diff --git a/src/flexilib-interface.zig b/src/flexilib-interface.zig
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..43160e9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/flexilib-interface.zig
@@ -0,0 +1,140 @@
+const std = @import("std");
+
+// C interfaces between main and libraries
+pub const Header = extern struct {
+    name_ptr: [*]u8,
+    name_len: usize,
+
+    value_ptr: [*]u8,
+    value_len: usize,
+};
+pub const Response = extern struct {
+    ptr: [*]u8,
+    len: usize,
+
+    headers: [*]Header,
+    headers_len: usize,
+};
+
+pub const Request = extern struct {
+    method: [*:0]u8,
+    method_len: usize,
+
+    content: [*]u8,
+    content_len: usize,
+
+    headers: [*]Header,
+    headers_len: usize,
+};
+
+// If the library is Zig, we can use these helpers
+threadlocal var allocator: ?*std.mem.Allocator = null;
+
+const log = std.log.scoped(.interface);
+
+pub const ZigRequest = struct {
+    method: [:0]u8,
+    content: []u8,
+    headers: []Header,
+};
+
+pub const ZigHeader = struct {
+    name: []u8,
+    value: []u8,
+};
+
+pub const ZigResponse = struct {
+    body: *std.ArrayList(u8),
+    headers: *std.StringHashMap([]const u8),
+};
+
+pub const ZigRequestHandler = *const fn (std.mem.Allocator, ZigRequest, ZigResponse) anyerror!void;
+
+/// This function is optional and can be exported by zig libraries for
+/// initialization. If exported, it will be called once in the beginning of
+/// a request and will be provided a pointer to std.mem.Allocator, which is
+/// useful for reusing the parent allocator. If you're planning on using
+/// the handleRequest helper below, you must use zigInit or otherwise
+/// set the interface allocator in your own version of zigInit
+pub fn zigInit(parent_allocator: *anyopaque) callconv(.C) void {
+    allocator = @ptrCast(@alignCast(parent_allocator));
+}
+
+pub fn toZigHeader(header: Header) ZigHeader {
+    return .{
+        .name = header.name_ptr[0..header.name_len],
+        .value = header.value_ptr[0..header.value_len],
+    };
+}
+
+/// Converts a StringHashMap to the structure necessary for passing through the
+/// C boundary. This will be called automatically for you via the handleRequest function
+/// and is also used by the main processing loop to coerce request headers
+fn toHeaders(alloc: std.mem.Allocator, headers: std.StringHashMap([]const u8)) ![*]Header {
+    var header_array = try std.ArrayList(Header).initCapacity(alloc, headers.count());
+    var iterator = headers.iterator();
+    while (iterator.next()) |kv| {
+        header_array.appendAssumeCapacity(.{
+            .name_ptr = @constCast(kv.key_ptr.*).ptr,
+            .name_len = kv.key_ptr.*.len,
+
+            .value_ptr = @constCast(kv.value_ptr.*).ptr,
+            .value_len = kv.value_ptr.*.len,
+        });
+    }
+    return header_array.items.ptr;
+}
+
+/// handles a request, implementing the C interface to communicate between the
+/// main program and a zig library. Most importantly, it will catch/report
+/// errors appropriately and allow zig code to use standard Zig error semantics
+pub fn handleRequest(request: *Request, zigRequestHandler: ZigRequestHandler) ?*Response {
+    // TODO: implement another library in C or Rust or something to show
+    // that anything using a C ABI can be successful
+    var alloc = if (allocator) |a| a.* else {
+        log.err("zigInit not called prior to handle_request. This is a coding error", .{});
+        return null;
+    };
+
+    // setup response body
+    var response = std.ArrayList(u8).init(alloc);
+
+    // setup headers
+    var headers = std.StringHashMap([]const u8).init(alloc);
+    zigRequestHandler(
+        alloc,
+        .{
+            .method = request.method[0..request.method_len :0],
+            .content = request.content[0..request.content_len],
+            .headers = request.headers[0..request.headers_len],
+        },
+        .{
+            .body = &response,
+            .headers = &headers,
+        },
+    ) catch |e| {
+        log.err("Unexpected error processing request: {any}", .{e});
+        if (@errorReturnTrace()) |trace| {
+            std.debug.dumpStackTrace(trace.*);
+        }
+        return null;
+    };
+
+    // Marshall data back for handling by server
+
+    var rc = alloc.create(Response) catch {
+        log.err("Could not allocate memory for response object. This may be fatal", .{});
