diff --git a/xymon/__init__.py b/xymon/__init__.py
index cf9d2d4..93343c4 100755
--- a/xymon/__init__.py
+++ b/xymon/__init__.py
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@
     # Python 3.x
     from urllib.request import urlopen
     from urllib.parse import urlencode
-
+    from xymon import tools
 
 __version__ = '2.0.0'
 
diff --git a/xymon/tools.py b/xymon/tools.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..67be8ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/xymon/tools.py
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+"""
+Wrappers for xymon command line tools.
+
+"""
+import os
+import subprocess
+import sys
+from typing import NamedTuple, List
+
+
+class TaggedHost(NamedTuple):
+    """Host with test configuration as identified by a tag in hosts.cfg
+
+    `params` contains any parameters that where found as comma separated values
+    after the test tag. Example: if hosts.cfg specifies `mytag=1,2,3` then `params` 
+    will contain ['1', '2', '3'].
+    """
+    host: str
+    ip: str
+    params: List[str]
+
+
+def find_tagged_hosts(tag: str) -> List[TaggedHost]:
+    """Look for tag in hosts.cfg and return matching hosts
+
+    This function wraps `xymongrep` to parse and return all test configs 
+    identified by `tag` in hosts.cfg, traversing includes. The tag may include
+    a wildcard character ("mytag=*") which is useful if the tag is followed 
+    by additional parameters, e.g. `mytag=val1,val2,...` (see docstring for
+    :class:`TestConfig`).
+
+    tag: Tag to look for in hosts.cfg.
+
+    """
+    cfg = run_xymon_cmd('xymongrep', '--noextras', tag)
+    results = []
+    for line in cfg.splitlines():
+        tokens = line.split()
+        tag_token = tokens[3]
+        params = []
+        if '=' in tag_token:
+            params = tag_token.split('=', maxsplit=1)[1].split(',')
+        results.append(TaggedHost(host=tokens[1], ip=tokens[0], params=params))
+    return results
+
+
+def run_xymon_cmd(cmd: str, *args: str) -> str:
+    """Run a xymon command and return its output
+
+    Returns the output of `cmd` from stdout encoded as an utf-8 string.
+
+    cmd:   Command (tool) to run from the xymon bin directory.
+    args:  These are passed to the cmd verbatim.
+
+    """
+    path = os.path.join(os.environ['XYMONHOME'], 'bin', cmd)
+    try:
+        result = subprocess.run([path, *args], check=True, encoding='utf-8',
+                                stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE)
+    except subprocess.CalledProcessError as ex:
+        print(f"Error while executing {ex.cmd}: ({ex.returncode}) {ex.stderr}",
+              file=sys.stderr)
+        raise
+    return result.stdout