diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index b7efcb4..0a8ca60 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -7,3 +7,6 @@
 [submodule "test/test_helper/bats-assert"]
 	path = test/test_helper/bats-assert
 	url = https://github.com/bats-core/bats-assert.git
+[submodule "test/codex"]
+	path = test/codex
+	url = https://github.com/codex-storage/nim-codex
diff --git a/src/codex.bash b/src/codex.bash
index 30fd46c..c2370ff 100644
--- a/src/codex.bash
+++ b/src/codex.bash
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ _cdx_base_api_port=8080
 _cdx_base_disc_port=8190
 _cdx_base_metrics_port=8290
 
+_cdx_node_start_timeout=30
+
 cdx_cmdline() {
   local api_port\
     disc_port\
@@ -57,3 +59,50 @@ cdx_cmdline() {
 " --log-file=${_cdx_logs}/codex-${node_index}.log --data-dir=${_cdx_data}/codex-${node_index}"\
 " --api-port=${api_port} --disc-port=${disc_port} --loglevel=INFO"
 }
+
+cdx_get_spr() {
+  local node_index="$1" api_port spr
+  api_port=$((_cdx_base_api_port + node_index))
+
+  spr=$(curl --silent --fail "http://localhost:${api_port}/api/codex/v1/debug/info" | grep -oe 'spr:[^"]\+')
+  if [[ -z "$spr" ]]; then
+    echoerr "Error: unable to get SPR for node $node_index"
+    return 1
+  fi
+
+  echo "${spr}"
+}
+
+cdx_launch_node() {
+  _check_codex_binary
+
+  local codex_cmd
+  codex_cmd=$(cdx_cmdline "$@")
+
+  (
+    $codex_cmd
+    pm_job_exit $?
+  )&
+  pm_track_last_job
+
+  cdx_ensure_ready "$@"
+}
+
+cdx_ensure_ready() {
+  local node_index="$1" timeout=${2:-$_cdx_node_start_timeout} start now
+  start=$(date +%s)
+  while true; do
+    if cdx_get_spr "$node_index"; then
+      echoerr "Codex node $node_index is ready."
+      return 0
+    fi
+
+    now=$(date +%s)
+    if (( now - start > timeout )); then
+      echoerr "Codex node $node_index did not start within ${timeout} seconds."
+      return 1
+    fi
+
+    sleep 0.2
+  done
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/codex b/test/codex
new file mode 160000
index 0000000..e35aec7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/codex
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit e35aec78700f529ddf0c9c6764b77927a0cc0165
diff --git a/test/test_codex.bats b/test/test_codex.bats
index f629ba3..51d31d1 100755
--- a/test/test_codex.bats
+++ b/test/test_codex.bats
@@ -32,4 +32,32 @@ setup() {
 " --log-file=${_cdx_output}/logs/codex-0.log"\
 " --data-dir=${_cdx_output}/data/codex-0"\
 " --api-port=8080 --disc-port=8190 --loglevel=INFO"
-}
\ No newline at end of file
+}
+
+@test "should fail readiness check if node is not running" {
+  refute cdx_ensure_ready 0 1
+}
+
+@test "should pass readiness check if node is running" {
+  data_dir=$(clh_output_folder "codex-temp")
+  "${CODEX_BINARY}" --nat:none --data-dir="$data_dir" &> /dev/null &
+  pid=$!
+
+  assert cdx_ensure_ready 0 3
+
+  kill -SIGKILL "$pid"
+  await "$pid"
+  rm -rf "$data_dir"
+}
+
+#@test "should launch a Codex node" {
+#  export CLH_CODEX_BINARY="${BATS_TEST_DIRNAME}/codex/build/codex"
+#
+#  assert cdx_launch_node 0
+#
+#  # Node must be running and ready.
+#  assert [ ! -z "$(cdx_get_spr 0)" ]
+#  # We should see a log file and a data directory.
+#  assert [ -f "${_cdx_output}/logs/codex-0.log" ]
+#  assert [ -d "${_cdx_output}/data/codex-0" ]
+#}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/test/test_helper/common_setup.bash b/test/test_helper/common_setup.bash
index 9cf41c7..6ac44ba 100644
--- a/test/test_helper/common_setup.bash
+++ b/test/test_helper/common_setup.bash
@@ -4,4 +4,10 @@ common_setup() {
   load test_helper/bats-assert/load
 
   export LIB_SRC="${BATS_TEST_DIRNAME}/../src"
+  export CODEX_BINARY="${BATS_TEST_DIRNAME}/codex/build/codex"
+
+  if [ ! -f "$CODEX_BINARY" ]; then
+    echo "Codex binary not found at $CODEX_BINARY"
+    exit 1
+  fi
 }
\ No newline at end of file