+        return null;
+    };
+    rc.ptr = response.items.ptr;
+    rc.len = response.items.len;
+    rc.headers = toHeaders(alloc, headers) catch |e| {
+        log.err("Unexpected error processing request: {any}", .{e});
+        if (@errorReturnTrace()) |trace| {
+            std.debug.dumpStackTrace(trace.*);
+        }
+        return null;
+    };
+    rc.headers_len = headers.count();
+    return rc;
+}
diff --git a/src/flexilib.zig b/src/flexilib.zig
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..39215f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/flexilib.zig
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+const std = @import("std");
+const interface = @import("flexilib-interface.zig"); // TODO: pull in flexilib directly
+const testing = std.testing;
+
+const log = std.log.scoped(.@"main-lib");
+
+const client_handler = @import("flexilib_handler");
+
+// The main program will look for exports during the request lifecycle:
+// zigInit (optional): called at the beginning of a request, includes pointer to an allocator
+// handle_request: called with request data, expects response data
+// request_deinit (optional): called at the end of a request to allow resource cleanup
+//
+// Setup for these is aided by the interface library as shown below
+
+// zigInit is an optional export called at the beginning of a request. It will
+// be passed an allocator (which...shh...is an arena allocator). Since the
+// interface library provides a request handler that requires a built-in allocator,
+// if you are using the interface's handleRequest function as shown above,
+// you will need to also include this export. To customize, just do something
+// like this:
+//
+// export fn zigInit(parent_allocator: *anyopaque) callconv(.C) void {
+//   // your code here, just include the next line
+//   interface.zigInit(parent_allocator);
+// }
+//
+comptime {
+    @export(interface.zigInit, .{ .name = "zigInit", .linkage = .Strong });
+}
+
+/// handle_request will be called on a single request, but due to the preservation
+/// of restrictions imposed by the calling interface, it should generally be more
+/// useful to call into the interface library to let it do the conversion work
+/// on your behalf
+export fn handle_request(request: *interface.Request) callconv(.C) ?*interface.Response {
+    // The interface library provides a handleRequest function that will handle
+    // marshalling data back and forth from the C format used for the interface
+    // to a more Zig friendly format. It also allows usage of zig errors. To
+    // use, pass in the request and the zig function used to handle the request
+    // (here called "handleRequest"). The function signature must be:
+    //
+    // fn (std.mem.Allocator, interface.ZigRequest, interface.ZigResponse) !void
+    //
+    return interface.handleRequest(request, handleRequest);
+}
+
+// request_deinit is an optional export and will be called a the end of the
+// request. Useful for deallocating memory. Since this is zig code and the
+// allocator used is an arena allocator, all allocated memory will be automatically
+// cleaned up by the main program at the end of a request
+//
+// export fn request_deinit() void {
+// }
+
+// ************************************************************************
+// Boilerplate ^^, Custom code vv
+// ************************************************************************
+//
+// handleRequest function here is the last line of boilerplate and the
+// entry to a request
+fn handleRequest(allocator: std.mem.Allocator, request: interface.ZigRequest, response: interface.ZigResponse) !void {
+    // setup
+    var response_writer = response.body.writer();
+    try response_writer.writeAll(try client_handler.handler(allocator, request.content, .{}));
+    // real work
+    for (request.headers) |h| {
+        const header = interface.toZigHeader(h);
+        // std.debug.print("\n{s}: {s}\n", .{ header.name, header.value });
+        if (std.ascii.eqlIgnoreCase(header.name, "host") and std.mem.startsWith(u8, header.value, "iam")) {
+            try response_writer.print("iam response", .{});
+            return;
+        }
+        if (std.ascii.eqlIgnoreCase(header.name, "x-slow")) {
+            std.time.sleep(std.time.ns_per_ms * (std.fmt.parseInt(usize, header.value, 10) catch 1000));
