diff --git a/app.py b/app.py
index a7508c4..c4083c9 100644
--- a/app.py
+++ b/app.py
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ Module to contain all the project's Flask server plumbing.
 from flask import Flask
 from flask import render_template, session
 
-from bitshift import *
+from bitshift.query import parse_query
 
 app = Flask(__name__)
 app.config.from_object("bitshift.config")
@@ -18,5 +18,11 @@ app_env.globals.update(assets = assets)
 def index():
     return render_template("index.html")
 
+@app.route("/search/<query>")
+def search(query):
+    ## tree = parse_query(query)
+    ## database.search(tree)
+    pass
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     app.run()
diff --git a/bitshift/codelet.py b/bitshift/codelet.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..df81294
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bitshift/codelet.py
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+__all__ = ["Codelet"]
+
+class Codelet(object):
+    ## object to store the following (it doesn't need to do anything with it):
+    ## author name, URL, date created/modified, language, source code itself
+    ## for VCS: project name, file in project
+    ## also: list of functions, etc (associations data)
+
+    ## DICTIONARY MAPPING STRINGS REPRESENTING ASSOCIATION TYPE WITH DICTIONARIES
+    ## MAPPING ASSOCIATION NAMES WITH TUPLES REPRESENTING THEIR PLACE IN THE FILE
+    ## STORED AS TWO INTEGERS REPRESENTING THE ROW AND THE COLUMN
+
+    ## {"functions": {"foo": (12, 13), "bar": (53, 3)}}
diff --git a/bitshift/database.py b/bitshift/database.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b8995ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bitshift/database.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+"""
+Module with classes and functions to handle communication with the MySQL
+database backend, which manages the search index.
+"""
+
+import oursql
+
+class Database(object):
+    """Represents the MySQL database."""
+
+    def __init__(self):
+        pass
+
+    def _connect(self):
+        pass
+
+    def _create(self):
+        pass
diff --git a/bitshift/parser/__init__.py b/bitshift/parser/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/bitshift/query/__init__.py b/bitshift/query/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7d6e0d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bitshift/query/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+from .association import Association
+from .node import Node
+from .tree import Tree
+
+__all__ = ["parse_query"]
+
+def parse_query(query):
+    # gets a string, returns a Tree
+    pass