diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..50043eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+server/target/
diff --git a/server/Cargo.lock b/server/Cargo.lock
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b650552
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/Cargo.lock
@@ -0,0 +1,184 @@
+# This file is automatically @generated by Cargo.
+# It is not intended for manual editing.
+version = 4
+
+[[package]]
+name = "equivalent"
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+ "hashbrown",
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+]
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+[[package]]
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+ "itoa",
+ "memchr",
+ "ryu",
+ "serde",
+ "serde_core",
+]
+
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+ "proc-macro2",
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+ "unicode-ident",
+]
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+ "indexmap",
+ "serde_core",
+ "serde_spanned",
+ "toml_datetime",
+ "toml_parser",
+ "toml_writer",
+ "winnow",
+]
+
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+ "serde_core",
+]
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+[[package]]
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+ "winnow",
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+
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+version = "0.0.1"
+dependencies = [
+ "serde",
+ "serde_json",
+ "toml",
+]
+
+[[package]]
+name = "winnow"
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+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
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diff --git a/server/Cargo.toml b/server/Cargo.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9ef1a1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/Cargo.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+[package]
+name = "wgu"
+authors = ["sel <sel@selstacker.space>"]
+version = "0.0.1"
+edition = "2024"
+
+[dependencies]
+serde = { version = "*", features = ["derive"] }
+serde_json = "1.0.145"
+toml = "0.9.8"
diff --git a/server/src/lib.rs b/server/src/lib.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3130634
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/lib.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,58 @@
+pub mod modules;
+pub mod types;
+use crate::modules::{ModuleItem, item_registry};
+use crate::types::{ObjectInstance, ObjectTemplate};
+
+use serde_json::{Value, json};
+
+impl ObjectInstance {
+    pub fn validate(obj: &ObjectInstance) -> Result<(), String> {
+        let modules = item_registry();
+        let object_type = &obj.object_type;
+
+        let template: ObjectTemplate = match modules.get(object_type.as_str()) {
+            Some(ModuleItem::Template(template_str)) => toml::from_str(template_str).unwrap(),
+            Some(_) => panic!("{} is not a ModuleItem::Template", object_type),
+            None => return Err(format!("template {} doesn't exist", object_type))
+        };
+
+        match modules.get(format!("{}:func:validator", object_type).as_str()) {
+            Some(ModuleItem::Validator(validate)) => validate(&obj)?,
+            Some(_) => panic!("{}:func:validator is not a ModuleItem::Validator", object_type),
+            None => (),
+        };
+
+        for (name, property) in template.input {
+            for transform in property.transforms {
+                let destination = transform.split(":").collect::<Vec<&str>>();
+
+                let temp_object = ObjectInstance {
+                    object_type: destination[0].to_string(),
+                    input: json!({
+                        destination[1]: obj.input.get(&name)
+                    }),
+                    ..ObjectInstance::default()
+                };
+                
+                match modules.get(format!("{}:func:validator", &destination[0]).as_str()) {
+                    Some(ModuleItem::Validator(validate)) => validate(&temp_object)?,
+                    Some(_) => panic!("{}:func:validator is not a ModuleItem::Validator", object_type),
+                    None => ()
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+        Ok(())
+    }
+
+    pub fn from_template(object_type: &str, input: Value) -> Result<Self, String> {
+        let instance = ObjectInstance {
+            object_type: object_type.to_string(),
+            input: json!(input),
+            ..ObjectInstance::default()
+        };
+
+        ObjectInstance::validate(&instance)?;
+        Ok(instance)
+    }
+}
diff --git a/server/src/main.rs b/server/src/main.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f07628e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/main.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+use serde_json::json;
+use wgu::types::ObjectInstance;
+use wgu::modules::{ModuleItem, item_registry};
+
+fn main() -> Result<(), String> {
+    let modules = item_registry();
+
+    // change these!
