diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3a0675f8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+# ignore those pesky files that Mac generates
+.DS_Store
+
+# ignore streamline temp files
+tmp--*
+
+npm-debug.log
+
+# ignore the node inclusion directory
+node_modules/
diff --git a/examples/flows/http._coffee b/examples/flows/http._coffee
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..a6aeb789
--- /dev/null
+++ b/examples/flows/http._coffee
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+# a minimal example of using funneling to limit the concurrency of an operation.
+# in this case, the operation to parallelize is making HTTP requests
+
+request = require 'request'
+flows = require 'streamline/lib/util/flows'
+
+# get a page via HTTP
+get_page = (_, page_number) ->
+    httpFunnel _, (_) ->
+        console.log 'request  ' + page_number
+        response = request.get 'http://google.com?p=' + page_number, _
+        console.log 'response ' + page_number
+        response.body
+
+httpFunnel = flows.funnel 15  # allow max 15 to run in parallel
+
+# add 50 pages to request
+futures = (get_page null, page_number for page_number in [0..49])
+
+console.log 'pages declared'
+
+# accumulate all of the responses before proceeding
+results = flows.collect _, futures
+# at this point, results is an array of bodies
+
+console.log 'job complete'
+