diff --git a/api/FilterLists.API/FilterLists.API.csproj b/api/FilterLists.API/FilterLists.API.csproj
index c1560800b..1ad66a36e 100644
--- a/api/FilterLists.API/FilterLists.API.csproj
+++ b/api/FilterLists.API/FilterLists.API.csproj
@@ -17,5 +17,8 @@
   <ItemGroup>
     <DotNetCliToolReference Include="Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Tools" Version="1.0.0" />
   </ItemGroup>
+  <ItemGroup>
+    <ProjectReference Include="..\FilterLists.Data\FilterLists.Data.csproj" />
+  </ItemGroup>
 
 </Project>
diff --git a/api/FilterLists.API/Startup.cs b/api/FilterLists.API/Startup.cs
index fdeacc976..b3f01609d 100644
--- a/api/FilterLists.API/Startup.cs
+++ b/api/FilterLists.API/Startup.cs
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
-using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
+using FilterLists.Data;
+using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder;
 using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Hosting;
+using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Infrastructure;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
+using MySQL.Data.EntityFrameworkCore;
 
 namespace FilterLists.API
 {
@@ -24,6 +27,10 @@ public Startup(IHostingEnvironment env)
         public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
         {
             // Add framework services.
+            services.AddEntityFramework()
+                .AddEntityFrameworkMySQL()
+                .AddDbContext<FilterListsContext>(options =>
+                    options.UseMySQL(ConnectionString));
             services.AddMvc();
         }
 
diff --git a/api/FilterLists.Data/FilterListsContext.cs b/api/FilterLists.Data/FilterListsContext.cs
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9b46270ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/api/FilterLists.Data/FilterListsContext.cs
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+using FilterLists.Models;
+using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
+
+namespace FilterLists.Data
+{
+    public class FilterListsContext : DbContext
+    {
+        public FilterListsContext(DbContextOptions options)
+            : base(options)
+        {
+        }
+
+        public FilterListsContext()
+        {
+        }
+
+        public DbSet<List> Lists { get; set; }
+    }
+}
\ No newline at end of file