diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 7894c4f2..498bad82 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -91,6 +91,7 @@ Stated templates are modular and can be imported from a URL:
 }
 ```
 
+
 ## Why Do We Need stated?
 
 Consider this ordinary program:
@@ -1719,6 +1720,38 @@ This can be combined with the `--importPath` option to import files relative to
   "res": "bar: foo"
 }
 ```
+## The $open function
+Allowing expressions to open local files is a security risk. For this reason the core TemplateProcessor does 
+not support the $open function. However, the CLI/REPL which are for local usage allow the $open function. Additionally,
+programs that want to allow properly guarded `$open` operations may inject a `$open` function of their choosing
+into the TemplateProcessor contexet. $open accepts a relative path, and parses the JSON or YAML file on that path into
+an object.
+```json [false, "true", false, "a.c='the answer is: 42' and b.c='the answer is: 42'", "true"]
+> .note This shows two equivalent ways to open a json or yaml file using $open
+"============================================================="
+> .cd example
+"Current directory changed to: /Users/falken/proj/jsonataexperiments/example"
+> .init -f "importLocal.json"
+{
+   "a": "${'ex01.json'~>$open~>$import}",
+   "b": "${$import($open('ex01.json'))}"
+}
+> .out
+{
+   "a": {
+      "a": 42,
+      "b": 42,
+      "c": "the answer is: 42"
+   },
+   "b": {
+      "a": 42,
+      "b": 42,
+      "c": "the answer is: 42"
+   }
+}
+> .cd ..
+"Current directory changed to: /Users/falken/proj/jsonataexperiments"
+```
 # Understanding Plans
 This information is to explain the planning algorithms to comitters. As a user you do not need to understand how
 Stated formulates plans. Before explaining how a plan is made, let's show the end-to-end flow of how a plan is used 
diff --git a/example/importLocal.json b/example/importLocal.json
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c1117e35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/example/importLocal.json
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+{
+  "a": "${'ex01.json'~>$open~>$import}",
+  "b": "${$import($open('ex01.json'))}"
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/CliCore.ts b/src/CliCore.ts
index 6721b299..4fa5f407 100644
--- a/src/CliCore.ts
+++ b/src/CliCore.ts
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ export default class CliCore {
         return {...parsed, ...processedArgs}; //spread the processedArgs back into what was parsed
     }
 
-    async readFileAndParse(filepath, importPath) {
+    async readFileAndParse(filepath, importPath?) {
         const fileExtension = path.extname(filepath).toLowerCase().replace(/\W/g, '');
         if (fileExtension === 'js' || fileExtension === 'mjs') {
             return await import(CliCore.resolveImportPath(filepath, importPath));
@@ -117,11 +117,7 @@ export default class CliCore {
         if(filepath===undefined){
             return undefined;
         }
-        let _filepath = filepath;
-        if(this.currentDirectory){
-            _filepath = path.join(this.currentDirectory, _filepath);
-        }
-        const input = await this.readFileAndParse(_filepath, importPath);
+        const input = await this.openFile(filepath);
         const contextData = contextFilePath ? await this.readFileAndParse(contextFilePath, importPath) : {};
         options.importPath = importPath; //path is where local imports will be sourced from. We sneak path in with the options
         // if we initialize for the first time, we need to create a new instance of TemplateProcessor
@@ -143,7 +139,7 @@ export default class CliCore {
         // set options
         this.templateProcessor.logger.level = this.logLevel;
         this.templateProcessor.logger.debug(`arguments: ${JSON.stringify(parsed)}`);
-
+        this.templateProcessor.context["open"] = this.openFile.bind(this); //$open('foo.json') is supported by the CLI adding $open function. It is not part of core TemplateProcessor as that would be security hole
         try {
             await this.templateProcessor.initialize(input);
             if (oneshot === true) {
@@ -163,6 +159,14 @@ export default class CliCore {
 
     }
 
+    private async openFile(fname:string){
+        let _filepath = fname;
+        if(this.currentDirectory){
+            _filepath = path.join(this.currentDirectory, _filepath);
+        }
+        return await this.readFileAndParse(_filepath);
+    }
+
 
     async set(args) {
         const options = args.match(/(?:[^\s"]+|"[^"]*")+/g);
diff --git a/src/TestUtils.ts b/src/TestUtils.ts
index 67419cf1..b525c8c6 100644
--- a/src/TestUtils.ts
+++ b/src/TestUtils.ts
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ function runMarkdownTests(testData: CommandAndResponse[], cliCore:CliCore, print
             expect(responseNormalized).toBeDefined();
           }
         }
-      }, 30000); // set timeout to 30 seconds for each test
+      }, 100000); // set timeout to 100 seconds for each test
     });
   }finally {
     cliCore.close();