diff --git a/src/webserver/config/db.php b/src/webserver/config/db.php
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b9557d3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/webserver/config/db.php
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+<?php
+
+// this file configures the database connection
+// and initializes the database if it does not 
+// already exist
+
+// the database file itself, located in the 'db/sqlite' directory of this repo
+$db_file = realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../../../db/sqlite/') . "/wander.sqlite";
+
+// if the file doesn't exist, we need to populate it with the initial data schema
+$populate = false;
+
+if (!file_exists($db_file)) {
+    $populate = true;
+}
+
+$conn = new SQLite3($db_file);
+
+// check for errors opening the database
+if (!$conn) {
+    error_log("Failed opening sqlite database: " . $conn->lastErrorMsg());
+}
+
+$conn->exec('PRAGMA journal_mode = wal;');
+$conn->exec('PRAGMA synchronous = NORMAL;');
+
+if ($populate) {
+    // load the initial schema
+    $schema_file = realpath(dirname(__FILE__) . '/../../../db/sqlite/20240506-initialize-db.sql');
+    $sql = file_get_contents($schema_file) or die("cannot get file contents for " . $schema_file);
+
+    $conn->exec($sql);
+}
+
+?>