diff --git a/ara/cli/expire.py b/ara/cli/expire.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8e550f94
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ara/cli/expire.py
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+# Copyright (c) 2020 The ARA Records Ansible authors
+# GNU General Public License v3.0+ (see COPYING or https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt)
+# See https://github.com/ansible-community/ara/issues/26 for rationale on expiring
+
+import logging
+import os
+import sys
+from datetime import datetime, timedelta
+
+from cliff.command import Command
+
+from ara.cli.base import global_arguments
+from ara.clients.utils import get_client
+
+
+class ExpireObjects(Command):
+    """ Expires objects that have been in the running state for too long """
+
+    log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+    expired = 0
+
+    def get_parser(self, prog_name):
+        parser = super(ExpireObjects, self).get_parser(prog_name)
+        parser = global_arguments(parser)
+        # fmt: off
+        parser.add_argument(
+            "--hours",
+            type=int,
+            default=24,
+            help="Expires objects that have been running state for this many hours (default: 24)"
+        )
+        parser.add_argument(
+            "--order",
+            metavar="<order>",
+            default="started",
+            help=(
+                "Orders objects by a field ('id', 'created', 'updated', 'started', 'ended')\n"
+                "Defaults to 'started' descending so the oldest objects would be expired first.\n"
+                "The order can be reversed by using '-': ara expire --order=-started"
+            ),
+        )
+        parser.add_argument(
+            "--limit",
+            metavar="<limit>",
+            default=os.environ.get("ARA_CLI_LIMIT", 200),
+            help=("Only expire the first <limit> determined by the ordering. Defaults to ARA_CLI_LIMIT or 200.")
+        )
+        parser.add_argument(
+            "--confirm",
+            action="store_true",
+            help="Confirm expiration of objects, otherwise runs without expiring any objects",
+        )
+        # fmt: on
+        return parser
+
+    def take_action(self, args):
+        client = get_client(
+            client=args.client,
+            endpoint=args.server,
+            timeout=args.timeout,
+            username=args.username,
+            password=args.password,
+            verify=False if args.insecure else True,
+            run_sql_migrations=False,
+        )
+
+        if not args.confirm:
+            self.log.info("--confirm was not specified, no objects will be expired")
+
+        query = dict(status="running")
+        # generate a timestamp from n days ago in a format we can query the API with
+        # ex: 2019-11-21T00:57:41.702229
+        query["updated_before"] = (datetime.now() - timedelta(hours=args.hours)).isoformat()
+        query["order"] = args.order
+        query["limit"] = args.limit
+
+        endpoints = ["/api/v1/playbooks", "/api/v1/plays", "/api/v1/tasks"]
+        for endpoint in endpoints:
+            objects = client.get(endpoint, **query)
+            self.log.info("Found %s objects matching query on %s" % (objects["count"], endpoint))
+            # TODO: Improve client validation and exception handling
+            if "count" not in objects:
+                # If we didn't get an answer we can parse, it's probably due to an error 500, 403, 401, etc.
+                # The client would have logged the error.
+                self.log.error(
+                    "Client failed to retrieve results, see logs for ara.clients.offline or ara.clients.http."
+                )
+                sys.exit(1)
+
+            for obj in objects["results"]:
+                link = "%s/%s" % (endpoint, obj["id"])
+                if not args.confirm:
+                    self.log.info(
+                        "Dry-run: %s would have been expired, status is running since %s" % (link, obj["updated"])
+                    )
+                else:
+                    self.log.info("Expiring %s, status is running since %s" % (link, obj["updated"]))
+                    client.patch(link, status="expired")
+                    self.expired += 1
+
+        self.log.info("%s objects expired" % self.expired)
diff --git a/doc/source/cli.rst b/doc/source/cli.rst
index 44258acb..d153fd2c 100644
--- a/doc/source/cli.rst
+++ b/doc/source/cli.rst
@@ -9,6 +9,26 @@ ara
 
 .. command-output:: ara --help
 
+ara expire
+----------
+
+.. note::
+
+    This command requires write privileges.
+    You can read more about read and write permissions :ref:`here <api-security:user management>`.
+
+.. command-output:: ara expire --help
+
+Examples:
+
+.. code-block:: bash
+
+    # Return which objects would be expired by ommitting --confirm
+    ara expire
+
+    # Expire running objects without updates faster than the default
+    ara expire --hours 4 --confirm
+
 ara playbook list
 -----------------
 
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index c01b3fdd..290f2c8e 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -35,6 +35,7 @@ console_scripts =
     ara-manage = ara.server.__main__:main
 
 ara.cli =
+    expire = ara.cli.expire:ExpireObjects
     playbook list = ara.cli.playbook:PlaybookList
     playbook show = ara.cli.playbook:PlaybookShow
     playbook delete = ara.cli.playbook:PlaybookDelete