diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 2d8aecc..60850d3 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -14,5 +14,5 @@ currently, there's no reason to run this except for development. however, if you
 
 1. clone the repository
 2. copy `src/toastbin/config.sample.json` to `src/toastbin/config.json` 
-3. install dependencies (currently, we just need `flask` but this almost absoultely will change)
+3. install dependencies (currently, we just need `flask` and `sqlalchemy` from python and `postgresql` from the system repos but this almost absoultely will change)
 4. run `src/toastbin/app.py` (`python3 src/toastbin/app.py`)
diff --git a/src/toastbin/database.py b/src/toastbin/database.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39c97f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/toastbin/database.py
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+import sqlalchemy
+
+engine = sqlalchemy.create_engine('postgresql://') # todo: finish this, give users options maybe