diff --git a/cfg/config.go b/cfg/config.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7556b78
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cfg/config.go
@@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
+/*
+Copyright © 2022 Thomas von Dein
+
+This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+(at your option) any later version.
+
+This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+*/
+package cfg
+
+import (
+	"errors"
+	"fmt"
+	"github.com/gookit/color"
+	"regexp"
+)
+
+const DefaultSeparator string = `(\s\s+|\t)`
+const ValidOutputModes string = "(orgtbl|markdown|extended|ascii|yaml)"
+const Version string = "v1.0.11"
+
+var VERSION string // maintained by -x
+
+type Config struct {
+	Debug       bool
+	NoNumbering bool
+	Columns     string
+	UseColumns  []int
+	Separator   string
+	OutputMode  string
+	InvertMatch bool
+	Pattern     string
+
+	SortMode       string
+	SortDescending bool
+	SortByColumn   int
+
+	/*
+	 FIXME: make configurable somehow, config file or ENV
+	 see https://github.com/gookit/color will be set by
+	 io.ProcessFiles() according to currently supported
+	 color mode.
+	*/
+	MatchFG string
+	MatchBG string
+	NoColor bool
+}
+
+// maps outputmode short flags to output mode, ie. -O => -o orgtbl
+type Modeflag struct {
+	X bool
+	O bool
+	M bool
+	S bool
+	Y bool
+	A bool
+}
+
+// various sort types
+type Sortmode struct {
+	Numeric bool
+	Time    bool
+	Age     bool
+}
+
+func Colors() map[color.Level]map[string]string {
+	// default color schemes
+	return map[color.Level]map[string]string{
+		color.Level16: {
+			"bg": "green", "fg": "black",
+		},
+		color.Level256: {
+			"bg": "lightGreen", "fg": "black",
+		},
+		color.LevelRgb: {
+			// FIXME: maybe use something nicer
+			"bg": "lightGreen", "fg": "black",
+		},
+	}
+}
+
+func Getversion() string {
+	// main program version
+
+	// generated  version string, used  by -v contains  lib.Version on
+	//  main  branch,   and  lib.Version-$branch-$lastcommit-$date  on
+	// development branch
+
+	return fmt.Sprintf("This is tablizer version %s", VERSION)
+}
+
+func (conf *Config) PrepareModeFlags(flag Modeflag, mode string) error {
+	if len(mode) == 0 {
+		// associate short flags like -X with mode selector
+		switch {
+		case flag.X:
+			conf.OutputMode = "extended"
+		case flag.M:
+			conf.OutputMode = "markdown"
+		case flag.O:
+			conf.OutputMode = "orgtbl"
+		case flag.S:
+			conf.OutputMode = "shell"
+			conf.NoNumbering = true
+		case flag.Y:
+			conf.OutputMode = "yaml"
+			conf.NoNumbering = true
+		default:
+			conf.OutputMode = "ascii"
+		}
+	} else {
+		r, err := regexp.Compile(ValidOutputModes)
+
+		if err != nil {
+			return errors.New("Failed to validate output mode spec!")
+		}
+
+		match := r.MatchString(mode)
+
+		if !match {
+			return errors.New("Invalid output mode!")
+		}
+	}
+
+	return nil
+}
+
+func (conf *Config) PrepareSortFlags(flag Sortmode) {
+	switch {
+	case flag.Numeric:
+		conf.SortMode = "numeric"
+	case flag.Age:
+		conf.SortMode = "duration"
+	case flag.Time:
+		conf.SortMode = "time"
+	default:
+		conf.SortMode = "string"
+	}
+}
diff --git a/cfg/config_test.go b/cfg/config_test.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2f1df8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cfg/config_test.go
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+/*
+Copyright © 2022 Thomas von Dein
+
+This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+(at your option) any later version.
+
+This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+GNU General Public License for more details.
+
+You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+*/
+
+package cfg
+
+// FIXME: add tests