diff --git a/client/powerline b/client/powerline
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..fd6de024
Binary files /dev/null and b/client/powerline differ
diff --git a/client/powerline.c b/client/powerline.c
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..cef562ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/powerline.c
@@ -0,0 +1,115 @@
+/* vim:fileencoding=utf-8:noet */
+
+#include <stdio.h>
+#include <stdlib.h>
+#include <sys/un.h>
+#include <sys/types.h>
+#include <sys/socket.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
+#include <errno.h>
+
+#define handle_error(msg) \
+	do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } while (0)
+
+#ifndef TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY
+#define TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY(expression) \
+  (                                                                           \
+	({ long int __result;                                                     \
+	   do __result = (long int) (expression);                                 \
+	   while (__result == -1L && errno == EINTR);                             \
+	   __result; }))
+#endif
+
+extern char **environ;
+
+void do_write(int sd, const char *raw, int len) {
+	int written = 0, n = -1;
+
+	while (written < len) {
+		n = TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY(write(sd, raw+written, len-written));
+		if (n == -1) {
+			close(sd);
+			handle_error("write() failed");
+		}
+		written += n;
+	}
+}
+
+int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
+	int sd = -1, i;
+	struct sockaddr_un server;
+	char address[50] = {};
+	const char eof[2] = "\0\0";
+	char buf[4096] = {};
+	char *newargv[200] = {};
+	char *wd = NULL;
+	char **envp;
+
+	if (argc < 2) { printf("Must provide at least one argument.\n"); return EXIT_FAILURE; }
+
+#ifdef __APPLE__
+	snprintf(address, 50, "/tmp/powerline-ipc-%d", getuid());
+#else
+	snprintf(address, 50, "powerline-ipc-%d", getuid());
+#endif
+
+	sd = socket(AF_UNIX, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
+	if (sd == -1) handle_error("socket() failed");
+
+	memset(&server, 0, sizeof(struct sockaddr_un)); // Clear 
+	server.sun_family = AF_UNIX;
+#ifdef __APPLE__
+	strncpy(server.sun_path, address, strlen(address));
+#else
+	strncpy(server.sun_path+1, address, strlen(address));
+#endif
+
+#ifdef __APPLE__
+	if (connect(sd, (struct sockaddr *) &server, sizeof(server.sun_family) + strlen(address)) < 0) {
+#else
+	if (connect(sd, (struct sockaddr *) &server, sizeof(server.sun_family) + strlen(address)+1) < 0) {
+#endif
+		close(sd);
+		// We failed to connect to the daemon, execute powerline instead
+		argc = (argc < 199) ? argc : 199;
+		for (i=1; i < argc; i++) newargv[i] = argv[i];
+		newargv[0] = "powerline-render";
+		newargv[argc] = NULL;
+		execvp("powerline-render", newargv);
+	}
+
+	for (i = 1; i < argc; i++) {
+		do_write(sd, argv[i], strlen(argv[i]));
+		do_write(sd, eof, 1);
+	}
+
+	for(envp=environ; *envp; envp++) {
+		do_write(sd, "--env=", 6);
+		do_write(sd, *envp, strlen(*envp));
+		do_write(sd, eof, 1);
+	}
+
+	wd = getcwd(NULL, 0);
+	if (wd != NULL) {
+		do_write(sd, "--cwd=", 6);
+		do_write(sd, wd, strlen(wd));
+		free(wd); wd = NULL;
+	}
+
+	do_write(sd, eof, 2);
+
+	i = -1;
+	while (i != 0) {
+		i = TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY(read(sd, buf, 4096));
+		if (i == -1) {
+			close(sd);
+			handle_error("read() failed");
