diff --git a/bin/scrapy b/bin/scrapy
new file mode 100755
index 00000000000..965563e9960
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bin/scrapy
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+from scrapy.tool import main
+main()
diff --git a/scrapy/commands/startproject.py b/scrapy/commands/startproject.py
index ee44026ce49..690b0b048e5 100644
--- a/scrapy/commands/startproject.py
+++ b/scrapy/commands/startproject.py
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 TEMPLATES_PATH = join(scrapy.__path__[0], 'templates', 'project')
 
 TEMPLATES_TO_RENDER = (
+    ('scrapy.cfg',),
     ('scrapy-ctl.py',),
     ('${project_name}', 'settings.py.tmpl'),
     ('${project_name}', 'items.py.tmpl'),
@@ -44,6 +45,7 @@ def run(self, args, opts):
 
         moduletpl = join(TEMPLATES_PATH, 'module')
         copytree(moduletpl, join(project_name, project_name), ignore=IGNORE)
+        shutil.copy(join(TEMPLATES_PATH, 'scrapy.cfg'), project_name)
         shutil.copy(join(TEMPLATES_PATH, 'scrapy-ctl.py'), project_name)
         for paths in TEMPLATES_TO_RENDER:
             path = join(*paths)
diff --git a/scrapy/templates/project/scrapy.cfg b/scrapy/templates/project/scrapy.cfg
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..d30c9056780
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scrapy/templates/project/scrapy.cfg
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[default]
+settings = ${project_name}.settings
diff --git a/scrapy/tool.py b/scrapy/tool.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cd3a3c8f4d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scrapy/tool.py
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+"""
+Scrapy command-line tool
+"""
+
+import sys, os
+from ConfigParser import RawConfigParser
+
+def closest_scrapy_cfg(path='.', prevpath=None):
+    if path == prevpath:
+        return ''
+    path = os.path.abspath(path)
+    cfgfile = os.path.join(path, 'scrapy.cfg')
+    if os.path.exists(cfgfile):
+        return cfgfile
+    return closest_scrapy_cfg(os.path.dirname(path), path)
+
+def main():
+    scrapy_cfg = closest_scrapy_cfg()
+    cfg_sources = [scrapy_cfg, os.path.expanduser('~/.scrapy.cfg'), '/etc/scrapy.cfg']
+    cfg = RawConfigParser()
+    cfg.read(cfg_sources)
+    if cfg.has_option('default', 'settings'):
+        os.environ['SCRAPY_SETTINGS_MODULE'] = cfg.get('default', 'settings')
+        projdir = os.path.dirname(scrapy_cfg)
+        if projdir not in sys.path:
+            sys.path.append(projdir)
+
+    from scrapy.cmdline import execute
+    execute()
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    main()
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index fba882ad469..a31191e69b2 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -90,7 +90,7 @@ def is_not_module(filename):
     'packages': packages,
     'cmdclass': cmdclasses,
     'data_files': data_files,
-    'scripts': ['bin/scrapy-ctl.py', 'bin/scrapy-ws.py', 'bin/scrapy-sqs.py'],
+    'scripts': ['bin/scrapy', 'bin/scrapy-ctl.py', 'bin/scrapy-ws.py', 'bin/scrapy-sqs.py'],
     'classifiers': [
         'Programming Language :: Python',
         'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.5',