diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 6cb9c1c95da..47e5add8698 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1275,6 +1275,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
  "smallvec",
+ "sysinfo",
  "tempfile",
  "thiserror",
 ]
@@ -2904,9 +2905,9 @@ checksum = "e2abad23fbc42b3700f2f279844dc832adb2b2eb069b2df918f455c4e18cc646"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "libc"
-version = "0.2.142"
+version = "0.2.146"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
-checksum = "6a987beff54b60ffa6d51982e1aa1146bc42f19bd26be28b0586f252fccf5317"
+checksum = "f92be4933c13fd498862a9e02a3055f8a8d9c039ce33db97306fd5a6caa7f29b"
 
 [[package]]
 name = "libgit2-sys"
@@ -3150,6 +3151,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "minimal-lexical",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "ntapi"
+version = "0.4.1"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "e8a3895c6391c39d7fe7ebc444a87eb2991b2a0bc718fdabd071eec617fc68e4"
+dependencies = [
+ "winapi",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "num-traits"
 version = "0.2.15"
@@ -4004,6 +4014,20 @@ dependencies = [
  "unicode-ident",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "sysinfo"
+version = "0.29.2"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "9557d0845b86eea8182f7b10dff120214fb6cd9fd937b6f4917714e546a38695"
+dependencies = [
+ "cfg-if",
+ "core-foundation-sys",
+ "libc",
+ "ntapi",
+ "once_cell",
+ "winapi",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "tabled"
 version = "0.10.0"
diff --git a/gitoxide-core/Cargo.toml b/gitoxide-core/Cargo.toml
index 00d8ce20eb9..70b1c421961 100644
--- a/gitoxide-core/Cargo.toml
+++ b/gitoxide-core/Cargo.toml
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ estimate-hours = ["dep:itertools", "dep:fs-err", "dep:crossbeam-channel", "dep:s
 ## Gather information about repositories and store it in a database for easy querying.
 query = ["dep:rusqlite"]
 ## Run algorithms on a corpus of repositories and store their results for later comparison and intelligence gathering.
-corpus = ["dep:rusqlite"]
+corpus = ["dep:rusqlite", "dep:sysinfo"]
 
 #! ### Mutually Exclusive Networking
 #! If both are set, _blocking-client_ will take precedence, allowing `--all-features` to be used.
@@ -71,6 +71,9 @@ smallvec = { version = "1.10.0", optional = true }
 # for 'query' and 'corpus'
 rusqlite = { version = "0.29.0", optional = true, features = ["bundled"] }
 
+# for 'corpus'
+sysinfo = { version = "0.29.2", optional = true, default-features = false }
+
 # for svg graph output
 layout-rs = "0.1.1"
 open = "4.1.0"
diff --git a/gitoxide-core/src/corpus/mod.rs b/gitoxide-core/src/corpus/mod.rs
index 894905acc83..bc0c323c704 100644
--- a/gitoxide-core/src/corpus/mod.rs
+++ b/gitoxide-core/src/corpus/mod.rs
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 pub struct Engine<P> {
     progress: P,
     con: rusqlite::Connection,
+    gitoxide_version: String,
 }
 
 pub mod engine {
@@ -8,26 +9,39 @@ pub mod engine {
     use anyhow::Context;
     use std::path::PathBuf;
 
+    pub(crate) type Id = u32;
+
     impl<P> Engine<P>
     where
         P: gix::Progress,
     {
         /// Open the corpus DB or create it.
-        pub fn open_or_create(db: PathBuf, progress: P) -> anyhow::Result<Engine<P>> {
+        pub fn open_or_create(db: PathBuf, gitoxide_version: String, progress: P) -> anyhow::Result<Engine<P>> {
             let con = crate::corpus::db::create(db).context("Could not open or create database")?;
-            Ok(Engine { progress, con })
+            Ok(Engine {
+                progress,
+                con,
+                gitoxide_version,
+            })
         }
 
         /// Run on the existing set of repositories we have already seen or obtain them from `path` if there is none yet.
-        pub fn run(&self, _path: PathBuf) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+        pub fn run(&self, path: PathBuf) -> anyhow::Result<()> {
+            let _corpus_id = self.corpus_id_or_insert(&path)?;
+            let _gitoxide_id = self.gitoxide_version_id_or_insert()?;
+            let _runner_id = self.runner_id_or_insert()?;
             todo!()
         }
     }
 }
 
 pub mod db {
-    use anyhow::bail;
+    use crate::corpus::engine::Id;
+    use crate::corpus::Engine;
+    use anyhow::{bail, Context};
     use rusqlite::{params, OptionalExtension};
+    use std::path::Path;
+    use sysinfo::{CpuExt, CpuRefreshKind, RefreshKind, SystemExt};
 