+		}
+		if (i > 0) 
+			write(STDOUT_FILENO, buf, i) || 0;
+	}
+
+	close(sd);
+
+	return 0;
+}
diff --git a/client/powerline.py b/client/powerline.py
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..bbcfffbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/client/powerline.py
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# vim:fileencoding=utf-8:noet
+
+from __future__ import (unicode_literals, division, absolute_import, print_function)
+
+import sys
+import socket
+import os
+import errno
+
+if len(sys.argv) < 2:
+	print('Must provide at least one argument.', file=sys.stderr)
+	raise SystemExit(1)
+
+platform = sys.platform.lower()
+use_filesystem = 'darwin' in platform
+# use_filesystem = True
+del platform
+
+address = ('/tmp/powerline-ipc-%d' if use_filesystem else '\0powerline-ipc-%d')%os.getuid()
+
+sock = socket.socket(family=socket.AF_UNIX)
+
+
+def eintr_retry_call(func, *args, **kwargs):
+	while True:
+		try:
+			return func(*args, **kwargs)
+		except EnvironmentError as e:
+			if getattr(e, 'errno', None) == errno.EINTR:
+				continue
+			raise
+
+try:
+	eintr_retry_call(sock.connect, address)
+except Exception:
+	# Run the powerline renderer
+	args = ['powerline-render'] + sys.argv[1:]
+	os.execvp('powerline-render', args)
+
+fenc = sys.getfilesystemencoding() or 'utf-8'
+if fenc == 'ascii':
+	fenc = 'utf-8'
+
+args = [x.encode(fenc) if isinstance(x, type('')) else x for x in sys.argv[1:]]
+
+try:
+	cwd = os.getcwd()
+except EnvironmentError:
+	pass
+else:
+	if isinstance(cwd, type('')):
+		cwd = cwd.encode(fenc)
+	args.append(b'--cwd=' + cwd)
+
+
+env = (k + '=' + v for k, v in os.environ.items())
+env = (x if isinstance(x, bytes) else x.encode(fenc, 'replace') for x in env)
+args.extend((b'--env=' + x for x in env))
+
+EOF = b'\0\0'
+
+for a in args:
+	eintr_retry_call(sock.sendall, a + EOF[0])
+
+eintr_retry_call(sock.sendall, EOF)
+
+received = []
+while True:
+	r = sock.recv(4096)
+	if not r:
+		break
+	received.append(r)
+
+sock.close()
+
+print (b''.join(received))
diff --git a/scripts/.gitignore b/scripts/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..f2ffc12a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+powerline
diff --git a/scripts/powerline-daemon b/scripts/powerline-daemon
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..b7627cc4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/powerline-daemon
@@ -0,0 +1,395 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+# vim:fileencoding=utf-8:noet
+from __future__ import (unicode_literals, division, absolute_import, print_function)
+
+import socket
+import os
+import errno
+import sys
+from argparse import ArgumentParser
+from select import select
+from signal import signal, SIGTERM
+from time import sleep
+from functools import partial
+from locale import getpreferredencoding
+
+from powerline.shell import get_argparser, finish_args, ShellPowerline
+from powerline.lib.monotonic import monotonic
+
+is_daemon = False
+platform = sys.platform.lower()
+use_filesystem = 'darwin' in platform
+# use_filesystem = True
+del platform
+
+if use_filesystem:
+	address = '/tmp/powerline-ipc-%d'
+	pidfile = address + '.pid'
+else:
+	# Use the abstract namespace for sockets rather than the filesystem
+	# (Available only in linux)
+	address = '\0powerline-ipc-%d'
+address = address % os.getuid()
+
+
+class NonInteractiveArgParser(ArgumentParser):
+	def print_usage(self, file=None):
