diff --git a/server/cmd/execute.go b/server/cmd/execute.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..83e9bc0b25
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/cmd/execute.go
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+package cmd
+
+import (
+	"context"
+
+	"github.com/rs/zerolog"
+	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
+	tmcfg "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/config"
+	tmcli "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/libs/cli"
+
+	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/client"
+	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/client/flags"
+	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/server"
+)
+
+// Execute executes the root command of an application. It handles creating a
+// server context object with the appropriate server and client objects injected
+// into the underlying stdlib Context. It also handles adding core CLI flags,
+// specifically the logging flags. It returns an error upon execution failure.
+func Execute(rootCmd *cobra.Command, defaultHome string) error {
+	// Create and set a client.Context on the command's Context. During the pre-run
+	// of the root command, a default initialized client.Context is provided to
+	// seed child command execution with values such as AccountRetriver, Keyring,
+	// and a Tendermint RPC. This requires the use of a pointer reference when
+	// getting and setting the client.Context. Ideally, we utilize
+	// https://github.com/spf13/cobra/pull/1118.
+	srvCtx := server.NewDefaultContext()
+	ctx := context.Background()
+	ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, client.ClientContextKey, &client.Context{})
+	ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, server.ServerContextKey, srvCtx)
+
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().String(flags.FlagLogLevel, zerolog.InfoLevel.String(), "The logging level (trace|debug|info|warn|error|fatal|panic)")
+	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().String(flags.FlagLogFormat, tmcfg.LogFormatPlain, "The logging format (json|plain)")
+
+	executor := tmcli.PrepareBaseCmd(rootCmd, "", defaultHome)
+	return executor.ExecuteContext(ctx)
+}
diff --git a/simapp/simd/cmd/cmd_test.go b/simapp/simd/cmd/cmd_test.go
index ed4d8bad68..1a9183d33e 100644
--- a/simapp/simd/cmd/cmd_test.go
+++ b/simapp/simd/cmd/cmd_test.go
@@ -6,6 +6,8 @@ import (
 
 	"github.com/stretchr/testify/require"
 
+	svrcmd "github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/server/cmd"
+	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/simapp"
 	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/simapp/simd/cmd"
 	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/x/genutil/client/cli"
 )
@@ -18,6 +20,5 @@ func TestInitCmd(t *testing.T) {
 		fmt.Sprintf("--%s=%s", cli.FlagOverwrite, "true"), // Overwrite genesis.json, in case it already exists
 	})
 
-	err := cmd.Execute(rootCmd)
-	require.NoError(t, err)
+	require.NoError(t, svrcmd.Execute(rootCmd, simapp.DefaultNodeHome))
 }
diff --git a/simapp/simd/cmd/root.go b/simapp/simd/cmd/root.go
index d9a81a9973..469645019b 100644
--- a/simapp/simd/cmd/root.go
+++ b/simapp/simd/cmd/root.go
@@ -1,15 +1,12 @@
 package cmd
 
 import (
-	"context"
 	"io"
 	"os"
 	"path/filepath"
 
-	"github.com/rs/zerolog"
 	"github.com/spf13/cast"
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
-	tmcfg "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/config"
 	tmcli "github.com/tendermint/tendermint/libs/cli"
 	"github.com/tendermint/tendermint/libs/log"
 	dbm "github.com/tendermint/tm-db"
@@ -68,26 +65,6 @@ func NewRootCmd() (*cobra.Command, params.EncodingConfig) {
 	return rootCmd, encodingConfig
 }
 
-// Execute executes the root command.
-func Execute(rootCmd *cobra.Command) error {
-	// Create and set a client.Context on the command's Context. During the pre-run
-	// of the root command, a default initialized client.Context is provided to
-	// seed child command execution with values such as AccountRetriver, Keyring,
-	// and a Tendermint RPC. This requires the use of a pointer reference when
-	// getting and setting the client.Context. Ideally, we utilize
-	// https://github.com/spf13/cobra/pull/1118.
-	srvCtx := server.NewDefaultContext()
-	ctx := context.Background()
-	ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, client.ClientContextKey, &client.Context{})
-	ctx = context.WithValue(ctx, server.ServerContextKey, srvCtx)
-
-	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().String(flags.FlagLogLevel, zerolog.InfoLevel.String(), "The logging level (trace|debug|info|warn|error|fatal|panic)")
-	rootCmd.PersistentFlags().String(flags.FlagLogFormat, tmcfg.LogFormatPlain, "The logging format (json|plain)")
-
-	executor := tmcli.PrepareBaseCmd(rootCmd, "", simapp.DefaultNodeHome)
-	return executor.ExecuteContext(ctx)
-}
-
 func initRootCmd(rootCmd *cobra.Command, encodingConfig params.EncodingConfig) {
 	authclient.Codec = encodingConfig.Marshaler
 
diff --git a/simapp/simd/main.go b/simapp/simd/main.go
index 26fb4d7b3e..3e744360f4 100644
--- a/simapp/simd/main.go
+++ b/simapp/simd/main.go
@@ -4,15 +4,19 @@ import (
 	"os"
 
 	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/server"
+	svrcmd "github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/server/cmd"
+	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/simapp"
 	"github.com/cosmos/cosmos-sdk/simapp/simd/cmd"
 )
 
 func main() {
 	rootCmd, _ := cmd.NewRootCmd()
-	if err := cmd.Execute(rootCmd); err != nil {
+
+	if err := svrcmd.Execute(rootCmd, simapp.DefaultNodeHome); err != nil {
 		switch e := err.(type) {
 		case server.ErrorCode:
 			os.Exit(e.Code)
+
 		default:
 			os.Exit(1)
 		}