diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3cef7be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+zig-cache/
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 9b1e792..f111c52 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
 # zigrlang
 
-experimenting zig and erlang together, something like rustler?
\ No newline at end of file
+**THIS DOES NOT WORK (yet, i suppose)**
+
+i tried to slap zig and erlang nifs together, didn't work well
+mostly because erlang nifs use c macros that are hell on earth to understand
+and i reached a `TODO` on zig's translate-c which means i won't be really able
+to do many things with this until translate-c is more feature-complete, or
+translate-c-2, you get the point.
diff --git a/build.zig b/build.zig
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c95549c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/build.zig
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+const Builder = @import("std").build.Builder;
+
+pub fn build(b: *Builder) void {
+    const mode = b.standardReleaseOptions();
+    const lib = b.addSharedLibrary(
+        "zigrlang",
+        "src/main.zig",
+        b.version(0, 0, 1),
+    );
+
+    var step = &lib.step;
+
+    lib.setBuildMode(mode);
+
+    lib.linkSystemLibrary("c");
+    lib.addIncludeDir("/lib/erlang/erts-10.4/include");
+
+    var main_tests = b.addTest("src/main.zig");
+    main_tests.setBuildMode(mode);
+
+    const test_step = b.step("test", "Run library tests");
+    test_step.dependOn(&main_tests.step);
+
+    b.default_step.dependOn(step);
+    b.installArtifact(lib);
+}
diff --git a/src/main.zig b/src/main.zig
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c46515c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/main.zig
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+const std = @import("std");
+const testing = std.testing;
+
+const c = @cImport({
+    @cInclude("erl_nif.h");
+});
+
+// https://andrealeopardi.com/posts/using-c-from-elixir-with-nifs/
+
+export fn fast_compare(
+    env: ?*c.ErlNifEnv,
+    argc: c_int,
+    argv: [*c]const c.ERL_NIF_TERM,
+) c.ERL_NIF_TERM {
+    // cool stuff here
+    var a: c_int = undefined;
+    var b: c_int = undefined;
+    var res: c_int = undefined;
+
+    _ = c.enif_get_int(env, argv[0], &a);
+    _ = c.enif_get_int(env, argv[1], &b);
+
+    if (a == b) {
+        res = 0;
+    } else {
+        if (a > b) {
+            res = 1;
+        } else {
+            res = -1;
+        }
+    }
+
+    return c.enif_make_int(env, res);
+}
+
+// this can't be saved
+// i hand-translated the ERL_NIF_INIT macro manually, still reached some
+// bad spots.
+var nif_funcs = []c.ErlNifFunc{c.ErlNifFunc{
+    .name = c"fast_compare",
+    .arity = 2,
+    .fptr = fast_compare,
+    .flags = 0,
+}};
+
+export fn nif_init() *c.ErlNifEntry {
+    comptime var entry: c.ErlNifEntry = c.ErlNifEntry{
+        .major = 10,
+        .minor = 4,
+        .name = c"Elixir.FastCompare",
+        .num_of_funcs = nif_funcs.len,
+        .funcs = @ptrCast([*c]c.ErlNifFunc, &nif_funcs),
+        .load = null,
+        .reload = null,
+        .upgrade = null,
+        .unload = null,
+        .vm_variant = c"beam.vanilla",
+        .options = 1,
+        .sizeof_ErlNifResourceTypeInit = @sizeOf(c.ErlNifResourceTypeInit),
+        .min_erts = c"erts-10.4",
+    };
+
+    return &entry;
+}