+            try response_writer.print("i am slow\n\n", .{});
+            return;
+        }
+    }
+    try response.headers.put("X-custom-foo", "bar");
+    log.info("handlerequest header count {d}", .{response.headers.count()});
+}
+// Need to figure out how tests would work
+test "handle_request" {
+    var arena = std.heap.ArenaAllocator.init(std.testing.allocator);
+    defer arena.deinit();
+    var aa = arena.allocator();
+    interface.zigInit(&aa);
+    var headers: []interface.Header = @constCast(&[_]interface.Header{.{
+        .name_ptr = @ptrCast(@constCast("GET".ptr)),
+        .name_len = 3,
+        .value_ptr = @ptrCast(@constCast("GET".ptr)),
+        .value_len = 3,
+    }});
+    var req = interface.Request{
+        .method = @ptrCast(@constCast("GET".ptr)),
+        .method_len = 3,
+        .content = @ptrCast(@constCast("GET".ptr)),
+        .content_len = 3,
+        .headers = headers.ptr,
+        .headers_len = 1,
+    };
+    const response = handle_request(&req).?;
+    try testing.expectEqualStrings(" 1", response.ptr[0..response.len]);
+    try testing.expectEqualStrings("X-custom-foo", response.headers[0].name_ptr[0..response.headers[0].name_len]);
+    try testing.expectEqualStrings("bar", response.headers[0].value_ptr[0..response.headers[0].value_len]);
+}
diff --git a/src/flexilib_build.zig b/src/flexilib_build.zig
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..60fb56f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/flexilib_build.zig
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+const std = @import("std");
+const builtin = @import("builtin");
+
+/// flexilib will create a dynamic library for use with flexilib.
+/// Flexilib will need to get the exe compiled as a library
+/// For flexilib, we will need the main file to have a pub fn named
+/// "handler". If it is not called that, a pub const handler = ... can be
+/// used instead
+pub fn configureBuild(b: *std.build.Builder, exe: *std.Build.Step.Compile, build_root_src: []const u8) !void {
+    const package_step = b.step("flexilib", "Create a flexilib dynamic library");
+
+    // const exe = b.addExecutable(.{
+    //     .name = "universal-lambda-example",
+    //     // In this case the main source file is merely a path, however, in more
+    //     // complicated build scripts, this could be a generated file.
+    //     .root_source_file = .{ .path = "src/main.zig" },
+    //     .target = target,
+    //     .optimize = optimize,
+    // });
+    //
+    const lib = b.addSharedLibrary(.{
+        .name = exe.name,
+        .root_source_file = .{ .path = b.pathJoin(&[_][]const u8{ build_root_src, "flexilib.zig" }) },
+        .target = exe.target,
+        .optimize = exe.optimize,
+    });
+
+    // We will not free this, as the rest of the build system will use it.
+    // This should be ok because our allocator is, I believe, an arena
+    var module_dependencies = try b.allocator.alloc(std.Build.ModuleDependency, exe.modules.count());
+    var iterator = exe.modules.iterator();
+
+    var i: usize = 0;
+    while (iterator.next()) |entry| : (i += 1) {
+        module_dependencies[i] = .{
+            .name = entry.key_ptr.*,
+            .module = entry.value_ptr.*,
+        };
+        lib.addModule(entry.key_ptr.*, entry.value_ptr.*);
+    }
+    lib.addAnonymousModule("flexilib_handler", .{
+        // Source file can be anywhere on disk, does not need to be a subdirectory
+        .source_file = exe.root_src.?,
+        .dependencies = module_dependencies,
+    });
+    package_step.dependOn(&b.addInstallArtifact(lib, .{}).step);
+}
diff --git a/src/lambdabuild.zig b/src/lambda_build.zig
similarity index 100%
rename from src/lambdabuild.zig
rename to src/lambda_build.zig
diff --git a/src/universal_lambda_build.zig b/src/universal_lambda_build.zig
index 1ac3eaf..ef28b6b 100644
--- a/src/universal_lambda_build.zig
+++ b/src/universal_lambda_build.zig
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ pub fn configureBuild(b: *std.Build, exe: *std.Build.Step.Compile) !void {
     });
 
     // Add steps
-    try @import("lambdabuild.zig").configureBuild(b, exe);
+    try @import("lambda_build.zig").configureBuild(b, exe);
     try @import("standalone_server_build.zig").configureBuild(b, exe);
     try @import("flexilib_build.zig").configureBuild(b, exe, file_location);