diff --git a/pydebmirror/cli2.py b/pydebmirror/cli2.py
index 03b4a64..858d61c 100644
--- a/pydebmirror/cli2.py
+++ b/pydebmirror/cli2.py
@@ -152,7 +152,7 @@ class Repoline:
         if line[0].startswith("["):
             line.pop(0)
 
-        # assume amd64 for now
+        #TODO assume amd64 for now
         arch = "amd64"
 
         # now we have the base url
@@ -310,10 +310,62 @@ def cmd_mirror(args, parser):
     - containing a subset of packages based on some query
     - containing a subset of packages matching an existing repo
     """
+    repo = Repo(args.database)
 
     # filter the packages
+    #TODO
+    package_query = """SELECT * FROM repo_package;"""
+    package_query_params = ()
+
+    from collections import defaultdict
+    # (dist,component) -> list((name,arch,version))
+    packages = defaultdict(list)
+
+    with closing(repo.db.cursor()) as c:
+        c.execute(package_query, package_query_params)
+        for row in c:
+            packages[(row["dist"], row["component"], )].append(
+                (row["arch"], row["name"], row["version"], ))
+
+    packages = dict(packages)
 
     # build the metadata files
+    """
+    we need to build a structure like:
+
+    /pool/<component>/<letter>/<source>/whatever.deb
+        * source is a field in the package's metadata
+        TODO add it to the db
+
+    and
+
+    /dists/<dist>/
+        Release  (hashes of everything in ./<component/)
+        InRelease (the above, but as a gpg signed message)
+        Release.gpg  (pgp signature for Release file)
+        Contents-<arch>.gz
+            (optional? Some kind of index of package contents)
+            we'll need to skip it for now anyways as we aren't importing it
+
+    /dists/<dist>/<component>/<arch>/
+        Release  (very small identifier file)
+        Packages (the metadata of all the packages we'll include)
+
+    procedure:
+
+    for each component:
+        for each package:
+            link the package file into place, if needed
+
+    for each dist:
+        for each component:
+            for each arch:
+                generate Packages file
+        generate the Release / InRelease metadata file
+    """
+
+    import pdb
+    pdb.set_trace()
 
     # sign the files
 
@@ -340,11 +392,25 @@ def cmd_import(args, parser):
         r.import_source_packages(line)
 
 
+def cmd_shell(args, parser):
+    repo = Repo(args.database)
+    import pdb
+    pdb.set_trace()
+    pass
+
+
 def main():
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description="apt repo mirroring tool")
     parser.add_argument("--database", required=True, help="package database path")
 
     sp_action = parser.add_subparsers(dest="action", help="action to take")
+
+    p_shell = sp_action.add_parser("shell", help="interactive shell")
+    p_shell.set_defaults(func=cmd_shell)
+
+    p_mirror = sp_action.add_parser("mirror", help="deploy a repo")
+    p_mirror.set_defaults(func=cmd_mirror)
+
     p_ingest = sp_action.add_parser("ingest", help="import packages from existing repos")
     p_ingest.set_defaults(func=cmd_import)