diff --git a/.env.example b/.env.example
index 141dc376b..83290d9f5 100644
--- a/.env.example
+++ b/.env.example
@@ -21,3 +21,6 @@ POSTGRES_PASSWORD="fedireads"
 POSTGRES_USER="postgres"
 POSTGRES_DB="postgres"
 
+RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER=rabbit
+RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS=changeme
+CELERY_BROKER=amqp://rabbit:changeme@rabbitmq:5672
diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index cd56e6ee0..c845035f9 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 FROM python:3
 ENV  PYTHONUNBUFFERED 1
-RUN mkdir /code
-WORKDIR /code
-COPY requirements.txt /code/
+RUN mkdir /app
+WORKDIR /app
+COPY requirements.txt /app/
 RUN pip install -r requirements.txt
-COPY ./fedireads /code
+COPY ./fedireads /app
diff --git a/docker-compose.yml b/docker-compose.yml
index 9545ef94f..6be457262 100644
--- a/docker-compose.yml
+++ b/docker-compose.yml
@@ -6,14 +6,41 @@ services:
         env_file: .env
         volumes:
           - pgdata:/var/lib/posgresql/data
+        networks:
+            - main
     web:
         build: .
         command: python manage.py runserver 0.0.0.0:8000
         volumes:
-            - .:/code
+            - .:/app
         ports:
             - "8000:8000"
         depends_on:
             - db
+            - celery_worker
+        networks:
+            - main
+    rabbitmq:
+        env_file: .env
+        image: rabbitmq:latest
+        networks:
+            - main
+        ports:
+            - "5672:5672"
+        restart: on-failure
+    celery_worker:
+        env_file: .env
+        build: .
+        networks:
+            - main
+        command: celery -A fedireads worker -l info
+        volumes:
+            - .:/app
+        depends_on:
+            - db
+            - rabbitmq
+        restart: on-failure
 volumes:
     pgdata:
+networks:
+    main:
diff --git a/fedireads/__init__.py b/fedireads/__init__.py
index e69de29bb..b23e378a7 100644
--- a/fedireads/__init__.py
+++ b/fedireads/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
+
+# This will make sure the app is always imported when
+# Django starts so that shared_task will use this app.
+from .celery import app as celery_app
+
+__all__ = ('celery_app',)
+
diff --git a/fedireads/celery.py b/fedireads/celery.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..7c26dc069
--- /dev/null
+++ b/fedireads/celery.py
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+from __future__ import absolute_import, unicode_literals
+
+import os
+
+from celery import Celery
+
+# set the default Django settings module for the 'celery' program.
+os.environ.setdefault('DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE', 'fedireads.settings')
+
+app = Celery('fedireads')
+
+# Using a string here means the worker doesn't have to serialize
+# the configuration object to child processes.
+# - namespace='CELERY' means all celery-related configuration keys
+#   should have a `CELERY_` prefix.
+app.config_from_object('django.conf:settings', namespace='CELERY')
+
+# Load task modules from all registered Django app configs.
+app.autodiscover_tasks()
+
+
+@app.task(bind=True)
+def debug_task(self):
+    print('Request: {0!r}'.format(self.request))
diff --git a/fedireads/settings.py b/fedireads/settings.py
index 65d86d50d..7612b716a 100644
--- a/fedireads/settings.py
+++ b/fedireads/settings.py
@@ -17,11 +17,15 @@ SECRET_KEY = env('SECRET_KEY')
 # SECURITY WARNING: don't run with debug turned on in production!
 DEBUG = env.bool('DEBUG', True)
 
-# TODO: annoying that I keep changing and re-commiting this
 DOMAIN = env('DOMAIN')
 ALLOWED_HOSTS = env.list('ALLOWED_HOSTS', ['*'])
 OL_URL = env('OL_URL')
 
+# celery/rebbitmq
+CELERY_BROKER_URL = env('CELERY_BROKER')
+CELERY_ACCEPT_CONTENT = ['json']
+CELERY_TASK_SERIALIZER = 'json'
+
 # Application definition
 
 INSTALLED_APPS = [
@@ -33,6 +37,7 @@ INSTALLED_APPS = [
     'django.contrib.staticfiles',
     'django.contrib.humanize',
     'fedireads',
+    'celery',
 ]
 
 MIDDLEWARE = [
@@ -75,7 +80,7 @@ DATABASES = {
         'ENGINE': 'django.db.backends.postgresql_psycopg2',
         'NAME': 'postgres',
         'USER': 'postgres',
-        'PASSWORD': '"%s"' % env('POSTGRES_PASSWORD', 'fedireads'),
+        'PASSWORD': '%s' % env('POSTGRES_PASSWORD', 'fedireads'),
         'HOST': 'db',
         'PORT': 5432
     }
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 1320435c7..0375a27de 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+celery==4.4.2
 Django==3.0.3
 django-model-utils==4.0.0
 environs==7.2.0