diff --git a/src/dodb.cl b/src/dodb.cl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..738b5ef
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/dodb.cl
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+(defpackage :dodb
+  (:use :common-lisp :util)
+  ; TODO
+  (:export
+     :db/new           ; new database
+     :db/new-index     ; symlinks based on an unique ID
+     :db/new-partition ; symlinks based on a shared ID
+    ))
+(in-package dodb)
+
+; TODO: equivalent in Crystal
+; cars = DODB::DataBase(Car).new "./storage"
+; cars_by_name = cars.new_index "name", &.name
+; cars_by_name.get "foo"
+; cars_by_name.update "blah", new-car
+; cars_by_name.delete "blah"
+;
+; car = Car.new "Mustang", "red", [] of String
+; cars_by_name.update_or_create car.name, car
+
+; TODO
+; (setf cars (db/new :structure car :directory "./storage"))
+; (setf cars_by_name (db/new-index cars "name"))
+; (db/get-by-index cars "name" "foo"))
+; (setf cars_by_name (db/new-index cars "name" (optional: (lambda (x) (car-name x)))))
diff --git a/src/util.cl b/src/util.cl
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..40332d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/util.cl
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+; (make-package :ut)
+; (in-package :ut)
+(defpackage :util
+  (:use :common-lisp)
+  (:nicknames :ut)
+  (:export :write-object-to-file
+           :read-file
+           :read-object-from-file))
+(in-package util)
+
+(defun read-file (infile)
+  (with-open-file (instream infile
+                            :direction :input
+                            :if-does-not-exist nil)
+    (when instream 
+      (let ((string (make-string (file-length instream))))
+        (read-sequence string instream)
+          string))))
+
+(defun read-object-from-file (infile)
+  (read-from-string (read-file infile)))
+
+(defun write-object-to-file (object outfile)
+  (with-open-file (my-file outfile
+                           :direction :output
+                           :if-exists :supersede
+                           :if-does-not-exist :create)
+      (format my-file "~&~S~&" object)))