     /// A version to be incremented whenever the database layout is changed, to refresh it automatically.
     const VERSION: usize = 1;
@@ -81,7 +95,7 @@ pub mod db {
         )?;
         con.execute_batch(
             r#"
-        CREATE TABLE if not exists gix_version(
+        CREATE TABLE if not exists gitoxide_version(
             version text UNIQUE -- the unique git version via gix describe
         )
         "#,
@@ -91,17 +105,97 @@ pub mod db {
         CREATE TABLE if not exists run(
             repository integer,
             runner integer,
-            gix_version integer,
+            gitoxide_version integer,
             start_time integer,
             end_time integer, -- or NULL if not yet finished (either successfull or with failure)
             error text, -- or NULL if there was on error
             FOREIGN KEY (repository) REFERENCES repository (rowid),
             FOREIGN KEY (runner) REFERENCES runner (rowid),
-            FOREIGN KEY (gix_version) REFERENCES gix_version (rowid)
+            FOREIGN KEY (gitoxide_version) REFERENCES gitoxide_version (rowid)
         )
         "#,
         )?;
 
         Ok(con)
     }
+
+    /// Utilities
+    impl<P> Engine<P> {
+        pub(crate) fn runner_id_or_insert(&self) -> anyhow::Result<Id> {
+            let sys = sysinfo::System::new_with_specifics(
+                RefreshKind::new().with_cpu(CpuRefreshKind::new().with_frequency()),
+            );
+            let cpu = &sys.cpus()[0];
+            let vendor = Some(cpu.vendor_id().to_owned());
+            let host = sys.host_name();
+            let brand = Some(cpu.brand().to_owned());
+            Ok(
+                match self
+                    .con
+                    .query_row(
+                        "SELECT rowid FROM runner WHERE vendor = ?1 AND brand = ?2",
+                        [vendor.as_deref(), brand.as_deref()],
+                        |r| r.get(0),
+                    )
+                    .optional()?
+                {
+                    Some(existing) => existing,
+                    None => {
+                        self.con.execute(
+                            "INSERT INTO runner (vendor, brand, host_name) VALUES (?1, ?2, ?3)",
+                            [vendor.as_deref(), brand.as_deref(), host.as_deref()],
+                        )?;
+                        self.con.query_row(
+                            "SELECT rowid FROM runner WHERE vendor = ?1 AND brand = ?2",
+                            [vendor, brand],
+                            |r| r.get(0),
+                        )?
+                    }
+                },
+            )
+        }
+        pub(crate) fn corpus_id_or_insert(&self, path: &Path) -> anyhow::Result<Id> {
+            let path = path.to_str().context("corpus root cannot contain illformed UTF-8")?;
+            Ok(
+                match self
+                    .con
+                    .query_row("SELECT rowid FROM corpus WHERE root = ?1", [path], |r| r.get(0))
+                    .optional()?
+                {
+                    Some(existing) => existing,
+                    None => {
+                        self.con.execute("INSERT INTO corpus (root) VALUES (?1)", [path])?;
+                        self.con
+                            .query_row("SELECT rowid FROM corpus WHERE root = ?1", [path], |r| r.get(0))?
+                    }
+                },
+            )
+        }
+        pub(crate) fn gitoxide_version_id_or_insert(&self) -> anyhow::Result<Id> {
+            Ok(
+                match self
+                    .con
+                    .query_row(
+                        "SELECT rowid FROM gitoxide_version WHERE version = ?1",
+                        [&self.gitoxide_version],
+                        |r| r.get(0),
+                    )
+                    .optional()?
+                {
+                    Some(existing) => existing,
+                    None => {
+                        self.con.execute(
+                            "INSERT INTO gitoxide_version (version) VALUES (?1)",
+                            [&self.gitoxide_version],
+                        )?;
+                        self.con.query_row(
+                            "SELECT rowid FROM gitoxide_version WHERE version = ?1",
+                            [&self.gitoxide_version],
+                            |r| r.get(0),
+                        )?
+                    }
+                },
+            )
+        }
+    }
 }
diff --git a/src/plumbing/main.rs b/src/plumbing/main.rs
index 6cc04931c83..0fd667d56c6 100644
--- a/src/plumbing/main.rs
+++ b/src/plumbing/main.rs
@@ -136,7 +136,7 @@ pub fn main() -> Result<()> {
             progress_keep_open,
             None,
             move |progress, _out, _err| {
-                let engine = core::corpus::Engine::open_or_create(db, progress)?;
+                let engine = core::corpus::Engine::open_or_create(db, env!("GITOXIDE_VERSION").into(), progress)?;
                 match cmd {
                     crate::plumbing::options::corpus::SubCommands::Run => engine.run(path),
                 }