diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index b3cd26e88..519c8e235 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -10,3 +10,7 @@ RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y gettext libgettextpo-dev tidy && apt-ge
 
 COPY requirements.txt /app/
 RUN pip install -r requirements.txt --no-cache-dir
+ADD . /app
+
+
+ENTRYPOINT [ "/app/bookwyrm/setup.sh" ]
diff --git a/bookwyrm/setup.sh b/bookwyrm/setup.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..6b2bd978b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/bookwyrm/setup.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+# Perform initial setup so that the users don't have to
+# This should only be done in the web container;
+# the celery and flower containers should wait for the canary to exist
+
+CANARY=/app/static/.dbinit_done
+
+info() { echo >&2 "$*" ; }
+die() { echo >&2 "$*" ; exit 1 ; }
+
+if [ "$1" == "exit" ]; then
+	info "**** base container exiting"
+	exit 0
+fi
+
+if [ -z "$DB_INIT" ]; then
+	while [ ! -r "$CANARY" ]; do
+		info "**** Waiting for database and migrations to finish"
+		sleep 10
+	done
+elif [ ! -r "$CANARY" ]; then
+	info "**** Doing initial setup!"
+	python manage.py migrate || die "failed to migrate"
+	python manage.py migrate django_celery_beat || die "failed to migrate django"
+	python manage.py initdb || die "failed to initdb"
+	python manage.py collectstatic --no-input || die "failed to collect static"
+        python manage.py admin_code
+
+	info "**** Done with initial setup!"
+	touch "$CANARY"
+fi
+
+exec bash -c "$*"