diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index f0c9e528..353882f9 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -115,4 +115,3 @@ set( IXWEBSOCKET_INCLUDE_DIRS
 target_include_directories( ixwebsocket PUBLIC ${IXWEBSOCKET_INCLUDE_DIRS} )
 
 add_subdirectory(ws)
-add_subdirectory(examples)
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e5b7b738..bfcb9d74 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ communication channels over a single TCP connection. *IXWebSocket* is a C++ libr
 
 ## Examples
 
-The examples folder countains a simple chat program, using a node.js broadcast server.
+The ws folder countains many interactive programs for chat and file transfers demonstrating client and server usage.
 
 Here is what the client API looks like.
 
@@ -144,16 +144,6 @@ Large frames are broken up into smaller chunks or messages to avoid filling up t
 * Automatic reconnection works at the TCP socket level, and will detect remote end disconnects. However, if the device/computer network become unreachable (by turning off wifi), it is quite hard to reliably and timely detect it at the socket level using `recv` and `send` error codes. [Here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14782143/linux-socket-how-to-detect-disconnected-network-in-a-client-program) is a good discussion on the subject. This behavior is consistent with other runtimes such as node.js. One way to detect a disconnected device with low level C code is to do a name resolution with DNS but this can be expensive. Mobile devices have good and reliable API to do that.
 * The server code is using select to detect incoming data, and creates one OS thread per connection. This isn't as scalable as strategies using epoll or kqueue.
 
-## Examples
-
-1. Bring up a terminal and jump to the examples folder.
-2. Compile the example C++ code. `sh build.sh`
-3. Install node.js from [here](https://nodejs.org/en/download/).
-4. Type `npm install` to install the node.js dependencies. Then `node broadcast-server.js` to run the server.
-5. Bring up a second terminal. `./cmd_websocket_chat bob`
-6. Bring up a third terminal. `./cmd_websocket_chat bill`
-7. Start typing things in any of those terminals. Hopefully you should see your message being received on the other end.
-
 ## C++ code organization
 
 Here's a simplistic diagram which explains how the code is structured in term of class/modules.
diff --git a/makefile b/makefile
index f5007a18..7b01a7b2 100644
--- a/makefile
+++ b/makefile
@@ -1,10 +1,10 @@
 #
 # This makefile is just used to easily work with docker (linux build)
 #
-all: run
+all: brew
 
 brew:
-	mkdir -p ws/build && (cd ws/build ; cmake .. ; make)
+	mkdir -p build && (cd build ; cmake .. ; make)
 
 .PHONY: docker
 docker:
diff --git a/examples/chat/nlohmann/json.hpp b/third_party/nlohmann/json.hpp
similarity index 100%
rename from examples/chat/nlohmann/json.hpp
rename to third_party/nlohmann/json.hpp
diff --git a/ws/CMakeLists.txt b/ws/CMakeLists.txt
index 168cd991..fdee2e33 100644
--- a/ws/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/ws/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ set (CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 14)
 option(USE_TLS "Add TLS support" ON)
 
 include_directories(ws .)
+include_directories(ws ..)
 include_directories(ws ../third_party)
 
 add_executable(ws 
@@ -22,6 +23,8 @@ add_executable(ws
   ixcrypto/IXHash.cpp
   ixcrypto/IXUuid.cpp
 
+  ws_chat.cpp
+  ws_connect.cpp
   ws_transfer.cpp
   ws_send.cpp
   ws_receive.cpp
diff --git a/ws/docker_build.sh b/ws/docker_build.sh
index 9dd5a679..d1dadffd 100644
--- a/ws/docker_build.sh
+++ b/ws/docker_build.sh
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@ g++ --std=c++14 \
     ixcrypto/IXBase64.cpp \
     ixcrypto/IXHash.cpp \
     ixcrypto/IXUuid.cpp \
+    ws_chat.cpp \
+    ws_connect.cpp \
     ws_transfer.cpp \
     ws_send.cpp \
     ws_receive.cpp \
diff --git a/ws/ws.cpp b/ws/ws.cpp
index 2273b056..b2871aa4 100644
--- a/ws/ws.cpp
+++ b/ws/ws.cpp
@@ -16,13 +16,18 @@
 
 namespace ix
 {
+    int ws_chat_main(const std::string& url,
+                     const std::string& user);
+
+    int ws_connect_main(const std::string& url);
+
     int ws_receive_main(const std::string& url,
                         bool enablePerMessageDeflate);
 
-    extern int ws_transfer_main(int port);
+    int ws_transfer_main(int port);
 
-    extern int ws_send_main(const std::string& url,
-                            const std::string& path);
+    int ws_send_main(const std::string& url,
+                     const std::string& path);
 }
 
 int main(int argc, char** argv)
@@ -32,6 +37,7 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
 
     std::string url;
     std::string path;
+    std::string user;
     int port = 8080;
 
     CLI::App* sendApp = app.add_subcommand("send", "Send a file");
@@ -44,6 +50,13 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
     CLI::App* transferApp = app.add_subcommand("transfer", "Broadcasting server");
     transferApp->add_option("--port", port, "Connection url");
 
