diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e87b553..1c07985 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -2,7 +2,14 @@ load-test:
 	time node ./test/load-test.js >> /dev/null
 
 test:
+	echo "removing optional dependencies"
+	rm -rf ./node_modules/bunyan ./node_modules/pino
+	echo "testing debug mode"
 	./test/test
-	./test/test | ./node_modules/.bin/bunyan 
+	echo "testing pino mode"
+	npm i pino node-jq 2> /dev/null && LOG_LEVEL=10  ./test/test | ./node_modules/node-jq/bin/jq
+	rm -rf ./node_modules/pino
+	echo "testing bunyan mode"
+	npm i bunyan 2> /dev/null && LOG_LEVEL=10 ./test/test | ./node_modules/.bin/bunyan
 
 .PHONY: test
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f1ea213..0fd5f20 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ llog
 
 llog is a simple logging module. llog is intended for use in applications, not libraries. It provides level-based debugging (trace|debug|info|warn|error|fatal). `note: For adding detailed debug statements in libraries, use TJ's `debug` module.`
 
-As an added bonus, llog provides a simple upgrade path from plain text to json logging. 
+As an added bonus, llog provides a simple upgrade path from plain text to json logging via either pino or bunyan. `llog` will look for `pino` or `bunyan` at load time and automatically use them as a provider if present. This means you can write your apps with non-json logging when starting, and auto-magically all your logs to json logging with a simple `npm i --save pino`. 
 
 ## level-based debugging
 
@@ -36,11 +36,12 @@ DEBUG=trace,info,warn,error node app.js
 
 ## Magic upgrade to json logging
 
-llog will automatically detect if `bunyan` is installed as a peer dependency and, if so, automatically upgrade to json logging. Because `bunyan` uses `process.env.LOG_LEVEL` as its level indicator (as opposed to `debug`'s `DEBUG` variable, the steps for moving to json logs are: 
+llog will automatically detect if `bunyan` or `pino` are installed as a peer dependency and, if so, automatically upgrade to json logging. Because `bunyan` and `pino` use `process.env.LOG_LEVEL` as a level indicator (as opposed to `debug`'s `DEBUG` variable, the steps for moving to json logs are: 
 
-1. `npm install --save buynan`
+1. `npm install --save buynan` or `npm install --save pino`
 2. execute your application using `LOG_LEVEL=10 node app` instead of using `DEBUG`. Higher levels are always included when specifying a level. 
 
 Bunyan log levels can be found at https://github.com/trentm/node-bunyan#levels. 
+Pino log levels can be found at https://github.com/pinojs/pino
 
-The following two steps will instantly cause all uses of llog to log json using `bunyan` instead of plain text via `debug`. This is particularly useful when moving from early stages of application development to having unified logging via Logstash or Splunk. 
+This is particularly useful when moving from early stages of application development to having unified logging via Logstash or Splunk. 
diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 2beb71c..81d332c 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -1,4 +1,10 @@
-var bunyan;
+var bunyan, pino;
+
+try {
+  pino = require('pino');
+} catch (err) {
+  pino = null;
+}
 
 try {
   bunyan = require('bunyan');
@@ -6,8 +12,10 @@ try {
   bunyan = null;
 }
 
-if (bunyan) {
-  module.exports = require('./lib/bunyan'); 
+if (pino) {
+  module.exports = require('./lib/pino');
+} else if (bunyan) {
+  module.exports = require('./lib/bunyan');
 } else {
   module.exports = require('./lib/debug');
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lib/bunyan.js b/lib/bunyan.js
index caf71a2..69ca477 100644
--- a/lib/bunyan.js
+++ b/lib/bunyan.js
@@ -5,24 +5,24 @@ var path = require('path');
 findPkgJson = function (dir) {
 
   var files = fs.readdirSync(dir);
-  
+
   if (~files.indexOf('package.json')) {
     return path.join(dir, 'package.json');
   }
-  
+
   if (dir === '/') {
     throw new Error('Could not find package.json up from: ' + dir);
   }
   else if (!dir || dir === '.') {
     throw new Error('Cannot find package.json from unspecified directory');
   }
-  
+
   return findPkgJson(path.dirname(dir));
 };
 
 function setLogger (name) {
   var logger = bunyan.createLogger({ name: name });
-  
+
   logger.level(0);
 
   var levels = {
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ function setLogger (name) {
 }
 
 var title;
-  
+
 if (process.env.METEOR_SETTINGS) {
   try {
     var meteorSettings = JSON.parse(process.env.METEOR_SETTINGS);
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@ try {
   if (isNaN(LOG_LEVEL)) LOG_LEVEL = 0;
   if (LOG_LEVEL === undefined || LOG_LEVEL === null) LOG_LEVEL = 0;
 } catch (e) {
-  LOG_LEVEL = 0; 
+  LOG_LEVEL = 0;
 }
 
 var baseDir = path.join(__dirname, '..', '..');
diff --git a/lib/pino.js b/lib/pino.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6d1294f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/pino.js
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+module.exports = require('pino')();
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 98214af..42b08ba 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -1,9 +1,11 @@
 {
   "name": "llog",
-  "version": "0.0.12",
+  "version": "0.0.13",
   "description": "simple multi-level application logging module",
   "main": "index.js",
   "scripts": {
+    "perf-test": "time node ./test/load-test.js >> /dev/null",
+    "pre-test": "npm install bunyan pino",
     "test": "make test"
   },
   "repository": {
@@ -15,7 +17,11 @@
   "dependencies": {
     "debug": "~0.8.1"
   },
-  "peerDependencies": {
-    "bunyan": "*"
+  "optionalDependencies": {
+    "bunyan": "*",
+    "pino": "^4.7.1"
+  },
+  "devDependencies": {
+    "mocha": "^3.5.3"
   }
 }