+		raise Exception(self.format_usage())
+
+	def print_help(self, file=None):
+		raise Exception(self.format_help())
+
+	def exit(self, status=0, message=None):
+		pass
+
+	def error(self, message):
+		raise Exception(self.format_usage())
+
+
+parser = get_argparser(parser=NonInteractiveArgParser, description='powerline daemon')
+parser.add_argument('--cwd', metavar='PATH')
+parser.add_argument('--env', action='append')
+
+EOF = b'EOF\0\0'
+
+powerlines = {}
+logger = None
+config_loader = None
+home = os.path.expanduser('~')
+
+
+class PowerlineDaemon(ShellPowerline):
+	def get_log_handler(self):
+		if not is_daemon:
+			import logging
+			return logging.StreamHandler()
+		return super(PowerlineDaemon, self).get_log_handler()
+
+
+def render(args):
+	global logger
+	global config_loader
+	environ = dict(((k, v) for k, v in (x.partition('=')[0::2] for x in args.env)))
+	cwd = environ.get('PWD', args.cwd or '/')
+	segment_info = {
+		'getcwd': lambda: cwd,
+		'home': environ.get('HOME', home),
+		'environ': environ,
+		'args': args,
+	}
+	key = (args.ext[0], args.renderer_module,
+			tuple(args.config) if args.config else None,
+			tuple(args.theme_option) if args.theme_option else None,)
+	if args.renderer_arg:
+		segment_info.update(args.renderer_arg)
+	finish_args(args)
+	pl = None
+	try:
+		pl = powerlines[key]
+	except KeyError:
+		try:
+			pl = powerlines[key] = PowerlineDaemon(
+				args,
+				logger=logger,
+				config_loader=config_loader
+			)
+		except SystemExit:
+			# Somebody thought raising system exit was a good idea,
+			return ''
+		except Exception as e:
+			if pl:
+				pl.pl.exception('Failed to render {0}: {1}', str(key), str(e))
+			else:
+				return 'Failed to render {0}: {1}'.format(str(key), str(e))
+	if logger is None:
+		logger = pl.logger
+	if config_loader is None:
+		config_loader = pl.config_loader
+	return pl.render(width=args.width, side=args.side, segment_info=segment_info)
+
+
+def eintr_retry_call(func, *args, **kwargs):
+	while True:
+		try:
+			return func(*args, **kwargs)
+		except EnvironmentError as e:
+			if getattr(e, 'errno', None) == errno.EINTR:
+				continue
+			raise
+
+
+def do_read(conn, timeout=2.0):
+	''' Read data from the client. If the client fails to send data within
+	timeout seconds, abort. '''
+	read = []
+	end_time = monotonic() + timeout
+	while not read or not read[-1].endswith(b'\0\0'):
+		r, w, e = select((conn,), (), (conn,), timeout)
+		if e:
+			return
+		if monotonic() > end_time:
+			return
+		if not r:
+			continue
+		x = eintr_retry_call(conn.recv, 4096)
+		if x:
+			read.append(x)
+		else:
+			break
+	return b''.join(read)
+
+
+def do_write(conn, result):
+	try:
+		eintr_retry_call(conn.sendall, result + b'\0')
+	except Exception:
+		pass
+
+
+encoding = getpreferredencoding() or 'UTF-8'
+if encoding.lower() == 'ascii':
+	encoding = 'UTF-8'
+
+
+def safe_bytes(o, encoding=encoding):
+	'''Return bytes instance without ever throwing an exception.'''
+	try:
+		try:
+			# We are assuming that o is a unicode object
+			return o.encode(encoding, 'replace')
+		except Exception:
+			# Object may have defined __bytes__ (python 3) or __str__ method 
+			# (python 2)
+			# This also catches problem with non_ascii_bytes.encode('utf-8') 
+			# that first tries to decode to UTF-8 using ascii codec (and fails 
+			# in this case) and then encode to given encoding: errors= argument 
+			# is not used in the first stage.
