diff --git a/tools/commands.js b/tools/commands.js
index 6eff8b91aa..d787019208 100644
--- a/tools/commands.js
+++ b/tools/commands.js
@@ -1256,12 +1256,13 @@ main.registerCommand({
 
 main.registerCommand({
   name: 'self-test',
+  minArgs: 0,
+  maxArgs: 1,
   options: {
     changed: { type: Boolean },
     'force-online': { type: Boolean },
     slow: { type: Boolean },
     history: { type: Number },
-    tests: { type: String }
   },
   hidden: true
 }, function (options) {
@@ -1279,13 +1280,13 @@ main.registerCommand({
   }
 
   var testRegexp = undefined;
-  if (options.tests) {
+  if (options.args.length) {
     try {
-      testRegexp = new RegExp(options.tests);
+      testRegexp = new RegExp(options.args[0]);
     } catch (e) {
       if (!(e instanceof SyntaxError))
         throw e;
-      process.stderr.write("Bad regular expression: " + options.tests + "\n");
+      process.stderr.write("Bad regular expression: " + options.args[0] + "\n");
       return 1;
     }
   }
diff --git a/tools/help.txt b/tools/help.txt
index c8fd32c737..0c9a492294 100644
--- a/tools/help.txt
+++ b/tools/help.txt
@@ -311,10 +311,14 @@ system for building standalone command-line programs with Meteor.
 
 >>> self-test
 Run tests of the 'meteor' tool.
-Usage: meteor self-test [--changed] [--slow] [--force-online] [--history n]
+Usage: meteor self-test [pattern] [--changed] [--slow]
+                        [--force-online] [--history n]
 
 Runs internal tests. Exits with status 0 on success.
 
+If 'pattern' is provided, it should be a regular expression. Only
+tests that match the regular expression will be run.
+
 Pass --changed to run only tests that have changed since they last
 passed. This uses a really rough heuristic: A test has changed iff
 there has been any change to the file in the 'selftests' subdirectory
diff --git a/tools/selftest.js b/tools/selftest.js
index bfabb4db87..9c91fee132 100644
--- a/tools/selftest.js
+++ b/tools/selftest.js
@@ -976,7 +976,7 @@ var tagDescriptions = {
   // these last two are not actually test tags; they reflect the use of
   // --changed and --tests
   unchanged: 'unchanged since last pass',
-  misnamed: "don't match --tests argument"
+  'non-matching': "don't match specified pattern"
 };
 
 // options: onlyChanged, offline, includeSlowTests, historyLines, testRegexp
@@ -1015,7 +1015,7 @@ var runTests = function (options) {
     tests = _.filter(tests, function (test) {
       return options.testRegexp.test(test.name);
     });
-    skipCounts.misnamed = lengthBeforeTestRegexp - tests.length;
+    skipCounts['non-matching'] = lengthBeforeTestRegexp - tests.length;
   }
 
   if (options.onlyChanged) {