diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 768e8da0..bc1e3044 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -18,6 +18,8 @@
 - @cosmjs/tendermint-rpc: Make the constructor of `Client` private. Add
   `Client.create` for creating a Tendermint client given an RPC client and an
   optional adaptor.
+- @cosmjs/tendermint-rpc: Add an optional adaptor argument to `Client.connect`
+  which allows skipping the auto-detection.
 
 ## 0.23.1 (2020-10-27)
 
diff --git a/packages/tendermint-rpc/src/client.ts b/packages/tendermint-rpc/src/client.ts
index 76862189..c34b0d55 100644
--- a/packages/tendermint-rpc/src/client.ts
+++ b/packages/tendermint-rpc/src/client.ts
@@ -18,11 +18,13 @@ export class Client {
    * Creates a new Tendermint client for the given endpoint.
    *
    * Uses HTTP when the URL schema is http or https. Uses WebSockets otherwise.
+   *
+   * If the adaptor is not set an auto-detection is performed.
    */
-  public static async connect(url: string): Promise<Client> {
+  public static async connect(url: string, adaptor?: Adaptor): Promise<Client> {
     const useHttp = url.startsWith("http://") || url.startsWith("https://");
     const rpcClient = useHttp ? new HttpClient(url) : new WebsocketClient(url);
-    return Client.create(rpcClient);
+    return Client.create(rpcClient, adaptor);
   }
 
   /**
diff --git a/packages/tendermint-rpc/types/client.d.ts b/packages/tendermint-rpc/types/client.d.ts
index ab3d3ec8..836c3058 100644
--- a/packages/tendermint-rpc/types/client.d.ts
+++ b/packages/tendermint-rpc/types/client.d.ts
@@ -8,8 +8,10 @@ export declare class Client {
    * Creates a new Tendermint client for the given endpoint.
    *
    * Uses HTTP when the URL schema is http or https. Uses WebSockets otherwise.
+   *
+   * If the adaptor is not set an auto-detection is performed.
    */
-  static connect(url: string): Promise<Client>;
+  static connect(url: string, adaptor?: Adaptor): Promise<Client>;
   /**
    * Creates a new Tendermint client given an RPC client.
    *