diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index b39d597bd..e0f7ebda5 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -151,6 +151,7 @@ option(ENABLE_HIDE_UNEXPORTED_SYMBOLS "Only export library symbols that are expl
 option(ENABLE_FUZZ_TESTING "Enable building fuzzers and regression testing with libFuzzer" ${DEFAULT_FUZZ_TESTING})
 option(ENABLE_BENCHMARKS "Enable building and running benchmarks with Google Benchmark" ${DEFAULT_BENCHMARKS})
 
+option(BUILD_TOOLS "Enable building commandline programs to send and receive simple messages" ON)
 option(BUILD_EXAMPLES "Enable building example programs" ON)
 option(BUILD_TLS "Enable building separate TLS library for Proton raw connections" OFF)
 
diff --git a/c/CMakeLists.txt b/c/CMakeLists.txt
index 5567abf0f..d98f0e1ed 100644
--- a/c/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/c/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -711,7 +711,9 @@ endif (BUILD_EXAMPLES)
 if (BUILD_TESTING)
   add_subdirectory(tests)
 endif (BUILD_TESTING)
-add_subdirectory(tools)
+if (BUILD_TOOLS)
+  add_subdirectory(tools)
+endif (BUILD_TOOLS)
 
 install (DIRECTORY examples/
          DESTINATION "${PROTON_SHARE}/examples/c"