diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index bbbd626c..440264c1 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -108,11 +108,15 @@ These commands are described in detail [here](../staging/documentation/sync.md).
 ### Data transformation
 Contract watchers use the raw data that has been synced into Postgres to filter out and apply transformations to specific data of interest.
 
-There is a built-in `contractWatcher` command which provides generic transformation of most contract data. This command is described in detail [here](../staging/documentation/contractWatcher.md).
+There is a built-in `contractWatcher` command which provides generic transformation of most contract data.
+The `contractWatcher` command is described further [here](../staging/documentation/contractWatcher.md).
 
 In many cases a custom transformer or set of transformers will need to be written to provide complete or more comprehensive coverage or to optimize other aspects of the output for a specific end-use.
-In this case we have provided the `compose`, `execute`, and `composeAndExecute` commands for running custom transformers from external repositories. This is described in detail [here](../staging/documentation/composeAndExecute.md).
+In this case we have provided the `compose`, `execute`, and `composeAndExecute` commands for running custom transformers from external repositories.
 
+Usage of the `compose`, `execute`, and `composeAndExecute` commands is described further [here](../staging/documentation/composeAndExecute.md).
+
+Documentation on how to build custom transformers to work with these commands can be found [here](../staging/documentation/transformers.md).
 
 ## Tests
 - Replace the empty `ipcPath` in the `environments/infura.toml` with a path to a full node's eth_jsonrpc endpoint (e.g. local geth node ipc path or infura url)
diff --git a/documentation/composeAndExecute.md b/documentation/composeAndExecute.md
index 6efbcf75..0ac226a9 100644
--- a/documentation/composeAndExecute.md
+++ b/documentation/composeAndExecute.md
@@ -3,48 +3,42 @@ The `composeAndExecute` command is used to compose and execute over an arbitrary
 This is accomplished by generating a Go pluggin which allows the `vulcanizedb` binary to link to external transformers, so
 long as they abide by one of the standard [interfaces](../staging/libraries/shared/transformer).
 
-This command requires Go 1.11+ and [Go plugins](https://golang.org/pkg/plugin/) only work on Unix-based systems.
+Additionally, there are separate `compose` and `execute` commands to allow pre-building and linking to a pre-built .so file.
 
-## Writing custom transformers
-Storage Transformers
-   * [Guide](../../staging/libraries/shared/factories/storage/README.md)
-   * [Example](../../staging/libraries/shared/factories/storage/EXAMPLE.md)
-    
-Event Transformers   
-   * [Guide](../../staging/libraries/shared/factories/event/README.md)
-   * [Example 1](https://github.com/vulcanize/ens_transformers/tree/master/transformers/registar)
-   * [Example 2](https://github.com/vulcanize/ens_transformers/tree/master/transformers/registry)
-   * [Example 3](https://github.com/vulcanize/ens_transformers/tree/master/transformers/resolver)
+**NOTE:**
+1. It is necessary that the .so file was built with the same exact dependencies that are present in the execution environment,
+i.e. we need to `compose` and `execute` the plugin .so file with the same exact version of vulcanizeDB.
+1. The plugin migrations are run during the plugin's composition. As such, if `execute` is used to run a prebuilt .so in a different
+environment than the one it was composed in then the migrations for that plugin will first need to be manually ran against that environment's Postgres database.
 
-Contract Transformers
-   * [Example 1](https://github.com/vulcanize/account_transformers)
-   * [Example 2](https://github.com/vulcanize/ens_transformers/tree/master/transformers/domain_records)
+These commands require Go 1.11+ and use [Go plugins](https://golang.org/pkg/plugin/) which only work on Unix-based systems.
+There is also an ongoing [conflict](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/20481) between Go plugins and the use vendored dependencies which
+imposes certain limitations on how the plugins are built.
 
-## Preparing transformers to work as a plugin for composeAndExecute
-To plug in an external transformer we need to:
+## Commands
+The `compose` and `composeAndExecute` commands assume you are in the vulcanizdb directory located at your system's `$GOPATH`,
+and that all of the transformer repositories for building the plugin are present at their `$GOPATH` directories.
 
-1. Create a package that exports a variable `TransformerInitializer`, `StorageTransformerInitializer`, or `ContractTransformerInitializer` that are of type [TransformerInitializer](../staging/libraries/shared/transformer/event_transformer.go#L33)
-or [StorageTransformerInitializer](../../staging/libraries/shared/transformer/storage_transformer.go#L31),
-or [ContractTransformerInitializer](../../staging/libraries/shared/transformer/contract_transformer.go#L31), respectively
-2. Design the transformers to work in the context of their [event](../staging/libraries/shared/watcher/event_watcher.go#L83),
-[storage](../../staging/libraries/shared/watcher/storage_watcher.go#L53),
-or [contract](../../staging/libraries/shared/watcher/contract_watcher.go#L68) watcher execution modes
-3. Create db migrations to run against vulcanizeDB so that we can store the transformer output
-    * Do not `goose fix` the transformer migrations, this is to ensure they are always ran after the core vulcanizedb migrations which are kept in their fixed form
-    * Specify migration locations for each transformer in the config with the `exporter.transformer.migrations` fields
-    * If the base vDB migrations occupy this path as well, they need to be in their `goose fix`ed form
-    as they are [here](../../staging/db/migrations)
+The `execute` command does not require the plugin transformer dependencies be located in their
+`$GOPATH` directories, instead it expects a prebuilt .so file (of the name specified in the config file)
+to be in `$GOPATH/src/github.com/vulcanize/vulcanizedb/plugins/` and, as noted above, also expects the plugin
+db migrations to have already been ran against the database.
 
