diff --git a/backend/Cargo.lock b/backend/Cargo.lock
index 4f00159..9b8f9ad 100644
--- a/backend/Cargo.lock
+++ b/backend/Cargo.lock
@@ -1394,6 +1394,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "smallvec",
  "soketto",
  "structopt",
+ "test_utils",
  "thiserror",
  "tokio",
  "tokio-util",
@@ -1445,6 +1446,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "futures",
  "http",
  "log",
+ "serde_json",
  "soketto",
  "thiserror",
  "tokio",
diff --git a/backend/telemetry_core/Cargo.toml b/backend/telemetry_core/Cargo.toml
index 3ddca7c..c78a741 100644
--- a/backend/telemetry_core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/backend/telemetry_core/Cargo.toml
@@ -29,3 +29,6 @@ thiserror = "1.0.25"
 tokio = { version = "1.7.0", features = ["full"] }
 tokio-util = { version = "0.6", features = ["compat"] }
 warp = "0.3.1"
+
+[dev-dependencies]
+test_utils = { path = "../test_utils" }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/telemetry_core/src/main.rs b/backend/telemetry_core/src/main.rs
index 508c8b5..8126bab 100644
--- a/backend/telemetry_core/src/main.rs
+++ b/backend/telemetry_core/src/main.rs
@@ -308,3 +308,17 @@ where
     // loop ended; give socket back to parent:
     (tx_to_aggregator, websocket)
 }
+
+#[cfg(test)]
+pub mod test {
+
+    use test_utils::test_simple;
+
+    #[test]
+    fn test_feed_connection () {
+
+
+
+    }
+
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/test_utils/Cargo.toml b/backend/test_utils/Cargo.toml
index 8236983..4003856 100644
--- a/backend/test_utils/Cargo.toml
+++ b/backend/test_utils/Cargo.toml
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ anyhow = "1.0.41"
 futures = "0.3.15"
 http = "0.2.4"
 log = "0.4.14"
+serde_json = "1.0.64"
 soketto = "0.6.0"
 thiserror = "1.0.25"
 tokio = { version = "1.7.1", features = ["full"] }
diff --git a/backend/test_utils/src/connect_to_servers.rs b/backend/test_utils/src/connect_to_servers.rs
index c1b72ec..9539f36 100644
--- a/backend/test_utils/src/connect_to_servers.rs
+++ b/backend/test_utils/src/connect_to_servers.rs
@@ -1,34 +1,26 @@
 use crate::ws_client;
-use tokio::process::Command;
+use tokio::process::{ self, Command };
 use tokio::io::BufReader;
 use tokio::io::{ AsyncRead, AsyncBufReadExt };
 use tokio::time::Duration;
 use anyhow::{ anyhow, Context };
 
-pub struct StartProcesses {
+pub struct StartProcessOpts {
     /// Optional command to run to start a shard (instead of `telemetry_shard`).
-    /// The `--listen` argument will be appended here and shouldn't be provided.
+    /// The `--listen` and `--log` arguments will be appended within and shouldn't be provided.
     pub shard_command: Option<Command>,
+    /// How many shards should we start?
+    pub num_shards: usize,
     /// Optional command to run to start a telemetry core process (instead of `telemetry_core`).
-    /// The `--listen` argument will be appended here and shouldn't be provided.
-    pub telemetry_command: Option<Command>,
-    /// How many connections should we establish to each shard? We'll start
-    /// up a shard for each entry here.
-    pub num_shard_connections: Vec<usize>,
-    /// How many connections should we establish to the telemetry_core feed?
-    pub num_feed_connections: usize,
+    /// The `--listen` and `--log` arguments will be appended within and shouldn't be provided.
+    pub core_command: Option<Command>
 }
 
-pub struct ConnectToExisting {
-    /// URI to shard /submit endpoint
-    pub shards: Vec<ConnectionDetails>,
-    /// URI to core /feed endpoint
-    pub feed: ConnectionDetails,
-}
-
-pub struct ConnectionDetails {
-    pub uri: http::Uri,
-    pub num_connections: usize
+pub struct ConnectToExistingOpts {
+    /// Details for connections to `telemetry_shard` /submit endpoints
+    pub shard_uris: Vec<http::Uri>,
+    /// Details for connections to `telemetry_core` /feed endpoints
+    pub feed_uri: http::Uri,
 }
 
 #[derive(thiserror::Error, Debug)]
@@ -40,26 +32,31 @@ pub enum Error {
     #[error("Can't establsih connection: {0}")]
     IoError(#[from] std::io::Error),
     #[error("Could not obtain port for process: {0}")]
-    ErrorObtainingPort(anyhow::Error)
+    ErrorObtainingPort(anyhow::Error),
+    #[error("Whoops; attempt to kill a process we didn't start (and so have no handle to)")]
+    CannotKillNoHandle
 }
 
