diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index ee5d3fab..2b2a94b3 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
     "start": "node scripts/prepareSpec.js"
   },
   "devDependencies": {
-    "shelljs": "^0.8.3"
+    "cross-spawn": "^6.0.5",
+    "fs-extra": "^7.0.1"
   }
 }
diff --git a/scripts/prepareSpec.js b/scripts/prepareSpec.js
index 92b30f3a..0d5b9093 100644
--- a/scripts/prepareSpec.js
+++ b/scripts/prepareSpec.js
@@ -1,11 +1,40 @@
-require('shelljs/global');
+const path = require('path');
 
-rm('-rf', 'spec/myplugin');
-rm('-rf', 'spec/plugins');
-rm('-rf', 'spec/platforms');
-mkdir('spec/myplugin')
-cp('-R', 'package.json', 'plugin.xml', 'scripts', 'src', 'www', 'spec/myplugin');
+const fs = require('fs-extra');
 
-cd('spec');
+const spawn = require('cross-spawn');
 
-exec('cordova plugin add myplugin');
+console.info('Removing any old artifacts from spec');
+
+fs.removeSync('spec/myplugin');
+fs.removeSync('spec/plugins');
+fs.removeSync('spec/platforms');
+
+const myplugin = path.join('spec', 'myplugin');
+
+console.info('Copying plugin artifacts into ' + myplugin);
+
+fs.ensureDirSync(myplugin);
+
+['package.json', 'plugin.xml'].forEach((src) => {
+  const dest = path.join(myplugin, src);
+  fs.copySync(src, dest);
+});
+
+['scripts', 'src', 'www'].forEach((src) => {
+  const dest = path.join(myplugin, src);
+  fs.ensureDirSync(dest);
+  fs.copySync(src, dest);
+});
+
+const args = 'plugin add myplugin';
+
+console.log('Spawning Cordova CLI in `spec` with the following arguments: ' + args);
+
+spawn.sync('cordova', args.split(' '), {
+  cwd: 'spec',
+  stdio: 'inherit',
+});
+
+console.info('The spec is now ready to test a copy of this plugin.');
+console.info('Please do `cd spec` and then use `cordova platform add` to add each desired platform.');