diff --git a/migrate/versioning/api.py b/migrate/versioning/api.py
index fe45734..a208d8c 100644
--- a/migrate/versioning/api.py
+++ b/migrate/versioning/api.py
@@ -29,25 +29,26 @@ from migrate.versioning import (exceptions, repository, schema, version,
 from migrate.versioning.util import catch_known_errors, construct_engine
 
 
-__all__ = [
-    'help',
-    'create',
-    'script',
-    'script_sql',
-    'make_update_script_for_model',
-    'version',
-    'source',
-    'version_control',
-    'db_version',
-    'upgrade',
-    'downgrade',
-    'drop_version_control',
-    'manage',
-    'test',
-    'compare_model_to_db',
-    'create_model',
-    'update_db_from_model',
-]
+command_desc = {
+    'help': 'displays help on a given command',
+    'create': 'create an empty repository at the specified path',
+    'script': 'create an empty change Python script',
+    'script_sql': 'create empty change SQL scripts for given database',
+    'version': 'display the latest version available in a repository',
+    'db_version': 'show the current version of the repository under version control',
+    'source': 'display the Python code for a particular version in this repository',
+    'version_control': 'mark a database as under this repository\'s version control',
+    'upgrade': 'upgrade a database to a later version',
+    'downgrade': 'downgrade a database to an earlier version',
+    'drop_version_control': 'removes version control from a database',
+    'manage': 'creates a Python script that runs Migrate with a set of default values',
+    'test': 'performs the upgrade and downgrade command on the given database',
+    'compare_model_to_db': 'compare MetaData against the current database state',
+    'create_model': 'dump the current database as a Python model to stdout',
+    'make_update_script_for_model': 'create a script changing the old MetaData to the new (current) MetaData',
+    'update_db_from_model': 'modify the database to match the structure of the current MetaData',
+}
+__all__ = command_desc.keys()
 
 Repository = repository.Repository
 ControlledSchema = schema.ControlledSchema
diff --git a/migrate/versioning/shell.py b/migrate/versioning/shell.py
index 3fa1478..78e0e5d 100644
--- a/migrate/versioning/shell.py
+++ b/migrate/versioning/shell.py
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+#!/usr/bin/python
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
 """The migrate command-line tool."""
 
 import sys
@@ -58,13 +61,13 @@ def main(argv=None, **kwargs):
     commands = list(api.__all__)
     commands.sort()
 
-    usage = """%%prog COMMAND ...
+    usage = u"""%%prog COMMAND ...
 
     Available commands:
         %s
 
     Enter "%%prog help COMMAND" for information on a particular command.
-    """ % '\n\t'.join(commands)
+    """ % '\n\t'.join([u"%s — %s" % (command.ljust(28), api.command_desc.get(command)) for command in commands])
 
     parser = PassiveOptionParser(usage=usage)
     parser.add_option("-v", "--verbose", action="store_true", dest="verbose")
diff --git a/migrate/versioning/templates/manage/default.py_tmpl b/migrate/versioning/templates/manage/default.py_tmpl
index 37c23bd..cc4d0e8 100644
--- a/migrate/versioning/templates/manage/default.py_tmpl
+++ b/migrate/versioning/templates/manage/default.py_tmpl
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ from migrate.versioning.shell import main
 {{py:
 _vars = locals().copy()
 del _vars['__template_name__']
-_vars.pop('repository_name')
+_vars.pop('repository_name', None)
 defaults = ", ".join(["%s='%s'" % var for var in _vars.iteritems()])
 }}
 main({{ defaults }})