-pub struct Connection {
-    /// Connections to each of the shard submit URIs
-    pub shard_connections: Vec<Vec<(ws_client::Sender, ws_client::Receiver)>>,
-    /// Connections to the telemetry feed URI
-    pub feed_connections: Vec<(ws_client::Sender, ws_client::Receiver)>
+/// This provides back connections (or groups of connections) that are
+/// hooked up to the running processes and ready to send/receive messages.
+pub struct Server {
+    /// Shard processes that we can connect to
+    pub shards: Vec<Process>,
+    /// Core process that we can connect to
+    pub core: Process,
 }
 
-impl Connection {
+impl Server {
     /// Start telemetry_core and telemetry_shard processes and establish connections to them.
-    pub async fn start_processes(opts: StartProcesses) -> Result<Connection, Error> {
+    pub async fn start_processes(opts: StartProcessOpts) -> Result<Server, Error> {
 
-        let mut core_cmd = opts.telemetry_command
+        let mut core_cmd = opts.core_command
             .unwrap_or(Command::new("telemetry_core"))
             .arg("--listen")
             .arg("127.0.0.1:0") // 0 to have a port picked by the kernel
             .arg("--log")
             .arg("info")
+            .kill_on_drop(true)
             .stdout(std::process::Stdio::piped())
             .stdin(std::process::Stdio::piped())
             .spawn()?;
@@ -77,75 +74,95 @@ impl Connection {
             .arg("info")
             .arg("--core")
             .arg(format!("127.0.0.1:{}", core_port))
+            .kill_on_drop(true)
             .stdout(std::process::Stdio::piped())
             .stdin(std::process::Stdio::piped());
 
         // Start shards and find out the ports that they are running on
-        let mut shard_ports: Vec<u16> = vec![];
-        for _ in 0..opts.num_shard_connections.len() {
+        let mut shard_handle_and_ports: Vec<(process::Child, u16)> = vec![];
+        for _ in 0..opts.num_shards {
             let mut shard_process = shard_cmd.spawn()?;
             let shard_port = get_port(shard_process.stdout.take().expect("shard stdout"))
                 .await
                 .map_err(|e| Error::ErrorObtainingPort(e))?;
 
-            shard_ports.push(shard_port);
+                shard_handle_and_ports.push((shard_process, shard_port));
         }
 
         // now that we've started the processes, establish connections to them:
-        let shard_uris: Vec<http::Uri> = shard_ports
+        let shard_handle_and_uris: Vec<(process::Child, http::Uri)> = shard_handle_and_ports
             .into_iter()
-            .map(|port| format!("http://127.0.0.1:{}/submit", port).parse().expect("valid submit URI"))
+            .map(|(h,port)| (h,format!("http://127.0.0.1:{}/submit", port).parse().expect("valid submit URI")))
             .collect();
 
         let feed_uri = format!("http://127.0.0.1:{}/feed", core_port)
             .parse()
             .expect("valid feed URI");
 
-        ConnectToExisting {
-            feed: ConnectionDetails {
-                uri: feed_uri,
-                num_connections: opts.num_feed_connections
-            },
-            shards: opts.num_shard_connections
+        Ok(Server {
+            shards: shard_handle_and_uris
                 .into_iter()
-                .zip(shard_uris)
-                .map(|(n, uri)| ConnectionDetails {
+                .map(|(handle, uri)| Process {
+                    handle: Some(handle),
                     uri,
-                    num_connections: n
                 })
-                .collect()
-        };
-
-        todo!();
+                .collect(),
+            core: Process {
+                handle: Some(core_cmd),
+                uri: feed_uri,
+            }
+        })
     }
 
     /// Establshes the requested connections to existing processes.
-    pub async fn connect_to_existing(opts: ConnectToExisting) -> Result<Connection, Error> {
-        let shard_details = opts.shards;
-
-        // connect to shards in the background:
-        let shard_groups_fut = tokio::spawn(async move {
-            let mut shard_results = vec![];
-            for details in &shard_details {
-                shard_results.push(connect_to_uri(&details.uri, details.num_connections).await);
-            }
-            let result_shard_groups: Result<Vec<_>,_> = shard_results.into_iter().collect();
-            result_shard_groups
-        });
-
-        // In the meantime, connect feeds:
-        let feed_connections = connect_to_uri(&opts.feed.uri, opts.feed.num_connections).await?;
-
-        // Now feeds are done, wait until shards also connected (this will have been progressing anyway):
-        let shard_connections = shard_groups_fut.await??;
-
-        Ok(Connection {
-            shard_connections,
-            feed_connections,
-        })
+    pub fn connect_to_existing(opts: ConnectToExistingOpts) -> Server {
+        Server {
+            shards: opts.shard_uris
+                .into_iter()
+                .map(|uri| Process { uri, handle: None })
+                .collect(),
+            core: Process { uri: opts.feed_uri, handle: None }
+        }
     }
 }
 
