diff --git a/source/toy.h b/source/toy.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1b1cdfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/source/toy.h
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+#pragma once
+
+//general utilities
+#include "toy_common.h"
+
+//building blocks
+//
+
+//pipeline
+//
diff --git a/source/toy_common.c b/source/toy_common.c
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..efa91bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/source/toy_common.c
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#include "toy_common.h"
+
+//defined separately, as compilation can take several seconds, invalidating the comparisons of __TIME__
+static const char* build = __DATE__ " " __TIME__ ";development branch";
+
+const char* Toy_private_version_build() {
+	return build;
+}
diff --git a/source/toy_common.h b/source/toy_common.h
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..95fd677
--- /dev/null
+++ b/source/toy_common.h
@@ -0,0 +1,37 @@
+#pragma once
+
+//for specified type sizes
+#include <stdbool.h>
+#include <stdint.h>
+#include <stddef.h>
+
+
+//TOY_API is platform-dependant, and marks publicly usable API functions
+#if defined(__linux__) || defined(__MINGW32__) || defined(__GNUC__)
+
+//GCC support
+#define TOY_API extern
+
+#elif defined(_MSC_VER)
+
+//MSVC support
+#ifndef TOY_EXPORT
+#define TOY_API __declspec(dllimport)
+#else
+#define TOY_API __declspec(dllexport)
+#endif
+
+#else
+
+//generic
+#define TOY_API extern
+
+#endif
+
+//bytecode version specifiers
+#define TOY_VERSION_MAJOR 2
+#define TOY_VERSION_MINOR 0
+#define TOY_VERSION_PATCH 0
+#define TOY_VERSION_BUILD Toy_private_version_build()
+TOY_API const char* Toy_private_version_build();
+