diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 0ee4a86..dbeb5a4 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
 build
 .coverage
 htmlcov
+.cache
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 7786419..4c1477a 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -16,6 +16,6 @@ matrix:
 install:
   - pip install -r dev-requirements.txt
 script:
-  - TERM=xterm-256color inv test
+  - inv test
   # I have this in my git pre-push hook, but contributors probably don't
   - flake8
diff --git a/dev-requirements.txt b/dev-requirements.txt
index c839e7b..9df19bb 100644
--- a/dev-requirements.txt
+++ b/dev-requirements.txt
@@ -1,15 +1,16 @@
 # Dev version of Invoke
 invoke>=0.13.0,<2.0
-# Self, for runtime/task dependencies
--e .
 # For packaging
 wheel==0.24
 twine==1.5
 # For testing
-nose==1.3.0
-spec>=1.4.0,<2.0
+pytest-relaxed>=0.1.0,<2
+pytest-cov==2.4.0
 mock==1.0.1
 watchdog==0.8.3
 coverage==3.7.1
 # For linting
 flake8==2.4.0
+
+# Self, for runtime/task dependencies
+-e .
diff --git a/invocations/pytest.py b/invocations/pytest.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8d9eec4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/invocations/pytest.py
@@ -0,0 +1,51 @@
+"""
+Pytest-using variant of testing.py. Will eventually replace the latter.
+"""
+
+from invoke import Collection, task
+
+
+@task
+def test(c, verbose=True, color=True, capture='sys', opts=''):
+    """
+    Run pytest with given options.
+
+    :param bool verbose:
+        Whether to run tests in verbose mode.
+
+    :param bool color:
+        Whether to request colorized output (typically only works when
+        ``verbose=True``.)
+
+    :param str capture:
+        What type of stdout/err capturing pytest should use. Defaults to
+        ``sys`` since pytest's own default, ``fd``, tends to trip up
+        subprocesses trying to detect PTY status. Can be set to ``no`` for no
+        capturing / useful print-debugging / etc.
+
+    :param str opts:
+        Extra runtime options to hand to ``pytest``.
+    """
+    # TODO: really need better tooling around these patterns
+    # TODO: especially the problem of wanting to be configurable, but
+    # sometimes wanting to override one's config via kwargs; and also needing
+    # non-None defaults in the kwargs to inform the parser (or have to
+    # configure it explicitly...?)
+    flags = []
+    if verbose:
+        flags.append('--verbose')
+    if color:
+        flags.append('--color=yes')
+    flags.append('--capture={}'.format(capture))
+    if opts is not None:
+        flags.append(opts)
+    c.run("pytest {}".format(" ".join(flags)), pty=True)
+
+
+@task
+def coverage(c):
+    """
+    Run pytest with coverage enabled.
+
+    Assumes the ``pytest-cov`` pytest plugin is installed.
+    """
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index 455a3aa..f7e9484 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -5,3 +5,7 @@ universal = 1
 exclude = .git,build,dist
 ignore = E124,E125,E128,E261,E301,E302,E303
 max-line-length = 79
+
+[tool:pytest]
+testpaths = tests
+python_files = *
diff --git a/tasks.py b/tasks.py
index aaec7cb..d77033b 100644
--- a/tasks.py
+++ b/tasks.py
@@ -1,28 +1,20 @@
 from invoke import Collection, task
 
 from invocations.packaging import release
-from invocations.testing import test, watch_tests, coverage as coverage_
+from invocations import pytest as pytests
 
 
-# TODO: add coverage at the Travis level as well sometime. For now this is just
-# to help me as I overhaul the release modules
-
-@task
-def coverage(c, html=True):
-    # TODO: can we realistically make use of functools.partial for this sort of
-    # thing?
-    # TODO: is it best left to config option overrides (currently the usual
-    # approach)? Is there stuff we can do to make that even easier?
-    return coverage_(c, html=html, integration_=False)
-
-
-ns = Collection(release, test, watch_tests, coverage)
+ns = Collection(release, pytests.test, pytests.coverage)
 ns.configure({
-    'tests': {
-        'package': 'invocations',
-    },
     'packaging': {
         'sign': True,
         'wheel': True,
     },
+    'run': {
+        'env': {
+            # Our ANSI color tests test against hardcoded codes appropriate for
+            # this terminal, for now.
+            'TERM': 'xterm-256color',
+        },
+    },
 })
diff --git a/tests/console.py b/tests/console.py
index 6c0f7df..88b5ff7 100644
--- a/tests/console.py
+++ b/tests/console.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 from invocations.console import confirm
 
