diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 5930c96168e..0b87904e40c 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -44,12 +44,12 @@ max = ["max-control", "fast", "gitoxide-core-blocking-client", "http-client-curl
 max-pure = ["max-control", "gix-features/rustsha1", "gix-features/zlib-rust-backend", "http-client-reqwest", "gitoxide-core-blocking-client" ]
 
 ## Like `max`, but with more control for configuration. See the *Package Maintainers* headline for more information.
-max-control = ["fast-safe", "pretty-cli", "gitoxide-core-tools-query", "gitoxide-core-tools", "prodash-render-line", "prodash-render-tui", "prodash/render-line-autoconfigure", "gix/regex" ]
+max-control = ["fast-safe", "pretty-cli", "gitoxide-core-tools-query", "gitoxide-core-tools-corpus", "gitoxide-core-tools", "prodash-render-line", "prodash-render-tui", "prodash/render-line-autoconfigure", "gix/regex" ]
 
 ## All of the good stuff, with less fanciness for smaller binaries.
 ##
 ## As fast as possible, progress line rendering, all transports based on their most mature implementation (HTTP), all `ein` tools, CLI colors and local-time support, JSON output.
-lean = ["fast", "pretty-cli", "http-client-curl", "gitoxide-core-tools-query", "gitoxide-core-tools", "gitoxide-core-blocking-client", "prodash-render-line" ]
+lean = ["fast", "pretty-cli", "http-client-curl", "gitoxide-core-tools-query", "gitoxide-core-tools-corpus", "gitoxide-core-tools", "gitoxide-core-blocking-client", "prodash-render-line" ]
 
 ## The smallest possible build, best suitable for small single-core machines.
 ##
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ small = ["pretty-cli", "gix-features/rustsha1", "gix-features/zlib-rust-backend"
 ##
 ## Due to async client-networking not being implemented for most transports, this one supports only the 'git+tcp' and HTTP transport.
 ## It uses, however, a fully asynchronous networking implementation which can serve a real-world example on how to implement custom async transports.
-lean-async = ["fast", "pretty-cli", "gitoxide-core-tools", "gitoxide-core-tools-query", "gitoxide-core-async-client", "prodash-render-line"]
+lean-async = ["fast", "pretty-cli", "gitoxide-core-tools", "gitoxide-core-tools-query", "gitoxide-core-tools-corpus", "gitoxide-core-async-client", "prodash-render-line"]
 
 #! ### Package Maintainers
 #! `*-control` features leave it to you to configure C libraries, involving choices for `zlib`, ! hashing and transport implementation.
@@ -128,7 +128,10 @@ cache-efficiency-debug = ["gix-features/cache-efficiency-debug"]
 gitoxide-core-tools = ["gitoxide-core/organize", "gitoxide-core/estimate-hours"]
 
 ## A program to perform analytics on a `git` repository, using an auto-maintained sqlite database
-gitoxide-core-tools-query = ["gitoxide-core-tools", "gitoxide-core/query"]
+gitoxide-core-tools-query = ["gitoxide-core/query"]
+
+## A program to run algorithms on a corpus of repositories, recording each run for later comparison.
+gitoxide-core-tools-corpus = ["gitoxide-core/corpus"]
 
 #! ### Building Blocks for mutually exclusive networking
 #! Blocking and async features are mutually exclusive and cause a compile-time error. This also means that `cargo … --all-features` will fail.
diff --git a/gitoxide-core/Cargo.toml b/gitoxide-core/Cargo.toml
index 3dc0dd5ed63..00d8ce20eb9 100644
--- a/gitoxide-core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/gitoxide-core/Cargo.toml
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ organize = ["dep:gix-url", "dep:jwalk"]
 estimate-hours = ["dep:itertools", "dep:fs-err", "dep:crossbeam-channel", "dep:smallvec"]
 ## Gather information about repositories and store it in a database for easy querying.
 query = ["dep:rusqlite"]
+## Run algorithms on a corpus of repositories and store their results for later comparison and intelligence gathering.
+corpus = ["dep:rusqlite"]
 
 #! ### Mutually Exclusive Networking
 #! If both are set, _blocking-client_ will take precedence, allowing `--all-features` to be used.
@@ -66,7 +68,7 @@ fs-err = { version = "2.6.0", optional = true }
 crossbeam-channel = { version = "0.5.6", optional = true }
 smallvec = { version = "1.10.0", optional = true }
 
-# for 'query'
+# for 'query' and 'corpus'
 rusqlite = { version = "0.29.0", optional = true, features = ["bundled"] }
 
