diff --git a/CHANGES.md b/CHANGES.md
index 3484a88..31cfb23 100644
--- a/CHANGES.md
+++ b/CHANGES.md
@@ -13,6 +13,13 @@ Known issues:
   `triton instance enable-deletion-protection ...`, and
   `triton instance disable-deletion-protection ...`. This flag is only supported
   on cloudapi versions 8.7.0 or above.
+- [TRITON-59] node-triton should support nic operations
+  `triton instance nic get ...`
+  `triton instance nic create ...`
+  `triton instance nic list ...`
+  `triton instance nic delete ...`
+- [TRITON-42] node-triton should support nics when creating an instance, e.g.
+  `triton instance create --nic <Network Object> IMAGE PACKAGE`
 
 ## 5.9.0
 
diff --git a/lib/common.js b/lib/common.js
index 4911fd4..04aee41 100644
--- a/lib/common.js
+++ b/lib/common.js
@@ -1427,9 +1427,9 @@ function ipv4ToLong(ip) {
  *      ]
  * }
  * Note: "1234" is used as the UUID for this example, but would actually cause
- * `parseNicsCLI` to throw as it is not a valid UUID.
+ * `parseNicStr` to throw as it is not a valid UUID.
  */
-function parseNicsCLI(nic) {
+function parseNicStr(nic) {
     assert.arrayOfString(nic);
 
     var obj = objFromKeyValueArgs(nic, {
@@ -1502,6 +1502,6 @@ module.exports = {
     readStdin: readStdin,
     validateObject: validateObject,
     ipv4ToLong: ipv4ToLong,
-    parseNicsCLI: parseNicsCLI
+    parseNicStr: parseNicStr
 };
 // vim: set softtabstop=4 shiftwidth=4:
diff --git a/lib/do_instance/do_create.js b/lib/do_instance/do_create.js
index 273b1e7..12463a0 100644
--- a/lib/do_instance/do_create.js
+++ b/lib/do_instance/do_create.js
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@ var common = require('../common');
 var distractions = require('../distractions');
 var errors = require('../errors');
 var mat = require('../metadataandtags');
+var NETWORK_OBJECT_FIELDS =
+    require('../cloudapi2').CloudApi.prototype.NETWORK_OBJECT_FIELDS;
 
 function parseVolMount(volume) {
     var components;
@@ -83,6 +85,9 @@ function do_create(subcmd, opts, args, cb) {
         return;
     } else if (args.length !== 2) {
         return cb(new errors.UsageError('incorrect number of args'));
+    } else if (opts.nic && opts.network) {
+        return cb(new errors.UsageError(
+            '--network and --nic cannot be specified together'));
     }
 
     var log = this.top.log;
@@ -224,6 +229,47 @@ function do_create(subcmd, opts, args, cb) {
             next();
         },
 
+        /*
+         * Parse any nics given via `--nic`
+         */
+        function parseNics(ctx, next) {
+            if (!opts.nic) {
+                next();
+                return;
+            }
+
+            ctx.nics = [];
+            var i;
+            var networksSeen = {};
+            var nic;
+            var nics = opts.nic;
+
+            log.trace({nics: nics}, 'parsing nics');
+
+            for (i = 0; i < nics.length; i++) {
+                nic = nics[i].split(',');
+
+                try {
+                    nic = common.parseNicStr(nic);
+                    if (networksSeen[nic.ipv4_uuid]) {
+                        throw new errors.UsageError(format(
+                            'only 1 ip on a network allowed '
+                            + '(network %s specified multiple times)',
+                            nic.ipv4_uuid));
+                    }
+                    networksSeen[nic.ipv4_uuid] = true;
+                    ctx.nics.push(nic);
+                } catch (err) {
+                    next(err);
+                    return;
+                }
+            }
+
+            log.trace({nics: ctx.nics}, 'parsed nics');
+
+            next();
+        },
+
         /*
          * Determine `ctx.locality` according to what CloudAPI supports
          * based on `ctx.affinities` parsed earlier.
@@ -371,11 +417,17 @@ function do_create(subcmd, opts, args, cb) {
             var createOpts = {
                 name: opts.name,
                 image: ctx.img.id,
-                'package': ctx.pkg && ctx.pkg.id,
-                networks: ctx.nets && ctx.nets.map(
-                    function (net) { return net.id; })
+                'package': ctx.pkg && ctx.pkg.id
             };
 
+            if (ctx.nets) {
+                createOpts.networks = ctx.nets.map(function (net) {
+                    return net.id;
+                });
+            } else if (ctx.nics) {
+                createOpts.networks = ctx.nics;
+            }
+
             if (ctx.volMounts) {
                 createOpts.volumes = ctx.volMounts;
             }
@@ -539,6 +591,15 @@ do_create.options = [
             'This option can be used multiple times.',
         completionType: 'tritonnetwork'
     },
+    {
+        names: ['nic'],
+        type: 'arrayOfString',
+        helpArg: 'NICOPTS',
+        help: 'A network interface object containing comma separated ' +
+            'key=value pairs (Network object format). ' +
+            'This option can be used multiple times for multiple NICs. ' +
+            'Valid keys are: ' + Object.keys(NETWORK_OBJECT_FIELDS).join(', ')
+    },
     {
         // TODO: add boolNegationPrefix:'no-' when that cmdln pull is in
         names: ['firewall'],
diff --git a/lib/do_instance/do_nic/do_create.js b/lib/do_instance/do_nic/do_create.js
index 47a46ae..058f221 100644
--- a/lib/do_instance/do_nic/do_create.js
+++ b/lib/do_instance/do_nic/do_create.js
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ function do_create(subcmd, opts, args, cb) {
         }
 
         try {
-            netObj = common.parseNicsCLI(netObjArgs);
+            netObj = common.parseNicStr(netObjArgs);
         } catch (err) {
             cb(err);
             return;