diff --git a/tag.sh b/tag.sh
index 85858c6..36770f0 100755
--- a/tag.sh
+++ b/tag.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 set -ueo pipefail
 # usage:
+#   - init - create an empty database
 #   - add (tag|filename) $VALUE - adds a new tag or filename of $VALUE
 #   - list (tags|files) - lists all the values in a table
 #   - bytag $TAG - list all files by tag label
@@ -8,12 +9,17 @@ set -ueo pipefail
 #   - listtags $FILENAME - list all tags for $FILENAME
 
 DB_FILE="tags.db"
+DB_SCHEMA="database.sql"
 
 fail() {
     echo "$1" >&2;
     exit 1
 }
 
+log() {
+    echo "$1"
+}
+
 listtags() {
     # $FILENAME $LIMIT
     [ -z "$1" ] && fail "No filename supplied."
@@ -32,6 +38,13 @@ listtags() {
         $ADDITIONAL_QUERY"
 }
 
+if [[ "$1" = "init" ]]; then
+    [ -f "$DB_FILE" ] && fail "Database file \"$DB_FILE\" already exists. Aborting."
+    cat "$DB_SCHEMA" | sqlite3 "$DB_FILE"
+    log "Empty database file \"$DB_FILE\" created."
+    exit 0
+fi
+
 if [[ "$1" = "add" ]]; then
     shift
     [ "$1" = "tag" ] && TABLE="tags" && COLUMN="label"