+    let object_type = "meta/text";
+    let input = json!({
+        "value": "owo"
+    });
+    let function = "local";
+
+    // this creates a new object instance
+    let some_object = ObjectInstance::from_template(object_type, input)?;
+
+    println!("this is an object:");
+    println!("{:?}", some_object);
+    println!("");
+
+    // this runs a function on it to calculate other properties
+    let some_object_with_data = match modules.get(format!("{}:func:{}", object_type, function).as_str()) {
+        Some(ModuleItem::Calculator(calc)) => calc(&some_object)?,
+        Some(_) => return Err(format!("if you're trying to run a ModuleItem::Function and not a ModuleItem::Calculator, you'll have to add the match arm for that")),
+        None => {
+            println!("the ModuleItem `{}:func:{}` doesn't exist. this is not necessarily bad in this example (if you changed `object_type`)", object_type, function);
+            some_object.clone() // does nothing(?) i hope
+        }
+    };
+
+    println!("this is the same object with data:");
+    println!("{:?}", some_object_with_data);
+
+    Ok(())
+}
diff --git a/server/src/modules.rs b/server/src/modules.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..feae52c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/modules.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+use crate::ObjectInstance;
+use std::collections::HashMap;
+
+pub mod meta;
+
+pub enum ModuleItem {
+    Template(&'static str),
+    Validator(fn(&ObjectInstance) -> Result<(), String>),
+    Calculator(fn(&ObjectInstance) -> Result<ObjectInstance, String>),
+    Function(fn(
+        inputs: HashMap<&str, &ObjectInstance>,
+        params: Option<HashMap<&str, &ObjectInstance>>
+    ) -> Result<HashMap<String, ObjectInstance>, String>)
+}
+
+pub fn item_registry() -> HashMap<&'static str, ModuleItem> {
+    let mut map = HashMap::new();
+    map.extend(meta::registry());
+    map
+}
diff --git a/server/src/modules/meta.rs b/server/src/modules/meta.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..31590d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/modules/meta.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+use crate::modules::ModuleItem;
+use std::collections::HashMap;
+
+pub mod dummy;
+pub mod text;
+
+pub fn registry() -> HashMap<&'static str, ModuleItem> {
+    let mut map = HashMap::new();
+    map.insert("meta/dummy", ModuleItem::Template(dummy::TEMPLATE));
+    map.insert("meta/text", ModuleItem::Template(text::TEMPLATE));
+    map.insert("meta/text:func:validator", ModuleItem::Validator(text::validate));
+    map.insert("meta/text:func:local", ModuleItem::Calculator(text::local));
+    map
+}
diff --git a/server/src/modules/meta/dummy.rs b/server/src/modules/meta/dummy.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ad3b8bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/modules/meta/dummy.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+pub const TEMPLATE: &str = r#"[input.value]
+transforms = ["meta/text:value"]
+subobjects = []
+duplicates = false
+"#;
diff --git a/server/src/modules/meta/text.rs b/server/src/modules/meta/text.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3270fb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/modules/meta/text.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+use serde_json::json;
+use crate::ObjectInstance;
+
+pub const TEMPLATE: &str = r#"
+[input.value]
+transforms = []
+subobjects = []
+conditions = []
+duplicates = false
+
+[local.length]
+transforms = ["meta/number:value"]
+subobjects = []
+conditions = []
+duplicates = false
+"#;
+
+pub fn validate(obj: &ObjectInstance) -> Result<(), String> {
+    let value = obj.input.get("value")
+        .ok_or("input.value must exist")?;
+
+    let _value = value.as_str()
+        .ok_or("input.value must be a string")?;
+
+    Ok(())
+}
+
+pub fn local(obj: &ObjectInstance) -> Result<ObjectInstance, String> {
+    let value = obj.input.get("value")
+        .ok_or("input.value must exist")?;
+
+    let value = value.as_str()
+        .ok_or("input.value must be a string")?;
+
+    let mut new = obj.clone();
+    new.local = json!({
+        "length": value.len()
+    });
+
+    Ok(new)
+}
diff --git a/server/src/types.rs b/server/src/types.rs
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2e627e8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/server/src/types.rs
@@ -0,0 +1,48 @@
+use serde::{Deserialize, Serialize};
+use serde_json::Value;
+use std::collections::HashMap;
+
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug, Default, Clone)]
+pub struct ObjectInstance {
+    pub version: u32,
+    pub variant: u32,
+    pub plotted: bool,
+    pub created: String,
+    pub edited: String,
+    pub hashed: String,
+    pub input_sha256: String,
+    pub full_sha256: String,
+    pub object_type: String,
+    pub logs: Vec<Log>,
+    pub input: Value,
+    pub local: Value,
+    pub remote: Value
+}
+
+// part of ObjectInstance
+#[derive(Serialize, Deserialize, Debug, Clone)]
+pub struct Log {
+    level: String,
+    variant: String,
+    timestamp: String,
+    message: String,
+}
+
+#[derive(Deserialize, Debug, Default)]
+#[serde(default)]
+pub struct ObjectTemplate {
+    pub input: HashMap<String, TemplateProperty>,
+    pub local: HashMap<String, TemplateProperty>,
+    pub remote: HashMap<String, TemplateProperty>,
+}
+
+// part of ObjectTemplate
+#[derive(Deserialize, Debug, Default)]
+#[serde(default)]
+pub struct TemplateProperty {
+    pub transforms: Vec<String>,
+    pub subobjects: Vec<String>,
+    pub conditions: Vec<[String; 2]>,
+    pub duplicates: bool
+}
+