+			return bytes(o)
+	except Exception as e:
+		return safe_bytes(str(e), encoding)
+
+
+def do_render(req):
+	try:
+		args = [x.decode(encoding) for x in req.split(b'\0') if x]
+		args = parser.parse_args(args)
+		return safe_bytes(render(args))
+	except Exception as e:
+		return safe_bytes(str(e))
+
+
+def do_one(sock, read_sockets, write_sockets, result_map):
+	r, w, e = select(
+		tuple(read_sockets) + (sock,),
+		tuple(write_sockets),
+		tuple(read_sockets) + tuple(write_sockets) + (sock,),
+		60.0
+	)
+
+	if sock in e:
+		# We cannot accept any more connections, so we exit
+		raise SystemExit(1)
+
+	for s in e:
+		# Discard all broken connections to clients
+		s.close()
+		read_sockets.discard(s)
+		write_sockets.discard(s)
+
+	for s in r:
+		if s == sock:
+			# A client wants to connect
+			conn, _ = eintr_retry_call(sock.accept)
+			read_sockets.add(conn)
+		else:
+			# A client has sent some data
+			read_sockets.discard(s)
+			req = do_read(s)
+			if req == EOF:
+				raise SystemExit(0)
+			elif req:
+				ans = do_render(req)
+				result_map[s] = ans
+				write_sockets.add(s)
+			else:
+				s.close()
+
+	for s in w:
+		# A client is ready to receive the result
+		write_sockets.discard(s)
+		result = result_map.pop(s)
+		try:
+			do_write(s, result)
+		finally:
+			s.close()
+
+
+def main_loop(sock):
+	sock.listen(1)
+	sock.setblocking(0)
+
+	read_sockets, write_sockets = set(), set()
+	result_map = {}
+	try:
+		while True:
+			do_one(sock, read_sockets, write_sockets, result_map)
+	except KeyboardInterrupt:
+		raise SystemExit(0)
+	return 0
+
+
+def daemonize(stdin=os.devnull, stdout=os.devnull, stderr=os.devnull):
+	try:
+		pid = os.fork()
+		if pid > 0:
+			# exit first parent
+			sys.exit(0)
+	except OSError as e:
+		print ("fork #1 failed: %d (%s)" % (e.errno, e.strerror), file=sys.stderr)
+		sys.exit(1)
+
+	# decouple from parent environment
+	os.chdir("/")
+	os.setsid()
+	os.umask(0)
+
+	# do second fork
+	try:
+		pid = os.fork()
+		if pid > 0:
+			# exit from second parent
+			sys.exit(0)
+	except OSError as e:
+		print ("fork #2 failed: %d (%s)" % (e.errno, e.strerror), file=sys.stderr)
+		sys.exit(1)
+
+	# Redirect standard file descriptors.
+	si = file(stdin, 'r')
+	so = file(stdout, 'a+')
+	se = file(stderr, 'a+', 0)
+	os.dup2(si.fileno(), sys.stdin.fileno())
+	os.dup2(so.fileno(), sys.stdout.fileno())
+	os.dup2(se.fileno(), sys.stderr.fileno())
+	global is_daemon
+	is_daemon = True
+
+
+def check_existing():
+	if use_filesystem:
+		# We cannot bind if the socket file already exists so remove it, we
+		# already have a lock on pidfile, so this should be safe.
+		try:
+			os.unlink(address)
+		except EnvironmentError:
+			pass
+
+	sock = socket.socket(family=socket.AF_UNIX)
+	try:
+		sock.bind(address)
+	except socket.error as e:
+		if getattr(e, 'errno', None) == errno.EADDRINUSE:
+			return None
+		raise
+	return sock
+
+
+def test_connect():
+	sock = socket.socket(socket.AF_UNIX, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
+	try:
+		try:
+			eintr_retry_call(sock.connect, address)
+		except socket.error:
+			return False
+		else:
+			eintr_retry_call(sock.sendall, EOF)
+	finally:
+		sock.close()
+	return True
+
+
+def cleanup_lockfile(fd, *args):
+	try:
+		# Remove the directory entry for the lock file
+		os.unlink(pidfile)
+		# Close the file descriptor
+		os.close(fd)
+	except EnvironmentError:
+		pass
+	if args:
+		# Called in signal handler
+		raise SystemExit(1)
+
+
+def lockpidfile():
+	import fcntl
+	import atexit
+	import stat
+	fd = os.open(pidfile, os.O_WRONLY|os.O_CREAT,
+					stat.S_IRUSR|stat.S_IWUSR|stat.S_IRGRP|stat.S_IROTH)
+	try:
+		fcntl.lockf(fd, fcntl.LOCK_EX | fcntl.LOCK_NB)
+	except EnvironmentError:
+		os.close(fd)
+		return None
+	os.lseek(fd, 0, os.SEEK_SET)
+	os.ftruncate(fd, 0)
+	os.write(fd, ('%d' % os.getpid()).encode('ascii'))
+	os.fsync(fd)