-To update a plugin repository with changes to the core vulcanizedb repository, replace the vulcanizedb vendored in the plugin repo (`plugin_repo/vendor/github.com/vulcanize/vulcanizedb`)
-with the newly updated version
-* The entire vendor lib within the vendored vulcanizedb needs to be deleted (`plugin_repo/vendor/github.com/vulcanize/vulcanizedb/vendor`)
-* These complications arise due to this [conflict](https://github.com/golang/go/issues/20481) between `dep` and Go plugins
+compose:
+
+`./vulcanizedb compose --config=./environments/config_name.toml`
+
+execute:
+
+`./vulcanizedb execute --config=./environments/config_name.toml`
+
+composeAndExecute:
 
-## Configuration
-A .toml config file is specified when executing the command:
 `./vulcanizedb composeAndExecute --config=./environments/config_name.toml`
 
-The config provides information for composing a set of transformers:
+## Configuration
+A .toml config file is specified when executing the commands.
+The config provides information for composing a set of transformers from external repositories:
 
 ```toml
 [database]
diff --git a/documentation/transformers.md b/documentation/transformers.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b9a26ffd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/documentation/transformers.md
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+# Custom transformers
+When the capabilities of the generic `contractWatcher` are not sufficient, custom transformers tailored to a specific
+purpose can be leveraged.
+
+Individual transformers can be composed together from any number of external repositories and executed as a single process using
+the `compose` and `execute` commands or the `composeAndExecute` command.
+
+## Writing custom transformers
+For help with writing different types of custom transformers for the `composeAndExecute` set of commands, please see the below:
+
+Storage Transformers
+   * [Guide](../../staging/libraries/shared/factories/storage/README.md)
+   * [Example](../../staging/libraries/shared/factories/storage/EXAMPLE.md)
+
+Event Transformers
+   * [Guide](../../staging/libraries/shared/factories/event/README.md)
+   * [Example 1](https://github.com/vulcanize/ens_transformers/tree/master/transformers/registar)
+   * [Example 2](https://github.com/vulcanize/ens_transformers/tree/master/transformers/registry)
+   * [Example 3](https://github.com/vulcanize/ens_transformers/tree/master/transformers/resolver)
+
+Contract Transformers
+   * [Example 1](https://github.com/vulcanize/account_transformers)
+   * [Example 2](https://github.com/vulcanize/ens_transformers/tree/master/transformers/domain_records)
+
+## Preparing custom transformers to work as part of a plugin
+To plug in an external transformer we need to:
+
+1. Create a package that exports a variable `TransformerInitializer`, `StorageTransformerInitializer`, or `ContractTransformerInitializer` that are of type [TransformerInitializer](../staging/libraries/shared/transformer/event_transformer.go#L33)
+or [StorageTransformerInitializer](../../staging/libraries/shared/transformer/storage_transformer.go#L31),
+or [ContractTransformerInitializer](../../staging/libraries/shared/transformer/contract_transformer.go#L31), respectively
+2. Design the transformers to work in the context of their [event](../staging/libraries/shared/watcher/event_watcher.go#L83),
+[storage](../../staging/libraries/shared/watcher/storage_watcher.go#L53),
+or [contract](../../staging/libraries/shared/watcher/contract_watcher.go#L68) watcher execution modes
+3. Create db migrations to run against vulcanizeDB so that we can store the transformer output
+    * Do not `goose fix` the transformer migrations, this is to ensure they are always ran after the core vulcanizedb migrations which are kept in their fixed form
+    * Specify migration locations for each transformer in the config with the `exporter.transformer.migrations` fields
+    * If the base vDB migrations occupy this path as well, they need to be in their `goose fix`ed form
+    as they are [here](../../staging/db/migrations)
+
+To update a plugin repository with changes to the core vulcanizedb repository, run `dep ensure` to update its dependencies.
diff --git a/integration_test/contract_watcher_light_transformer_test.go b/integration_test/contract_watcher_light_transformer_test.go
index 3aaa3267..442d2269 100644
--- a/integration_test/contract_watcher_light_transformer_test.go
+++ b/integration_test/contract_watcher_light_transformer_test.go
@@ -49,6 +49,13 @@ var _ = Describe("contractWatcher light transformer", func() {
 			c, ok := t.Contracts[tusdAddr]
 			Expect(ok).To(Equal(true))
 
+			// TODO: Fix this
+			// This test sometimes randomly fails because
+			// for some reason the starting block number is not updated from
+			// its original value (5197514) to the block number (6194632)
+			// of the earliest header (mocks.MockHeader1) in the repository
+			// It is not clear how this happens without one of the above insertErrs
+			// having been thrown and without any errors thrown during the Init() call
 			Expect(c.StartingBlock).To(Equal(int64(6194632)))
 			Expect(c.Abi).To(Equal(constants.TusdAbiString))
 			Expect(c.Name).To(Equal("TrueUSD"))