diff --git a/src/SLCore.UnitTests/Process/SLCoreRunner.cs b/src/SLCore.UnitTests/Process/SLCoreRunner.cs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..aa3421a2e7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/SLCore.UnitTests/Process/SLCoreRunner.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+/*
+ * SonarLint for Visual Studio
+ * Copyright (C) 2016-2023 SonarSource SA
+ * mailto:info AT sonarsource DOT com
+ *
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
+ * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
+ * version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
+ * Lesser General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
+ * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
+ * Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.
+ */
+
+using System;
+using System.Diagnostics;
+using System.Diagnostics.CodeAnalysis;
+using System.IO;
+using System.Threading;
+using System.Threading.Tasks;
+using Microsoft.VisualStudio.Threading;
+using SonarLint.VisualStudio.SLCore.Core;
+using SonarLint.VisualStudio.SLCore.Protocol;
+
+namespace SonarLint.VisualStudio.SLCore.UnitTests.Process
+{
+    [ExcludeFromCodeCoverage]
+    public sealed class SLCoreRunner : IDisposable
+    {
+        public ISLCoreJsonRpc Rpc { get; }
+        private readonly System.Diagnostics.Process process;
+        private readonly CancellationTokenSource cancellationTokenSource = new CancellationTokenSource();
+        private readonly JsonRpcWrapper jsonRpcWrapper;
+
+        public SLCoreRunner(string pathToBat, string logFilePath = null, string errorLogFilePath = null, bool enableVerboseLogs = false)
+        {
+            FileStream logFileStream = null;
+            if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(logFilePath))
+            {
+                logFileStream = File.OpenWrite(logFilePath);
+                
+            }
+
+            // todo: disable telemetry
+            var processStartInfo = new ProcessStartInfo("cmd.exe", $@"/c {pathToBat}")
+            {
+                CreateNoWindow = true,
+                UseShellExecute = false,
+                RedirectStandardInput = true,
+                RedirectStandardOutput = true,
+                RedirectStandardError = true
+            };
+            
+            process = new System.Diagnostics.Process { StartInfo = processStartInfo };
+
+            process.Start();
+            process
+                .StandardOutput
+                .ReadLine(); // needed to skip `echo Using bundled jre` since that is not a valid rpc msg. should be removed after it's fixed on the SLCore side
+            
+            Task.Run(() => ReadErrorLog(errorLogFilePath)).Forget();
+            
+            jsonRpcWrapper = new JsonRpcWrapper(process.StandardInput.BaseStream, process.StandardOutput.BaseStream);
+            jsonRpcWrapper.TraceSource.Switch.Level = enableVerboseLogs? SourceLevels.Verbose : SourceLevels.Warning;
+            jsonRpcWrapper.TraceSource.Listeners.Add(logFileStream == null ? new ConsoleTraceListener(): new TextWriterTraceListener(logFileStream));
+            
+            Rpc = new SLCoreJsonRpc(jsonRpcWrapper, new RpcMethodNameTransformer());
+        }
+
+        private void ReadErrorLog(string errorLogFilePath)
+        {
+            var token = cancellationTokenSource.Token;
+            var fileLoggingEnabled = errorLogFilePath != null;
+            var prefix = fileLoggingEnabled ? string.Empty : "ERR: ";
+            StreamWriter fileStream = fileLoggingEnabled ? new StreamWriter(File.OpenWrite(errorLogFilePath)) : null;
+            
+            
+            while (!token.IsCancellationRequested)
+            {
+                var line = process.StandardError.ReadLine();
+                if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(line))
+                {
+                    continue;
+                }
+
+                if (fileLoggingEnabled)
+                {
+                    fileStream.WriteLine(line);
+                }
+                else
+                {
+                    Console.WriteLine(prefix + line);
+                }
+            }
+        }
+        
+        public void Dispose()
+        {
+            cancellationTokenSource?.Cancel();
+            cancellationTokenSource?.Dispose();
+            jsonRpcWrapper?.Dispose(); // todo: slcore should be shutdown already
+            process?.Dispose();
+        }
+    }
+}