+	cleanup = partial(cleanup_lockfile, fd)
+	signal(SIGTERM, cleanup)
+	atexit.register(cleanup)
+	return fd
+
+
+def main():
+	p = ArgumentParser(description=
+		'Daemon to improve the performance of powerline')
+	a = p.add_mutually_exclusive_group().add_argument
+	a('--kill', '-k', action='store_true', help='Kill an already running instance')
+	a('--foreground', '-f', action='store_true', help='Run in the foreground (dont daemonize)')
+	a('--replace', '-r', action='store_true', help='Replace an already running instance')
+	args = p.parse_args()
+
+	if args.kill:
+		if test_connect():
+			print ('Kill command sent to daemon, if it does not die in a couple of seconds use kill to kill it')
+		else:
+			print ('No running daemon found')
+		return
+
+	if args.replace:
+		while test_connect():
+			print ('Kill command sent to daemon, waiting for daemon to exit, press Ctrl-C to terminate wait and exit')
+			sleep(2)
+
+	if use_filesystem and not args.foreground:
+		# We must daemonize before creating the locked pidfile, unfortunately,
+		# this means further print statements are discarded
+		daemonize()
+
+	if use_filesystem:
+		# Create a locked pid file containing the daemon's PID
+		if lockpidfile() is None:
+			print ('The daemon is already running. Use %s -k to kill it.' % os.path.basename(sys.argv[0]),
+					file=sys.stderr)
+			raise SystemExit(1)
+
+	# Bind to address or bail if we cannot bind
+	sock = check_existing()
+	if sock is None:
+		print ('The daemon is already running. Use %s -k to kill it.' % os.path.basename(sys.argv[0]),
+				file=sys.stderr)
+		raise SystemExit(1)
+
+	if args.foreground:
+		return main_loop(sock)
+
+	if not use_filesystem:
+		# We daemonize on linux
+		daemonize()
+
+	main_loop(sock)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+	main()
diff --git a/scripts/powerline b/scripts/powerline-render
similarity index 100%
rename from scripts/powerline
rename to scripts/powerline-render
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index e341ceec..770a927e 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -3,16 +3,42 @@
 from __future__ import unicode_literals
 import os
 import sys
+import subprocess
 
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
-here = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
+CURRENT_DIR = os.path.abspath(os.path.dirname(__file__))
 try:
-	README = open(os.path.join(here, 'README.rst'), 'rb').read().decode('utf-8')
+	README = open(os.path.join(CURRENT_DIR, 'README.rst'), 'rb').read().decode('utf-8')
 except IOError:
 	README = ''
 
-old_python = sys.version_info < (2, 7)
+OLD_PYTHON = sys.version_info < (2, 7)
+
+
+def compile_client():
+	'''Compile the C powerline-client script.'''
+
+	if hasattr(sys, 'getwindowsversion'):
+		raise NotImplementedError()
+	if sys.version_info >= (3, 0):
+		# FIXME Python 3 doesn't allow compiled C files to be included in the 
+		# scripts list below. This is because Python 3 distutils tries to 
+		# decode the file to ASCII, and fails when powerline-client is 
+		# a binary.
+		raise NotImplementedError()
+	else:
+		from distutils.ccompiler import new_compiler
+		compiler = new_compiler().compiler
+		subprocess.check_call(compiler + ['-O3', 'client/powerline.c', '-o', 'scripts/powerline'])
+
+try:
+	compile_client()
+except Exception:
+	# FIXME Catch more specific exceptions
+	import shutil
+	print('Compiling C version of powerline-client failed, using Python version instead')
+	shutil.copyfile('client/powerline.py', 'scripts/powerline')
 
 setup(
 	name='Powerline',
@@ -26,6 +52,8 @@ setup(
 	scripts=[
 		'scripts/powerline',
 		'scripts/powerline-lint',
+		'scripts/powerline-daemon',
+		'scripts/powerline-render',
 		'scripts/powerline-config',
 	],
 	keywords='',
@@ -38,5 +66,5 @@ setup(
 			'Sphinx',
 		],
 	},
-	test_suite='tests' if not old_python else None,
+	test_suite='tests' if not OLD_PYTHON else None,
 )