 # for svg graph output
diff --git a/gitoxide-core/src/corpus/mod.rs b/gitoxide-core/src/corpus/mod.rs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..cdf53789e42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gitoxide-core/src/corpus/mod.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
+pub struct Engine<P> {
+    progress: P,
+    con: rusqlite::Connection,
+}
+
+pub mod engine {
+    use crate::corpus::Engine;
+    use anyhow::Context;
+    use std::path::PathBuf;
+
+    impl<P> Engine<P>
+    where
+        P: gix::Progress,
+    {
+        /// Open the corpus DB or create it.
+        pub fn open_or_create(db: PathBuf, progress: P) -> anyhow::Result<Engine<P>> {
+            let con = crate::corpus::db::create(db).context("Could not open or create database")?;
+            Ok(Engine { progress, con })
+        }
+
+        /// Run on the existing set of repositories we have already seen or obtain them from `path` if there is none yet.
+        pub fn run(&self, _path: PathBuf) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+            todo!()
+        }
+    }
+}
+
+pub mod db {
+    use anyhow::bail;
+    use rusqlite::{params, OptionalExtension};
+
+    /// A version to be incremented whenever the database layout is changed, to refresh it automatically.
+    const VERSION: usize = 1;
+
+    pub fn create(path: impl AsRef<std::path::Path>) -> anyhow::Result<rusqlite::Connection> {
+        let path = path.as_ref();
+        let con = rusqlite::Connection::open(path)?;
+        let meta_table = r#"
+        CREATE TABLE if not exists meta(
+            version int
+        )"#;
+        con.execute_batch(meta_table)?;
+        let version: Option<usize> = con.query_row("SELECT version FROM meta", [], |r| r.get(0)).optional()?;
+        match version {
+            None => {
+                con.execute("INSERT into meta(version) values(?)", params![VERSION])?;
+            }
+            Some(version) if version != VERSION => match con.close() {
+                Ok(()) => {
+                    bail!("Cannot handle database with version {version}, cannot yet migrate to {VERSION}");
+                }
+                Err((_, err)) => return Err(err.into()),
+            },
+            _ => {}
+        }
+        con.execute_batch(
+            r#"
+        CREATE TABLE if not exists runner(
+            hash blob(20) NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY
+        )
+        "#,
+        )?;
+        // Files are stored as paths which also have an id for referencing purposes
+        con.execute_batch(
+            r#"
+        CREATE TABLE if not exists repository(
+            file_id integer NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY,
+            file_path text UNIQUE
+        )
+        "#,
+        )?;
+        con.execute_batch(
+            r#"
+        CREATE TABLE if not exists run(
+            hash blob(20),
+            file_id text,
+            has_diff boolean NOT NULL,
+            lines_added integer NOT NULL,
+            lines_removed integer NOT NULL,
+            lines_before integer NOT NULL,
+            lines_after integer NOT NULL,
+            mode integer,
+            source_file_id integer,
+            FOREIGN KEY (hash) REFERENCES commits (hash),
+            FOREIGN KEY (file_id) REFERENCES files (file_id),
+            PRIMARY KEY (hash, file_id)
+        )
+        "#,
+        )?;
+
+        Ok(con)
+    }
+}
diff --git a/gitoxide-core/src/lib.rs b/gitoxide-core/src/lib.rs
index ebba4f69b76..58e688ea983 100644
--- a/gitoxide-core/src/lib.rs
+++ b/gitoxide-core/src/lib.rs
@@ -64,6 +64,8 @@ impl FromStr for OutputFormat {
 }
 
 pub mod commitgraph;
+#[cfg(feature = "corpus")]
+pub mod corpus;
 pub mod net;
 
 #[cfg(feature = "estimate-hours")]
diff --git a/src/plumbing/main.rs b/src/plumbing/main.rs
index 115253dd178..e329a6bbf05 100644
--- a/src/plumbing/main.rs
+++ b/src/plumbing/main.rs
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ use gitoxide_core as core;
 use gitoxide_core::pack::verify;
 use gix::bstr::io::BufReadExt;
 
+use crate::plumbing::options::corpus;
 use crate::{
     plumbing::{
         options::{
@@ -128,6 +129,20 @@ pub fn main() -> Result<()> {
     })?;
 
     match cmd {
+        #[cfg(feature = "gitoxide-core-tools-corpus")]
+        Subcommands::Corpus(corpus::Platform { db, path, cmd }) => prepare_and_run(
+            "corpus",
+            auto_verbose,
+            progress,
+            progress_keep_open,
+            None,
+            move |progress, _out, _err| {
+                let engine = core::corpus::Engine::open_or_create(db, progress)?;
+                match cmd {
+                    corpus::SubCommands::Run => engine.run(path),
+                }
+            },
+        ),
         Subcommands::CommitGraph(cmd) => match cmd {
             commitgraph::Subcommands::List { spec } => prepare_and_run(
                 "commitgraph-list",
diff --git a/src/plumbing/options/mod.rs b/src/plumbing/options/mod.rs
index 4a9ce607ae2..a58492d8fe5 100644
--- a/src/plumbing/options/mod.rs
+++ b/src/plumbing/options/mod.rs
@@ -117,11 +117,40 @@ pub enum Subcommands {
     /// Show which git configuration values are used or planned.
     ConfigTree,
     Config(config::Platform),
+    #[cfg(feature = "gitoxide-core-tools-corpus")]
+    Corpus(corpus::Platform),
     /// Subcommands that need no git repository to run.
     #[clap(subcommand)]
     Free(free::Subcommands),
 }
 
+#[cfg(feature = "gitoxide-core-tools-corpus")]
+pub mod corpus {
+    use std::path::PathBuf;
+
+    #[derive(Debug, clap::Parser)]
+    #[command(
+        about = "run algorithms on a corpus of git repositories and store their results for later analysis",
+        version = clap::crate_version!(), // TODO: make this an actual version that is git describe, leverage `gix`
+    )]
+    pub struct Platform {
+        /// The path to the database to read and write depending on the sub-command.
+        #[arg(long, default_value = "corpus.db")]
+        pub db: PathBuf,
+        /// The path to the root of the corpus to search repositories in.
+        #[arg(long, short = 'p', default_value = ".")]
+        pub path: PathBuf,
+        #[clap(subcommand)]
+        pub cmd: SubCommands,
+    }
+
+    #[derive(Debug, clap::Subcommand)]
+    pub enum SubCommands {
+        /// Perform a corpus run on all registered repositories.
+        Run,
+    }
+}
+
 pub mod config {
 
     use gix::bstr::BString;