diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 40eff0e..b6d37b8 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ option(CPPAST_ENABLE_ASSERTIONS "whether or not to enable internal assertions fo
 option(CPPAST_ENABLE_PRECONDITION_CHECKS "whether or not to enable precondition checks" ON)
 
 option(CPPAST_BUILD_TEST "whether or not to build the tests" ON)
+option(CPPAST_BUILD_EXAMPLE "whether or not to build the examples" ON)
 option(CPPAST_BUILD_TOOL "whether or not to build the tool" ON)
 option(BUILD_TESTING "build test" OFF) # The ctest variable for building tests
 
@@ -24,6 +25,12 @@ else()
     set(build_test OFF)
 endif()
 
+if(${CPPAST_BUILD_EXAMPLE} OR (CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR STREQUAL CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR))
+    set(build_example ON)
+else()
+    set(build_example OFF)
+endif()
+
 if(${CPPAST_BUILD_TOOL} OR (CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR STREQUAL CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR))
     set(build_tool ON)
 else()
@@ -43,6 +50,9 @@ add_subdirectory(src)
 if(${build_test})
     add_subdirectory(test)
 endif()
+if(${build_example})
+    add_subdirectory(example)
+endif()
 if(${build_tool})
     add_subdirectory(tool)
 endif()
diff --git a/example/CMakeLists.txt b/example/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4b5f547
--- /dev/null
+++ b/example/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# Copyright (C) 2017 Jonathan Müller <jonathanmueller.dev@gmail.com>
+# This file is subject to the license terms in the LICENSE file
+# found in the top-level directory of this distribution.
+
+function(_cppast_example name)
+    add_executable(cppast_example_${name} ${name}.cpp)
+    target_link_libraries(cppast_example_${name} PUBLIC cppast)
+endfunction()
+
+_cppast_example(ast_printer)
diff --git a/example/ast_printer.cpp b/example/ast_printer.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5346563
--- /dev/null
+++ b/example/ast_printer.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,65 @@
+// Copyright (C) 2017 Jonathan Müller <jonathanmueller.dev@gmail.com>
+// This file is subject to the license terms in the LICENSE file
+// found in the top-level directory of this distribution.
+
+/// \file
+/// This is a very primitive version of the cppast tool.
+
+#include <iostream>
+
+#include <cppast/libclang_parser.hpp> // libclang_compilation_database, libclang_parser, etc.
+#include <cppast/visitor.hpp>         // visit()
+
+int main(int argc, char* argv[])
+{
+    if (argc != 2)
+    {
+        std::cerr << "usage: " << argv[0] << " <compile-commands-json-dir>\n";
+        return 1;
+    }
+    else
+    {
+        cppast::libclang_compilation_database database(argv[1]); // the compilation database
+        cppast::cpp_entity_index              index; // only needed for cross referencing in the AST
+
+        // simple_file_parser allows parsing multiple files and stores the results for us
+        cppast::simple_file_parser<cppast::libclang_parser> parser(type_safe::ref(index));
+        try
+        {
+            cppast::parse_database(parser, database); // parse all files in the database
+        }
+        catch (cppast::libclang_error& ex)
+        {
+            std::cerr << "fatal libclang error: " << ex.what() << '\n';
+            return 1;
+        }
+
+        if (parser.error())
+            // a non-fatal parse error
+            // error has been logged to stderr
+            return 1;
+
+        for (auto& file : parser.files()) // for each file in the project
+        {
+            std::string prefix;
+            // visit each entity in the file
+            cppast::visit(file, [&](const cppast::cpp_entity& e, cppast::visitor_info info) {
+                if (info.event
+                    == cppast::visitor_info::container_entity_exit) // exiting an old container
+                    prefix.pop_back();
+                else if (info.event == cppast::visitor_info::container_entity_enter)
+                // entering a new container
+                {
+                    std::cout << prefix << "'" << e.name() << "' - " << cppast::to_string(e.kind())
+                              << '\n';
+                    prefix += "\t";
+                }
+                else // if (info.event == cppast::visitor_info::leaf_entity) // a non-container entity
+                    std::cout << prefix << "'" << e.name() << "' - " << cppast::to_string(e.kind())
+                              << '\n';
+
+                return true; // continue with visit
+            });
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/src/CMakeLists.txt b/src/CMakeLists.txt
index c45d7bb..26cded2 100644
--- a/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@ set(libclang_source
         libclang/variable_parser.cpp)
 
 add_library(cppast ${detail_header} ${header} ${source} ${libclang_source})
+set_target_properties(cppast PROPERTIES CXX_STANDARD 11)
 target_include_directories(cppast PUBLIC ../include)
 target_link_libraries(cppast PUBLIC type_safe _cppast_tiny_process _cppast_libclang)
 target_compile_definitions(cppast PUBLIC
diff --git a/test/CMakeLists.txt b/test/CMakeLists.txt
index 281a4b1..6c75862 100644
--- a/test/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -36,7 +36,6 @@ set(tests
 add_executable(cppast_test test.cpp test_parser.hpp ${tests})
 target_include_directories(cppast_test PUBLIC ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR})
 target_link_libraries(cppast_test PUBLIC cppast)
-set_target_properties(cppast_test PROPERTIES CXX_STANDARD 11)
 
 enable_testing()
 add_test(NAME test COMMAND cppast_test)
diff --git a/tool/CMakeLists.txt b/tool/CMakeLists.txt
index 8f3aaf0..75661da 100644
--- a/tool/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tool/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -4,5 +4,4 @@
 
 add_executable(cppast_tool main.cpp)
 target_link_libraries(cppast_tool PUBLIC cppast cxxopts)
-set_target_properties(cppast_tool PROPERTIES CXX_STANDARD 11
-                                             OUTPUT_NAME cppast)
+set_target_properties(cppast_tool PROPERTIES OUTPUT_NAME cppast)