diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index df705c05..2ff4af33 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -139,6 +139,18 @@ jobs:
           environment:
             SKIP_BUILD: 1
           command: yarn selftest
+      - run:
+          name: Run CLI examples
+          working_directory: packages/cli
+          environment:
+            SKIP_BUILD: 1
+          command: |
+            ./bin/cosmwasm-cli --init examples/delegate.ts --code "process.exit(0)"
+            ./bin/cosmwasm-cli --init examples/faucet_addresses.ts --code "process.exit(0)"
+            ./bin/cosmwasm-cli --init examples/generate_address.ts --code "process.exit(0)"
+            ./bin/cosmwasm-cli --init examples/helpers.ts --code "process.exit(0)"
+            ./bin/cosmwasm-cli --init examples/local_faucet.ts --code "process.exit(0)"
+            ./bin/cosmwasm-cli --init examples/mask.ts --code "process.exit(0)"
       - run:
           command: ./scripts/wasmd/stop.sh
       - run:
diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b4ceaf4b..d93bf727 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@
 
 ## HEAD
 
+- @cosmjs/cli: Now supports HTTPs URLs for `--init` code sources.
+- @cosmjs/cli: Now supports adding code directly via `--code`.
 - @cosmjs/cosmwasm: Rename `CosmWasmClient.getNonce` method to `.getSequence`.
 - @cosmjs/cosmwasm: Remove `RestClient` class in favour of new modular
   `LcdClient` class from @cosmjs/sdk38.
diff --git a/packages/cli/examples/faucet_addresses.ts b/packages/cli/examples/faucet_addresses.ts
index 211ff61f..2e080c11 100644
--- a/packages/cli/examples/faucet_addresses.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/examples/faucet_addresses.ts
@@ -5,5 +5,5 @@ for (let i of [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]) {
   const wallet = await Secp256k1Wallet.fromMnemonic(mnemonic, makeCosmoshubPath(i), "cosmos");
   const [{ address, pubkey }] = await wallet.getAccounts();
   console.info(`Address ${i}: ${address}`);
-  console.info(`Pubkey ${i}: ${pubkey}`);
+  console.info(`Pubkey ${i}: ${toBase64(pubkey)}`);
 }
diff --git a/packages/cli/examples/generate_address.ts b/packages/cli/examples/generate_address.ts
index cbf7ae95..9e403284 100644
--- a/packages/cli/examples/generate_address.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/examples/generate_address.ts
@@ -3,5 +3,5 @@ const wallet = await Secp256k1Wallet.fromMnemonic(mnemonic);
 const [{ address, pubkey }] = await wallet.getAccounts();
 
 console.info("mnemonic:", mnemonic);
-console.info("pubkey:", pubkey);
+console.info("pubkey:", encodeSecp256k1Pubkey(pubkey));
 console.info("address:", address);
diff --git a/packages/cli/src/cli.ts b/packages/cli/src/cli.ts
index 1bee333e..b256d2f4 100644
--- a/packages/cli/src/cli.ts
+++ b/packages/cli/src/cli.ts
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import axios from "axios";
 import * as fs from "fs";
 import { join } from "path";
 import yargs from "yargs";
@@ -6,12 +7,18 @@ import { TsRepl } from "./tsrepl";
 
 import colors = require("colors/safe");
 
-export function main(originalArgs: readonly string[]): void {
+export async function main(originalArgs: readonly string[]): Promise<void> {
   const args = yargs
     .options({
       // User options (we get --help and --version for free)
       init: {
-        describe: "Read initial TypeScript code from files",
+        describe:
+          "Read initial TypeScript code from the given sources. This can be URLs (supported schemes: https) or local file paths.",
+        type: "array",
+      },
+      code: {
+        describe:
+          "Add initial TypeScript code from the argument. All code arguments are processed after all init arguments.",
         type: "array",
       },
       // Maintainer options
@@ -24,7 +31,7 @@ export function main(originalArgs: readonly string[]): void {
         type: "boolean",
       },
     })
-    .group(["init", "help", "version"], "User options")
+    .group(["init", "code", "help", "version"], "User options")
     .group(["debug", "selftest"], "Maintainer options")
     .parse(originalArgs);
 
@@ -155,9 +162,21 @@ export function main(originalArgs: readonly string[]): void {
   }
 
   if (args.init) {
-    for (const path of args.init.map((arg) => arg.toString())) {
-      if (args.debug) console.info(`Adding file: '${path}' ...`);
-      init += fs.readFileSync(path, "utf8") + "\n";
+    for (const source of args.init.map((arg) => arg.toString())) {
+      if (args.debug) console.info(`Adding code from: '${source}' ...`);
+      if (source.startsWith("https://")) {
+        const response = await axios.get(source);
+        init += response.data + "\n";
+      } else {
+        init += fs.readFileSync(source, "utf8") + "\n";
+      }
+    }
+  }
+
+  if (args.code) {
+    for (const code of args.code.map((arg) => arg.toString())) {
+      if (args.debug) console.info(`Adding code: '${code}' ...`);
+      init += `${code}\n`;
     }
   }