+/// This represents a running process that we can connect to, which
+/// may be either a `telemetry_shard` or `telemetry_core`.
+pub struct Process {
+    /// If we started the processes ourselves, we'll have a handle to
+    /// them which we can use to kill them. Else, we may not.
+    handle: Option<process::Child>,
+    /// The URI that we can use to connect to the process socket.
+    uri: http::Uri
+}
+
+impl Process {
+    /// Establish a connection to the process
+    pub async fn connect(&self) -> Result<(ws_client::Sender, ws_client::Receiver), Error> {
+        ws_client::connect(&self.uri)
+            .await
+            .map_err(|e| e.into())
+    }
+
+    /// Establish multiple connections to the process
+    pub async fn connect_multiple(&self, num_connections: usize) -> Result<Vec<(ws_client::Sender, ws_client::Receiver)>, Error> {
+        connect_multiple_to_uri(&self.uri, num_connections)
+            .await
+            .map_err(|e| e.into())
+    }
+
+    /// Kill the process and wait for this to complete
+    pub async fn kill(self) -> Result<(), Error> {
+        match self.handle {
+            Some(mut handle) => Ok(handle.kill().await?),
+            None => Err(Error::CannotKillNoHandle)
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+/// Reads from the stdout of the shard/core process to extract the port that was assigned to it,
+/// with the side benefit that we'll wait for it to start listening before returning. We do this
+/// because we want to allow the kernel to assign ports and so don't specify a port as an arg.
 async fn get_port<R: AsyncRead + Unpin>(reader: R) -> Result<u16, anyhow::Error> {
     let reader = BufReader::new(reader);
     let mut reader_lines = reader.lines();
@@ -176,8 +193,12 @@ async fn get_port<R: AsyncRead + Unpin>(reader: R) -> Result<u16, anyhow::Error>
     }
 }
 
-async fn connect_to_uri(uri: &http::Uri, num_connections: usize) -> Result<Vec<(ws_client::Sender, ws_client::Receiver)>, ws_client::ConnectError> {
-    let connect_futs = (0..num_connections).map(|_| ws_client::connect(uri));
-    let sockets: Result<Vec<_>,_> = futures::future::join_all(connect_futs).await.into_iter().collect();
+async fn connect_multiple_to_uri(uri: &http::Uri, num_connections: usize) -> Result<Vec<(ws_client::Sender, ws_client::Receiver)>, ws_client::ConnectError> {
+    let connect_futs = (0..num_connections)
+        .map(|_| ws_client::connect(uri));
+    let sockets: Result<Vec<_>,_> = futures::future::join_all(connect_futs)
+        .await
+        .into_iter()
+        .collect();
     sockets
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/test_utils/src/lib.rs b/backend/test_utils/src/lib.rs
index 9b2eeb2..a44f4d7 100644
--- a/backend/test_utils/src/lib.rs
+++ b/backend/test_utils/src/lib.rs
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+// A helper to spawn or connect to shard/core processes and hand back connections to them
+pub mod connect_to_servers;
+
 /// A wrapper around soketto to simplify the process of establishing connections
 pub mod ws_client;
-pub mod connect_to_servers;
\ No newline at end of file
+
+/// A helper to construct simple test cases involving a single shard and feed.
+pub mod test_simple;
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/backend/test_utils/src/test_simple.rs b/backend/test_utils/src/test_simple.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5f25ccb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/test_utils/src/test_simple.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+use tokio::process::Command;
+use crate::connect_to_servers::{ Server, StartProcessOpts, Process };
+
+pub struct Runner {
+    shard_command: Option<Command>,
+    core_command: Option<Command>
+}
+
+impl Runner {
+    pub fn new() -> Runner {
+        Runner {
+            shard_command: None,
+            core_command: None
+        }
+    }
+
+    pub fn shard_command(mut self, cmd: Command) -> Self {
+        self.shard_command = Some(cmd);
+        self
+    }
+
+    pub fn core_command(mut self, cmd: Command) -> Self {
+        self.core_command = Some(cmd);
+        self
+    }
+
+    pub async fn build(self) -> Result<Processes, anyhow::Error> {
+        let mut server = Server::start_processes(StartProcessOpts {
+            shard_command: self.shard_command,
+            num_shards: 1,
+            core_command: self.core_command,
+        }).await?;
+
+        let core_process = server.core;
+        let shard_process = server.shards.remove(0);
+
+        Ok(Processes {
+            core_process,
+            shard_process,
+        })
+    }
+}
+
+/// A representation of the running processes that we can connect and send messages to.
+pub struct Processes {
+    shard_process: Process,
+    core_process: Process,
+}
+
+impl Processes {
+    pub async fn cleanup(self) {
+        let handle = tokio::spawn(async move {
+            let _ = tokio::join!(
+                self.shard_process.kill(),
+                self.core_process.kill()
+            );
+        });
+
+        // You can wait for cleanup but aren't obliged to:
+        let _ = handle.await;
+    }
+}