may obtain a copy of the License at
+
+       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+
+   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
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diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c0fd193
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+unit:
+	py.test -v
+
+coverage:
+	py.test --cov=ncbi_genome_download --cov-report term-missing --cov-report html
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3639c32
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,46 @@
+# NCBI accession download script
+
+A partner script to the popular [ncbi-genome-download](https://github.com/kblin/ncbi-genome-download)
+script, `ncbi-acc-download` allows you to download sequences from GenBank/RefSeq by accession through
+the NCBI [ENTREZ API](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK184582/).
+
+## Installation
+
+```
+pip install ncbi-acc-download
+```
+
+Alternatively, clone this repository from GitHub, then run (in a python virtual environment)
+```
+pip install .
+```
+If this fails on older versions of Python, try updating your `pip` tool first:
+```
+pip install --upgrade pip
+```
+and then rerun the `ncbi-acc-download` install.
+
+`ncbi-acc-download` is only developed and tested on Python releases still under active
+support by the Python project. At the moment, this means versions 2.7, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 and 3.6.
+Specifically, no attempt at testing under Python versions older than 2.7 or 3.3 is being made.
+
+If your system is stuck on an older version of Python, consider using a tool like
+[Homebrew](http://brew.sh) or [Linuxbrew](http://linuxbrew.sh) to obtain a more up-to-date
+version.
+
+
+## Usage
+
+To download a record AB_12345 in GenBank format, run
+```
+ncbi-acc-download AB_12345
+```
+
+To get an overview of all options, run
+```
+ncbi-acc-download --help
+```
+
+## License
+All code is available under the Apache License version 2, see the
+[`LICENSE`](LICENSE) file for details.
diff --git a/ncbi_acc_download/__init__.py b/ncbi_acc_download/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b794fd4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ncbi_acc_download/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+__version__ = '0.1.0'
diff --git a/ncbi_acc_download/__main__.py b/ncbi_acc_download/__main__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52a3d90
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ncbi_acc_download/__main__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,22 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+"""Get sequences from NCBI by GenBank/RefSeq ID"""
+
+from argparse import ArgumentParser
+
+from .core import download_from_ncbi
+
+def main():
+    parser = ArgumentParser()
+
+    parser.add_argument('ids', nargs='+', metavar='NCBI-accession')
+    parser.add_argument('-m', '--molecule', default="nucleotide", choices=["nucleotide", "protein"],
+                        help="Molecule type to download. Default: %(default)s")
+
+    opts = parser.parse_args()
+
+    for dl_id in opts.ids:
+        download_from_ncbi(dl_id, opts.molecule)
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()
diff --git a/ncbi_acc_download/core.py b/ncbi_acc_download/core.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..811cbcf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ncbi_acc_download/core.py
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+# Copyright 2017 Kai Blin
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+"""Core functions of the ncbi-by-accession downloader"""
+from __future__ import print_function
+import requests
+import sys
+try:
+    from httplib import IncompleteRead
+except ImportError:
+    from http.client import IncompleteRead
+
+
+NCBI_URL = 'https://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/efetch.fcgi'
+ERROR_PATTERNS = (
+    b'Error reading from remote server',
+    b'Bad gateway',
+    b'Cannot process ID list',
+    b'server is temporarily unable to service your request',
+    b'Service unavailable',
+    b'Server Error',
+    b'ID list is empty',
+    b'Resource temporarily unavailable',
+)
+
+
+def download_from_ncbi(dl_id, molecule="nucleotide"):
+    # types: string, string -> None
+    params = dict(tool='antiSMASH', retmode='text')
+
+    # delete / characters and as NCBI ignores IDs after #, do the same.
