diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7013b0a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+env:
+	virtualenv -p python3 env
+	./env/bin/pip install -r requirements.txt
+
+run: env
+	./env/bin/python -m minitor.main
diff --git a/minitor/__init__.py b/minitor/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/minitor/main.py b/minitor/main.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a9a36cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/minitor/main.py
@@ -0,0 +1,39 @@
+from subprocess import CalledProcessError
+from subprocess import check_call
+
+import yamlenv
+
+# TODO: validate on start
+
+def get_config(path):
+    """Loads config from a YAML file with env interpolation"""
+    with open(path, 'r') as yaml:
+        contents = yaml.read()
+        return yamlenv.load(contents)
+
+
+def check_monitor(monitor):
+    cmd = monitor.get('command', [])
+    if cmd:
+        check_call(cmd, shell=isinstance(cmd, str))
+
+
+def alert_for_monitor(monitor, alerts):
+    for alert_name in monitor.get('alerts', []):
+        cmd = alerts.get(alert_name, {}).get('command', [])
+        if cmd:
+           check_call(cmd, shell=isinstance(cmd, str))
+
+
+def main():
+    # TODO: get config file off command line
+    config = get_config('./sample-config.yml')
+    alerts = config.get('alerts', {})
+    for monitor in config.get('monitors', []):
+        try:
+            check_monitor(monitor)
+        except CalledProcessError:
+            alert_for_monitor(monitor, alerts)
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    main()
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e315c16
--- /dev/null
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+yamlenv
diff --git a/sample-config.yml b/sample-config.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c1f6b83
--- /dev/null
+++ b/sample-config.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+monitors:
+  - name: View
+    command: [ 'curl', 'https://localhost:5000' ]
+    # environment:
+    #   PATH: ${PATH}
+    alerts: [ email, sms ]
+    # other settings from other health check apps like interval and back off
+
+alerts:
+  email:
+    command: echo 'Send an email'
+  sms:
+    command: echo 'Send an SMS'
+
+federation:
+  - location: https://host1.com
+    client_key: keyfromhost1
+    server_key: keyhost1uses
+    alerts: [ sms ]