diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index a2f7018..15f1103 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@ To run AToMPM on Windows, double-click on the `run.bat` script inside of the mai
 ### Mac or Linux
 1. Execute `node httpwsd.js` in one terminal
 2. Execute `python mt\main.py` in another terminal
+2.1. Alternatively, adding the `--with-python` flag to the `node` command above will run the Python process as a child of the NodeJS process, making this step unnecessary.
 3. Open a browser (Firefox or Chrome) and navigate to [http://localhost:8124/atompm](http://localhost:8124/atompm)
 
 * The above steps are automated by the `run_AToMPM_local.sh` script
diff --git a/httpwsd.js b/httpwsd.js
index 01c7e66..68af6bb 100644
--- a/httpwsd.js
+++ b/httpwsd.js
@@ -4,7 +4,8 @@
 */
 
 /*********************************** IMPORTS **********************************/
-const _cp = require('child_process'),
+const process = require('node:process');
+const _cp = require('node:child_process'),
 	_fs = require('fs'),
 	_http = require('http'),
 	_url = require('url'),
@@ -14,6 +15,11 @@ const _cp = require('child_process'),
 	_utils = require('./utils');
 const session_manager = require("./session_manager");
 
+// Command line flag: Start python model transformation server process as a child process of this (node) process.
+const runWithPythonChildProcess = process.argv.slice(2).includes("--with-python"); // opt-in
+
+const port = 8124;
+
 
 /** Wrapper function to log HTTP messages from the server **/
 function __respond(response, statusCode, reason, data, headers)
@@ -603,10 +609,38 @@ let httpserver = _http.createServer(
 
 session_manager.init_session_manager(httpserver);
 
-let port = 8124;
-httpserver.listen(port);
+function startServer() {
+  httpserver.listen(port);
+  logger.info(`Server listening on: http://localhost:${port}/atompm`);
+  logger.info("```mermaid");
+  logger.info("sequenceDiagram");
+
+  function gracefulShutdown() {
+    logger.info("Gracefully shutting down...");
+    httpserver.close();
+  }
+  process.once('SIGINT', () => {
+    // The Python process belongs to the same process group, and will also receive a SIGINT.
+    // This is not necessary, because we send a SIGTERM to the Python process anyway, but it won't cause us trouble.
+
+    // The next SIGINT will cause a forced exit:
+    process.once('SIGINT', () => {
+      process.exit(1);
+    });
+    logger.info("");
+    logger.info("Received SIGINT. Send another SIGINT to force shutdown.");
+    gracefulShutdown();
+  });
+  process.once('SIGTERM', gracefulShutdown);
+}
 
-logger.info("AToMPM listening on port: " + port);
-logger.info("```mermaid");
-logger.info("sequenceDiagram");
+if (runWithPythonChildProcess) {
+  const {startPythonChildProcess} = require("./pythonrunner");
+  const {endPythonChildProcess} = startPythonChildProcess(startServer);
+  httpserver.on('close', endPythonChildProcess);
+}
+else {
+  // Run without Python as a child process
+  startServer();
+}
 
diff --git a/mt/main.py b/mt/main.py
index 75a3f7b..be547d4 100644
--- a/mt/main.py
+++ b/mt/main.py
@@ -12,9 +12,9 @@
 def main() :
 	logging.basicConfig(format='%(levelname)s - %(message)s', level=logging.INFO)
 
-	print("Starting Model Transformation Server... ")
 	httpd = HTTPServerThread()
 	httpd.start()
+	print("Started Model Transformation Server")
 
 if __name__ == "__main__" :
 	main()
diff --git a/pythonrunner.js b/pythonrunner.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..78e2a16
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pythonrunner.js
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+const childProcess = require("node:child_process");
+const logger = require("./logger");
+
+function startPythonChildProcess(pythonStartedCallback) {
+  const pythonProcess = childProcess.spawn("python", ["mt/main.py"]);
+  pythonProcess.on("exit", (code, signal) => {
+    logger.info("Model Transformation Server exited "
+      + ((code===null) ? ("by signal " + signal) : ("with code " + code.toString())));
+  });
+  const coloredStream = (readableStream, writableStream, colorCode) => {
+    readableStream.on("data", chunk => {
+      writableStream.write("\x1b["+colorCode+"m"); // set color
+      writableStream.write(chunk);
+      writableStream.write("\x1b[0m"); // reset color
+    });
+  };
+  // output of Python process is interleaved with output of this process:
+  coloredStream(pythonProcess.stdout, process.stdout, "33"); // yellow
+  coloredStream(pythonProcess.stderr, process.stderr, "91"); // red
+
+  // Only start the HTTP server after the Transformation Server has started.
+  // When the Python process has written the following string to stdout, we know the transformation server has started:
+  const expectedString = Buffer.from("Started Model Transformation Server\n");
+  let accumulatedOutput = Buffer.alloc(0);
+  function pythonOutputListener(chunk) {
+    accumulatedOutput = Buffer.concat([accumulatedOutput, chunk]);
+
+    if (accumulatedOutput.length >= expectedString.length) {
+      if (accumulatedOutput.subarray(0, expectedString.length).equals(expectedString)) {
+        // No need to keep accumulating pythonProcess" stdout:
+        pythonProcess.stdout.removeListener("data", pythonOutputListener);
+
+        pythonStartedCallback();
+      }
+    }
+  }
+  pythonProcess.stdout.on("data", pythonOutputListener);
+
+  // In case of a forced exit (e.g. uncaught exception), the Python process may still be running, so we force-kill it:
+  process.on("exit", code => {
+    pythonProcess.kill("SIGKILL");
+  });
+
+  return {
+    endPythonChildProcess: () => {
+      pythonProcess.kill("SIGTERM"); // cleanly exit Python process AFTER http server has shut down.
+    },
+  };
+}
+
+module.exports = { startPythonChildProcess };
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/run_AToMPM_local.sh b/run_AToMPM_local.sh
old mode 100755
new mode 100644