diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index e8dedf9cf50..8b2cc1927fa 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -823,6 +823,18 @@ dependencies = [
  "serde",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "serde_yaml"
+version = "0.8.26"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "578a7433b776b56a35785ed5ce9a7e777ac0598aac5a6dd1b4b18a307c7fc71b"
+dependencies = [
+ "indexmap",
+ "ryu",
+ "serde",
+ "yaml-rust",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "sha1"
 version = "0.10.5"
@@ -1196,6 +1208,23 @@ dependencies = [
  "webc",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "wapm-toml"
+version = "0.3.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "f792aec62b1881c96858549abf402693bd27130e293abb2cddcc849361251571"
+dependencies = [
+ "anyhow",
+ "semver",
+ "serde",
+ "serde_cbor",
+ "serde_derive",
+ "serde_json",
+ "serde_yaml",
+ "thiserror",
+ "toml",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "wasi"
 version = "0.11.0+wasi-snapshot-preview1"
@@ -1289,6 +1318,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "ureq",
  "url",
  "wapm-targz-to-pirita",
+ "wapm-toml",
  "wasmer-pack",
  "webc",
 ]
diff --git a/crates/cli/Cargo.toml b/crates/cli/Cargo.toml
index f66c13236bf..06e30587ea3 100644
--- a/crates/cli/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/cli/Cargo.toml
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ serde_json = "1.0.85"
 webc = "3.0.1"
 wasmer-pack = { version = "0.5.0", path = "../wasmer-pack" }
 wapm-targz-to-pirita = { git = "ssh://git@github.com/wasmerio/pirita.git", version = "0.1.0" }
+wapm-toml = "0.3.0"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 insta = "1.18.2"
diff --git a/crates/cli/src/codegen.rs b/crates/cli/src/codegen.rs
index 23f97917838..2b67d00c829 100644
--- a/crates/cli/src/codegen.rs
+++ b/crates/cli/src/codegen.rs
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ impl Codegen {
     pub fn run(self, language: Language) -> Result<(), Error> {
         let Codegen { out_dir, input } = self;
 
-        let pkg = crate::load_pirita_file(&input)?;
+        let pkg = crate::pirita::load(&input)?;
 
         let files = match language {
             Language::JavaScript => wasmer_pack::generate_javascript(&pkg)?,
diff --git a/crates/cli/src/lib.rs b/crates/cli/src/lib.rs
index 0af0171b248..ba3045fb281 100644
--- a/crates/cli/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crates/cli/src/lib.rs
@@ -6,5 +6,3 @@ pub use crate::{
     codegen::{Codegen, Language},
     show::{Format, Show},
 };
-
-pub(crate) use crate::pirita::load_pirita_file;
diff --git a/crates/cli/src/pirita.rs b/crates/cli/src/pirita.rs
index 33e6e110137..2f3170095ab 100644
--- a/crates/cli/src/pirita.rs
+++ b/crates/cli/src/pirita.rs
@@ -1,15 +1,21 @@
-use std::path::Path;
+use std::path::{Path, PathBuf};
 
 use anyhow::{Context, Error};
+use wapm_targz_to_pirita::TransformManifestFunctions;
 use wasmer_pack::{Command, Interface, Library, Metadata, Module, Package};
 use webc::{Manifest, ParseOptions, WebC, WebCOwned};
 
-pub(crate) fn load_pirita_file(path: &Path) -> Result<Package, Error> {
-    let options = ParseOptions::default();
+pub(crate) fn load(path: &Path) -> Result<Package, Error> {
+    let raw_webc: Vec<u8> = if path.is_dir() {
+        webc_from_dir(path)?
+    } else if path.extension() == Some("webc".as_ref()) {
+        std::fs::read(path).with_context(|| format!("Unable to read \"{}\"", path.display()))?
+    } else {
+        webc_from_tarball(path)?
+    };
 
-    let raw =
-        std::fs::read(path).with_context(|| format!("Unable to read \"{}\"", path.display()))?;
-    let webc = WebCOwned::parse(raw, &options)
+    let options = ParseOptions::default();
+    let webc = WebCOwned::parse(raw_webc, &options)
         .with_context(|| format!("Unable to parse \"{}\" as a WEBC file", path.display()))?;
 
     let fully_qualified_package_name = webc.get_package_name();
@@ -20,6 +26,41 @@ pub(crate) fn load_pirita_file(path: &Path) -> Result<Package, Error> {
     Ok(Package::new(metadata, libraries, commands))
 }
 
+fn webc_from_dir(path: &Path) -> Result<Vec<u8>, Error> {
+    if !path.join("wapm.toml").exists() {
+        anyhow::bail!(
+            "The \"{}\" directory doesn't contain a \"wapm.tom\" file",
+            path.display()
+        );
+    }
+
+    todo!("Read all files into a FileMap and call generate_webc_file()");
+}
+
+fn webc_from_tarball(path: &Path) -> Result<Vec<u8>, Error> {
+    let tarball =
+        std::fs::read(path).with_context(|| format!("Unable to read \"{}\"", path.display()))?;
+    let files =
+        wapm_targz_to_pirita::unpack_tar_gz(tarball).context("Unable to unpack the tarball")?;
+
+    wapm_targz_to_pirita::generate_webc_file(
+        files,
+        &PathBuf::new(),
+        None,
+        &TransformManifestFunctions {
+            get_atoms_wapm_toml: wapm_toml::get_wapm_atom_file_paths,
+            get_dependencies: wapm_toml::get_dependencies,
+            get_package_annotations: wapm_toml::get_package_annotations,
+            get_modules: wapm_toml::get_modules,
+            get_commands: wapm_toml::get_commands,
+            get_manifest_file_names: wapm_toml::get_manifest_file_names,
+            get_metadata_paths: wapm_toml::get_metadata_paths,
+            get_bindings: wapm_toml::get_bindings,
+            get_wapm_manifest_file_name: wapm_toml::get_wapm_manifest_file_name,
+        },
+    )
+}
+
 fn commands(webc: &WebC<'_>, fully_qualified_package_name: &str) -> Result<Vec<Command>, Error> {
     let mut commands = Vec::new();
 
diff --git a/crates/cli/src/show.rs b/crates/cli/src/show.rs
index 2a76ebced95..d69630a1bed 100644
--- a/crates/cli/src/show.rs
+++ b/crates/cli/src/show.rs
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ pub struct Show {
 
 impl Show {
     pub fn run(self) -> Result<(), Error> {
-        let pkg = crate::load_pirita_file(&self.input).context("Unable to load the package")?;
+        let pkg = crate::pirita::load(&self.input).context("Unable to load the package")?;
 
         let summary: Summary = summarize(&pkg);