 
-class confirm_(Spec):
+class confirm_:
     @patch('invocations.console.input', return_value='yes')
     def displays_question_with_yes_no_suffix(self, mock_input):
         confirm("Are you sure?")
diff --git a/tests/packaging/release.py b/tests/packaging/release.py
index 4838493..cd8cc91 100644
--- a/tests/packaging/release.py
+++ b/tests/packaging/release.py
@@ -9,7 +9,9 @@
 from invoke.vendor.lexicon import Lexicon
 
 from mock import Mock, patch
-from spec import Spec, trap, skip, eq_, ok_, raises
+# TODO: trap might work as-is but should still be migrated into pytest-relaxed
+# (or find/use existing pytest functionality for same)
+from spec import trap, skip, eq_, ok_, raises
 
 from invocations.packaging.semantic_version_monkey import Version
 
@@ -22,7 +24,7 @@
 )
 
 
-class release_line_(Spec):
+class release_line_:
     def assumes_bugfix_if_release_branch(self):
         c = MockContext(run=Result("2.7"))
         eq_(release_line(c)[1], Release.BUGFIX)
@@ -42,7 +44,7 @@ def is_undefined_if_specific_commit_checkout(self):
         eq_(release_line(c)[1], Release.UNDEFINED)
 
 
-class latest_feature_bucket_(Spec):
+class latest_feature_bucket_:
     def base_case_of_single_release_family(self):
         eq_(
             latest_feature_bucket(dict.fromkeys(['unreleased_1_feature'])),
@@ -74,7 +76,7 @@ def ordering_goes_by_numeric_not_lexical_order(self):
         )
 
 
-class release_and_issues_(Spec):
+class release_and_issues_:
     class bugfix:
         # TODO: factor out into setup() so each test has some excluded/ignored
         # data in it - helps avoid naive implementation returning x[0] etc.
@@ -116,7 +118,7 @@ def undefined_always_returns_None_and_empty_list(self):
         skip()
 
 
-class find_package_(Spec):
+class find_package_:
     def can_be_short_circuited_with_config_value(self):
         # TODO: should we just bundle this + the version part into one
         # function and setting? do we ever peep into the package for anything
@@ -137,7 +139,7 @@ def errors_if_ambiguous_results(self):
         skip()
 
 
-class load_version_(Spec):
+class load_version_:
     def setup(self):
         sys.path.insert(0, support_dir)
 
@@ -167,7 +169,7 @@ def errors_usefully_if_version_module_not_found(self):
         skip()
 
 
-class latest_and_next_version_(Spec):
+class latest_and_next_version_:
     def next_patch_of_bugfix_release(self):
         eq_(
             latest_and_next_version(Lexicon({
@@ -313,7 +315,7 @@ def _expect_actions(self, *actions):
         )
 
 
-class status_(Spec):
+class status_:
     class overall_behavior:
         _branch = '1.1'
         _changelog = 'unreleased_1.1_bugs'
@@ -370,6 +372,9 @@ def returns_lexica_for_reuse(self):
             eq_(found_state.latest_version, Version('1.1.1'))
             eq_(found_state.tags, [Version(x) for x in self._tags])
 
+    # TODO: I got this attribute jazz working in pytest but see if there is a
+    # 'native' pytest feature that works better (while still in conjunction
+    # with nested tasks, ideally)
     class release_line_branch:
         _branch = '1.1'
 
@@ -572,7 +577,7 @@ def _run_all(c, mute=True):
             raise
 
 
-class All(Spec):
+class All:
     "all_" # mehhh
 
     # NOTE: just testing the base case of 'everything needs updating',
@@ -700,7 +705,7 @@ def no_changelog_update_needed_means_no_changelog_edit(self, _):
 # TODO: yes, when I personally went from TERM=xterm-256color to
 # TERM=screen-256color, that made these tests break! Updating test machinery to
 # account for now, but...not ideal!
-class component_state_enums_contain_human_readable_values(Spec):
+class component_state_enums_contain_human_readable_values:
     class changelog:
         def okay(self):
             eq_(