diff --git a/tcp_tests/utils/get_param.py b/tcp_tests/utils/get_param.py
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..6179e70
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tcp_tests/utils/get_param.py
@@ -0,0 +1,62 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env python
+
+"""
+A wrapper to ``pepper``, a CLI interface to a remote salt-api instance.
+
+Return a single parameter from the salt model for specified
+target and pillar.
+
+Fails if the result contains more than one parameter.
+
+Use the pepper CLI parameters to set salt-api access parameters
+or set the environment variables:
+
+  export SALTAPI_URL=http://${SALT_MASTER_IP}:6969/;
+  export SALTAPI_USER='salt';
+  export SALTAPI_PASS='pass';
+  export SALTAPI_EAUTH='pam';
+"""
+from __future__ import print_function
+
+import sys
+import json
+
+from pepper import cli
+
+
+runner = cli.PepperCli()
+runner.parser.description = __doc__
+
+
+if len(sys.argv) <= 1:
+    sys.argv.append('--help')
+
+results = []
+for res in runner.run():
+    results.append(res)
+
+if not results:
+    print("Empty response", file=sys.stderr)
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+if len(results) > 1:
+    print("Too many results", file=sys.stderr)
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+if results[0][0] != 0:
+    print("Error code returned", file=sys.stderr)
+    sys.exit(results[0][0])
+
+data = json.loads(results[0][1])
+nodes = data['return'][0].keys()
+
+if not nodes:
+    print("Wrong target: no minions selected", file=sys.stderr)
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+if len(nodes) > 1:
+    print("Wrong target: too many minions selected: {0}"
+          .format(nodes), file=sys.stderr)
+    sys.exit(1)
+
+print(data['return'][0][nodes[0]])