diff --git a/Gemfile b/Gemfile
index 0b98f7b..ec415ae 100644
--- a/Gemfile
+++ b/Gemfile
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
-gemspec
+gemspec name: "database_cleaner-core"
 
 gem "byebug"
diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 7519c50..a9761aa 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 PATH
   remote: .
   specs:
-    database_cleaner (2.0.0.beta)
+    database_cleaner-core (2.0.0.beta)
 
 GEM
   remote: https://rubygems.org/
@@ -84,7 +84,7 @@ DEPENDENCIES
   bundler
   byebug
   cucumber
-  database_cleaner!
+  database_cleaner-core!
   guard-rspec
   listen
   rake
diff --git a/Rakefile b/Rakefile
index 97879de..c6daf51 100644
--- a/Rakefile
+++ b/Rakefile
@@ -1,32 +1,12 @@
-require "rubygems"
-require "bundler"
-require "bundler/gem_tasks"
-Bundler.setup
-
-require 'rake'
-require 'rspec/core'
-require 'rspec/core/rake_task'
-RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:spec) do |spec|
-  spec.pattern = FileList['spec/**/*_spec.rb']
-end
-
-RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:rcov) do |spec|
-  spec.pattern = 'spec/**/*_spec.rb'
-  spec.rcov = true
-end
-
+# testing
+require "rspec/core/rake_task"
+RSpec::Core::RakeTask.new(:spec)
 task :default => :spec
 
-desc "Cleans the project of any tmp file that should not be included in the gemspec."
-task :clean do
-  ["examples/config/database.yml", "examples/db/activerecord_one.db", "examples/db/activerecord_two.db", "examples/db/datamapper_default.db",
-    "examples/db/datamapper_one.db", "examples/db/datamapper_two.db"].each do |f|
-    FileUtils.rm_f(f)
-  end
-  %w[*.sqlite3 *.log #* *.swp *.swo].each do |pattern|
-    `find . -name "#{pattern}" -delete`
-  end
-end
+# releasing
+require "rake/clean"
+CLOBBER.include "pkg"
+require "bundler/gem_helper"
+Bundler::GemHelper.install_tasks name: :database_cleaner
+Bundler::GemHelper.install_tasks name: :"database_cleaner-core"
 
-desc "Cleans the dir and builds the gem"
-task :prep => [:clean, :gemspec, :build]
diff --git a/database_cleaner-core.gemspec b/database_cleaner-core.gemspec
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..65b5119
--- /dev/null
+++ b/database_cleaner-core.gemspec
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+lib = File.expand_path("../lib", __FILE__)
+$LOAD_PATH.unshift(lib) unless $LOAD_PATH.include?(lib)
+require "database_cleaner/version"
+
+Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
+  spec.name        = "database_cleaner-core"
+  spec.version     = DatabaseCleaner::VERSION
+  spec.authors     = ["Ben Mabey", "Ernesto Tagwerker"]
+  spec.email       = ["ernesto@ombulabs.com"]
+
+  spec.summary     = "Strategies for cleaning databases. Can be used to ensure a clean slate for testing."
+  spec.description = "Strategies for cleaning databases. Can be used to ensure a clean slate for testing."
+  spec.homepage    = "https://github.com/DatabaseCleaner/database_cleaner"
+  spec.license     = "MIT"
+
+  spec.files         = `git ls-files -z`.split("\x0").reject do |f|
+    f.match(%r{^(test|spec|features)/})
+  end
+  spec.bindir        = "exe"
+  spec.executables   = spec.files.grep(%r{^exe/}) { |f| File.basename(f) }
+  spec.require_paths = ["lib"]
+
+  spec.add_development_dependency "rake"
+  spec.add_development_dependency "bundler"
+  spec.add_development_dependency 'guard-rspec'
+  spec.add_development_dependency "listen"
+  spec.add_development_dependency "rspec"
+  spec.add_development_dependency "cucumber"
+end
+
diff --git a/database_cleaner.gemspec b/database_cleaner.gemspec
index ad8f4d8..e8c7a06 100644
--- a/database_cleaner.gemspec
+++ b/database_cleaner.gemspec
@@ -1,7 +1,4 @@
-
-lib = File.expand_path("../lib", __FILE__)
-$LOAD_PATH.unshift(lib) unless $LOAD_PATH.include?(lib)
-require "database_cleaner/version"
+require_relative "./lib/database_cleaner/version"
 
 Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.name        = "database_cleaner"
@@ -14,17 +11,5 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |spec|
   spec.homepage    = "https://github.com/DatabaseCleaner/database_cleaner"
   spec.license     = "MIT"
 
-  spec.files         = `git ls-files -z`.split("\x0").reject do |f|
-    f.match(%r{^(test|spec|features)/})
-  end
-  spec.bindir        = "exe"
-  spec.executables   = spec.files.grep(%r{^exe/}) { |f| File.basename(f) }
-  spec.require_paths = ["lib"]
-
-  spec.add_development_dependency "rake"
-  spec.add_development_dependency "bundler"
-  spec.add_development_dependency 'guard-rspec'
-  spec.add_development_dependency "listen"
-  spec.add_development_dependency "rspec"
-  spec.add_development_dependency "cucumber"
+  spec.add_dependency "database_cleaner-active_record"
 end
diff --git a/lib/database_cleaner-core.rb b/lib/database_cleaner-core.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9b65f62
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/database_cleaner-core.rb
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+# empty file to avoid LoadError if someone requires database_cleaner-core directly