+    CLI::App* connectApp = app.add_subcommand("connect", "Connect to a remote server");
+    connectApp->add_option("url", url, "Connection url")->required();
+
+    CLI::App* chatApp = app.add_subcommand("chat", "Group chat");
+    chatApp->add_option("url", url, "Connection url")->required();
+    chatApp->add_option("user", user, "User name")->required();
+
     CLI11_PARSE(app, argc, argv);
 
     if (app.got_subcommand("transfer"))
@@ -59,6 +72,14 @@ int main(int argc, char** argv)
         bool enablePerMessageDeflate = false;
         return ix::ws_receive_main(url, enablePerMessageDeflate);
     }
+    else if (app.got_subcommand("connect"))
+    {
+        return ix::ws_connect_main(url);
+    }
+    else if (app.got_subcommand("chat"))
+    {
+        return ix::ws_chat_main(url, user);
+    }
     else
     {
         assert(false);
diff --git a/examples/chat/cmd_websocket_chat.cpp b/ws/ws_chat.cpp
similarity index 84%
rename from examples/chat/cmd_websocket_chat.cpp
rename to ws/ws_chat.cpp
index 8af42141..f8613e70 100644
--- a/examples/chat/cmd_websocket_chat.cpp
+++ b/ws/ws_chat.cpp
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 /*
- *  cmd_websocket_chat.cpp
+ *  ws_chat.cpp
  *  Author: Benjamin Sergeant
- *  Copyright (c) 2017-2018 Machine Zone, Inc. All rights reserved.
+ *  Copyright (c) 2017-2019 Machine Zone, Inc. All rights reserved.
  */
 
 //
@@ -20,19 +20,13 @@
 // for convenience
 using json = nlohmann::json;
 
-using namespace ix;
-
-namespace
+namespace ix
 {
-    void log(const std::string& msg)
-    {
-        std::cout << msg << std::endl;
-    }
-
     class WebSocketChat
     {
         public:
-            WebSocketChat(const std::string& user);
+            WebSocketChat(const std::string& url,
+                          const std::string& user);
 
             void subscribe(const std::string& channel);
             void start();
@@ -46,19 +40,27 @@ namespace
             std::pair<std::string, std::string> decodeMessage(const std::string& str);
 
         private:
+            std::string _url;
             std::string _user;
-
             ix::WebSocket _webSocket;
-
             std::queue<std::string> _receivedQueue;
+
+            void log(const std::string& msg);
     };
 
-    WebSocketChat::WebSocketChat(const std::string& user) :
+    WebSocketChat::WebSocketChat(const std::string& url,
+                                 const std::string& user) :
+        _url(url),
         _user(user)
     {
         ;
     }
 
+    void WebSocketChat::log(const std::string& msg)
+    {
+        std::cout << msg << std::endl;
+    }
+
     size_t WebSocketChat::getReceivedMessagesCount() const
     {
         return _receivedQueue.size();
@@ -76,11 +78,10 @@ namespace
 
     void WebSocketChat::start()
     {
-        std::string url("ws://localhost:8080/");
-        _webSocket.setUrl(url);
+        _webSocket.setUrl(_url);
 
         std::stringstream ss;
-        log(std::string("Connecting to url: ") + url);
+        log(std::string("Connecting to url: ") + _url);
 
         _webSocket.setOnMessageCallback(
             [this](ix::WebSocketMessageType messageType,
@@ -164,10 +165,11 @@ namespace
         _webSocket.send(encodeMessage(text));
     }
 
-    void interactiveMain(const std::string& user)
+    void interactiveMain(const std::string& url,
+                         const std::string& user)
     {
         std::cout << "Type Ctrl-D to exit prompt..." << std::endl;
-        WebSocketChat webSocketChat(user);
+        WebSocketChat webSocketChat(url, user);
         webSocketChat.start();
 
         while (true)
@@ -187,17 +189,13 @@ namespace
         std::cout << std::endl;
         webSocketChat.stop();
     }
-}
 
-int main(int argc, char** argv)
-{
-    std::string user("user");
-    if (argc == 2)
+    int ws_chat_main(const std::string& url,
+                     const std::string& user)
     {
-        user = argv[1];
+        Socket::init();
+        interactiveMain(url, user);
+        return 0;
     }
-
-    Socket::init();
-    interactiveMain(user);
-    return 0;
 }
+
diff --git a/examples/ws_connect/ws_connect.cpp b/ws/ws_connect.cpp
similarity index 93%
rename from examples/ws_connect/ws_connect.cpp
rename to ws/ws_connect.cpp
index 4a80e983..ac0b8577 100644
--- a/examples/ws_connect/ws_connect.cpp
+++ b/ws/ws_connect.cpp
@@ -9,15 +9,8 @@
 #include <ixwebsocket/IXWebSocket.h>
 #include <ixwebsocket/IXSocket.h>
 
-using namespace ix;
-
-namespace
+namespace ix
 {
-    void log(const std::string& msg)
-    {
-        std::cout << msg << std::endl;
-    }
-
     class WebSocketConnect
     {
         public:
@@ -32,6 +25,8 @@ namespace
         private:
             std::string _url;
             ix::WebSocket _webSocket;
+
+            void log(const std::string& msg);
     };
 
     WebSocketConnect::WebSocketConnect(const std::string& url) :
@@ -40,6 +35,11 @@ namespace
         ;
     }
 
+    void WebSocketConnect::log(const std::string& msg)
+    {
+        std::cout << msg << std::endl;
+    }
+
     void WebSocketConnect::stop()
     {
         _webSocket.stop();
@@ -148,18 +148,12 @@ namespace
         std::cout << std::endl;
         webSocketChat.stop();
     }
-}
 
-int main(int argc, char** argv)
-{
-    if (argc != 2)
+    int ws_connect_main(const std::string& url)
     {
-        std::cerr << "Usage: ws_connect <url>" << std::endl;
-        return 1;
+        Socket::init();
+        interactiveMain(url);
+        return 0;
     }
-    std::string url = argv[1];
-
-    Socket::init();
-    interactiveMain(url);
-    return 0;
 }
+