diff --git a/internal/cmd/cue-ast-print/main.go b/internal/cmd/cue-ast-print/main.go
deleted file mode 100644
index 462845e64..000000000
--- a/internal/cmd/cue-ast-print/main.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,65 +0,0 @@
-// Copyright 2023 The CUE Authors
-//
-// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-// You may obtain a copy of the License at
-//
-//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-//
-// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-// limitations under the License.
-
-// cue-ast-print parses a CUE file and prints its syntax tree, for example:
-//
-//	cue-ast-print file.cue
-package main
-
-import (
-	"flag"
-	"fmt"
-	"io"
-	"log"
-	"os"
-
-	"cuelang.org/go/cue/parser"
-	"cuelang.org/go/internal/astinternal"
-)
-
-func main() {
-	flag.Usage = func() {
-		fmt.Fprintf(flag.CommandLine.Output(), "usage: cue-ast-print [flags] [file.cue]\n")
-		flag.PrintDefaults()
-	}
-
-	var cfg astinternal.DebugConfig
-	flag.BoolVar(&cfg.OmitEmpty, "omitempty", false, "omit empty and invalid values")
-	// Note that DebugConfig also has a Filter func, but that doesn't lend itself well
-	// to a command line flag. Perhaps we could provide some commonly used filters,
-	// such as "positions only" or "skip positions".
-	flag.Parse()
-
-	var filename string
-	var src any
-	switch flag.NArg() {
-	case 0:
-		filename = "<stdin>"
-		data, err := io.ReadAll(os.Stdin)
-		if err != nil {
-			log.Fatal(err)
-		}
-		src = data
-	case 1:
-		filename = flag.Arg(0)
-	default:
-		flag.Usage()
-	}
-	file, err := parser.ParseFile(filename, src, parser.ParseComments)
-	if err != nil {
-		log.Fatal(err)
-	}
-	out := astinternal.AppendDebug(nil, file, cfg)
-	os.Stdout.Write(out)
-}
diff --git a/internal/cmd/cue-ast/main.go b/internal/cmd/cue-ast/main.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..01980a0b0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/internal/cmd/cue-ast/main.go
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+// Copyright 2023 The CUE Authors
+//
+// Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+// you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+// You may obtain a copy of the License at
+//
+//     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+//
+// Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+// distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+// WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+// See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+// limitations under the License.
+
+// cue-ast-print parses a CUE file and prints its syntax tree, for example:
+//
+//	cue-ast-print file.cue
+package main
+
+import (
+	"flag"
+	"fmt"
+	"log"
+	"os"
+
+	"cuelang.org/go/cue/errors"
+	"cuelang.org/go/cue/load"
+	"cuelang.org/go/internal/astinternal"
+)
+
+func main() {
+	flag.Usage = func() {
+		fmt.Fprint(flag.CommandLine.Output(), `
+usage of cue-ast:
+
+  cue-ast print [flags] [inputs]
+
+    Write multi-line Go-like representations of CUE syntax trees.
+
+      -omitempty    omit empty and invalid values
+
+See 'cue help inputs' as well.
+`[1:])
+	}
+
+	if len(os.Args) < 2 {
+		flag.Usage()
+		os.Exit(1)
+	}
+	name, args := os.Args[1], os.Args[2:]
+	switch name {
+	case "print":
+		var cfg astinternal.DebugConfig
+		flag.BoolVar(&cfg.OmitEmpty, "omitempty", false, "")
+		// Note that DebugConfig also has a Filter func, but that doesn't lend itself well
+		// to a command line flag. Perhaps we could provide some commonly used filters,
+		// such as "positions only" or "skip positions".
+		flag.CommandLine.Parse(args)
+
+		// TODO: should we produce output in txtar form for the sake of
+		// more clearly separating the AST for each file?
+		// [ast.File.Filename] already has the full filename,
+		// but as one of the first fields it's not a great separator.
+		insts := load.Instances(flag.Args(), &load.Config{})
+		for _, inst := range insts {
+			if err := inst.Err; err != nil {
+				log.Fatal(errors.Details(err, nil))
+			}
+			for _, file := range inst.Files {
+				out := astinternal.AppendDebug(nil, file, cfg)
+				os.Stdout.Write(out)
+			}
+		}
+	default:
+		flag.Usage()
+	}
+}