+    params['id'] = dl_id
+
+    params['db'] = molecule
+
+    if molecule == 'nucleotide':
+        params['rettype'] = 'gbwithparts'
+        file_ending = ".gbk"
+    else:
+        params['rettype'] = 'fasta'
+        file_ending = ".fa"
+
+    try:
+        r = requests.get(NCBI_URL, params=params, stream=True)
+    except (requests.exceptions.RequestException, IncompleteRead) as e:
+        print("Failed to download {!r} from NCBI".format(dl_id), file=sys.stderr)
+        raise
+
+    if r.status_code != requests.codes.ok:
+        print("Failed to download file with id {} from NCBI".format(dl_id), file=sys.stderr)
+        raise Exception("Download failed")
+
+    safe_ids = params['id'][:20].replace(' ', '_')
+    outfile_name = "{ncbi_id}{ending}".format(ncbi_id=safe_ids, ending=file_ending)
+
+    with open(outfile_name, 'wb') as fh:
+        # use a chunk size of 4k, as that's what most filesystems use these days
+        for chunk in r.iter_content(4096):
+            for pattern in ERROR_PATTERNS:
+                if pattern in chunk:
+                    raise Exception("Failed to download file with id {} from NCBI: {}".format(
+                        params['id'], pattern))
+
+            fh.write(chunk)
+
+
+
diff --git a/publish.sh b/publish.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..a79b864
--- /dev/null
+++ b/publish.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -euo pipefail
+
+PANDOC=pandoc
+
+${PANDOC} -f markdown_github -t rst -o README.rst README.md
+rm -rf dist
+python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel
+twine upload dist/*
+rm README.rst
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d6e1198
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+-e .
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aae586f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+[metadata]
+# This will completely override (not add to, but replace) the install_requires
+# when building a wheel. Unfortunately this requires duplicating all of the
+# depenencies here, but this allows us to support back to an older version of
+# pip/setuptools inside the setup.py while still using the newer environment
+# marker technique inside of a wheel.
+requires-dist =
+    # We require this gross hack of listing out every 2.7 version < 2.7.9 because
+    # older versions of setuptools/pip used string comparisons and thus 2.7.12 < 2.7.9.
+    pyOpenSSL; python_version < '2.7.9' or python_full_version in '2.7.0 2.7.1 2.7.2 2.7.3 2.7.4 2.7.5 2.7.6 2.7.7 2.7.8'
+    requests >= 2.4.3
+
+[bdist_wheel]
+universal=1
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ecd607
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+import os
+import sys
+from setuptools import setup
+from setuptools.command.test import test as TestCommand
+
+
+def read(fname):
+    return open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), fname)).read()
+
+if os.path.exists('README.rst'):
+    long_description = read('README.rst')
+else:
+    long_description = read('README.md')
+
+install_requires = [
+    'requests >= 2.4.3',
+]
+
+# Can't use environment markers on old setuptools, so fix the requirements
+# dynamically here. For wheels, again override the requirements in setup.cfg
+# to not cause conflicts.
+if sys.version_info[:3] < (2, 7, 9):
+    install_requires.extend(['pyOpenSSL', 'ndg-httpsclient'])
+
+
+tests_require = [
+    'pytest',
+    'coverage',
+    'pytest-cov',
+    'requests-mock',
+    'pytest-mock',
+]
+
+
+def read_version():
+    for line in open(os.path.join('ncbi_acc_download', '__init__.py'), 'r'):
+        if line.startswith('__version__'):
+            return line.split('=')[-1].strip().strip("'")
+
+
+class PyTest(TestCommand):
+    def finalize_options(self):
+        TestCommand.finalize_options(self)
+        self.test_args = []
+        self.test_suite = True
+
+    def run_tests(self):
+        import pytest
+        errcode = pytest.main(self.test_args)
+        sys.exit(errcode)
+
+
+setup(
+    name='ncbi-acc-download',
+    version=read_version(),
+    author='Kai Blin',
+    author_email='kblin@biosustain.dtu.dk',
+    description='Download genome files from NCBI by accession.',
+    long_description=long_description,
+    install_requires=install_requires,
+    tests_require=tests_require,
+    cmdclass={'test': PyTest},
+    entry_points={
+        'console_scripts': [
+            'ncbi-acc-download=ncbi_acc_download.__main__:main',
+        ],
+    },
+    packages=['ncbi_acc_download'],
+    url='https://github.com/kblin/ncbi-acc-download/',
+    license='Apache Software License',
+    classifiers=[
+        'Programming Language :: Python',
+        'Development Status :: 3 - Alpha',
+        'Intended Audience :: Science/Research',
+        'Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Bio-Informatics',
+        'License :: OSI Approved :: Apache Software License',
+        'Operating System :: OS Independent',
+    ],
+    extras_require={
+        'testing': tests_require,
+    },
+)