diff --git a/.coveragerc b/.coveragerc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..99ca682
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.coveragerc
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+[report]
+exclude_lines = 
+    pragma: no cover
+    -no-cov-
+    raise NotImplementedError
+    \.\.\.
diff --git a/exorcist/__init__.py b/exorcist/__init__.py
index e69de29..621d53f 100644
--- a/exorcist/__init__.py
+++ b/exorcist/__init__.py
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# from .taskdb import TaskStatusDB, NoStatusChange
+from .models import TaskStatus, Task
diff --git a/exorcist/example_client.py b/exorcist/example_client.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2f1b3be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/exorcist/example_client.py
@@ -0,0 +1,111 @@
+"""
+Simple example of implementing Exorcist in client code.
+
+This is useful both to illustrate how client code for Exocist can be
+written, as well as to be used in our test suite.
+"""
+
+
+import dataclasses
+import pathlib
+import json
+import pickle
+
+from functools import partial
+
+from .resultstore import ResultStore
+from .taskstore import TaskDetailsStore
+
+from typing import Callable, Union
+
+@dataclasses.dataclass
+class ExampleResult:
+    """Result class.
+
+    This doesn't have to be a user-defined class; for example, it could be a
+    dict with an expected structure.
+    """
+    label: str
+    main_result: Union[float, str]
+    is_failure: bool
+
+
+@dataclasses.dataclass
+class ExampleTaskDetails:
+    label: str
+    input_result_labels: dict[str, str]
+    """keys are variable names, values are the label where result is stored
+    """
+    task_func: Callable
+
+    def _extract_main_result(self, resultfile):
+        with open(resultfile, mode='r') as f:
+            result = ExampleResult(**json.load(f))
+
+        return result.main_result
+
+    def run_task(self, directory):
+        inputs = {
+            key: self._extract_main_result(directory / f"{inp}_result.json")
+            for key, inp in self.input_result_labels.items()
+        }
+        try:
+            main_result = self.task_func(**inputs)
+            is_failure = False
+        except Exception as e:
+            main_result = str(e)
+            is_failure = True
+
+        return ExampleResult(
+            label=self.label,
+            main_result=main_result,
+            is_failure=is_failure
+        )
+
+
+class ExampleResultStore(ResultStore):
+    """Example of a ResultStore
+
+    This stores :class:`.ExampleResult`\ s as JSON files in a given
+    directory.
+    """
+    def __init__(self, directory):
+        self.directory = directory
+
+    def is_failure_result(self, result: ExampleResult) -> bool:
+        return result.is_failure
+
+    def store_result(self, result: ExampleResult, retry: int = 0):
+        # the idea here is that there is only ever one successful result for
+        # a given task, but there may be many failures -- we label the
+        # failures by trial numbers. This way we save both successes and
+        # failures.
+        if self.is_failure_result(result):
+            path = self.directory / f"{result.label}_result_{retry}.json"
+        else:
+            path = self.directory / f"{result.label}_result.json"
+
+        with open(path,  mode='w') as f:
+            f.write(json.dumps(dataclasses.asdict(result)))
+
+
+class ExampleTaskDetailsStore(TaskDetailsStore):
+    """Example of a TaskDetailsStore
+
+    """
+    def __init__(self, directory):
+        self.directory = directory
+
+    def store_task_details(self, taskid: str,
+                           task_details: ExampleTaskDetails):
+        with open(self.directory / f"{taskid}.p", mode='wb') as f:
+            pickle.dump(task_details, f)
+
+    def load_task_details(self, taskid: str) -> ExampleTaskDetails:
+        with open(self.directory / f"{taskid}.p", mode='rb') as f:
+            task_details = pickle.load(f)
+
+        return task_details
+
+    def run_task(self, task_details: ExampleTaskDetails) -> ExampleResult:
+        return task_details.run_task(directory=self.directory)
diff --git a/exorcist/models.py b/exorcist/models.py
index 79f0891..7f1788d 100644
--- a/exorcist/models.py
+++ b/exorcist/models.py
@@ -1,23 +1,31 @@
 from enum import Enum
-from dataclasses import dataclass
-from datetime import datetime
+from typing import TypeVar, Generic
+import dataclasses
+
+# generics: the actual types here depend on the client library
+Result = TypeVar("Result")
+TaskDetails = TypeVar("TaskDetails")
 
 class TaskStatus(Enum):
+    """
+    Status of a given task.
+    """
     BLOCKED = 0
     AVAILABLE = 1
     IN_PROGRESS = 2
     RESULTS_READY = 3
     COMPLETED = 99
+    TOO_MANY_RETRIES = -2
     ERROR = -1
 
 
-@dataclass
-class Task:
-    taskid: str
-    taskfile: str
-    last_modified: datetime
-    n_retries: int
+# TODO: it isn't entirely clear to me that this is needed, or that this is
+# the right way to do it. but I wanted to capture the way to handle typing
+# of something like this
+@dataclasses.dataclass
+class Task(Generic[TaskDetails]):
+    """Generic to contain taskid and the client-specific TaskDetails.
 
-    @classmethod
-    def from_db_row(row):
-        ...
+    """
+    taskid: str
+    task_details: TaskDetails
diff --git a/exorcist/resultstore.py b/exorcist/resultstore.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f27415e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/exorcist/resultstore.py
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+import abc
+
+from typing import Generic
+from .models import Result
+
+
+class ResultStore(abc.ABC, Generic[Result]):
+    """Result storage.
+
+    Client code must provide a storage object that conforms to this abstract
+    API.
+    """
+    @abc.abstractmethod
+    def is_failure_result(self, result: Result) -> bool:
+        """Test whether this result represents a failed run.
+
+        This allows failures (e.g., raising exceptions) to be treated as
+        first-class results, which can then be introspected by the users.
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError()
+
+    @abc.abstractmethod
+    def store_result(self, result: Result, retry: int = 0):
+        """Store a result to permanent storage.
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError()
diff --git a/exorcist/taskstore.py b/exorcist/taskstore.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd563b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/exorcist/taskstore.py
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
+import abc
+
+from typing import Generic, Callable
+from .models import TaskDetails, Result
+
+class TaskDetailsStore(abc.ABC, Generic[TaskDetails, Result]):
+    """Task details storage.
+
+    Client code must provide a storage object that conforms to this abstract
+    API.
+    """
+    @abc.abstractmethod
+    def store_task_details(self, taskid: str, task_details: TaskDetails):
+        """Store the given task details.
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError()
+
+    @abc.abstractmethod
+    def load_task_details(self, taskid: str) -> TaskDetails:
+        """Load the task details from disk."""
+        raise NotImplementedError()
+
+    @abc.abstractmethod
+    def run_task(self, task_details: TaskDetails) -> Result:
+        """Run the task, based on the given details"""
+        raise NotImplementedError()
diff --git a/exorcist/tests/test_example_client.py b/exorcist/tests/test_example_client.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2e57d27
--- /dev/null
+++ b/exorcist/tests/test_example_client.py
@@ -0,0 +1,126 @@
+import pytest
+import json
+import pickle
+
+from exorcist.example_client import (
+    ExampleResult, ExampleTaskDetails, ExampleResultStore,
+    ExampleTaskDetailsStore,
+)
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def example_result():
+    return ExampleResult(
+        label="foo",
+        main_result=3.0,
+        is_failure=False
+    )
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def failure_result():
+    return ExampleResult(
+        label="foo",
+        main_result="float division by zero",
+        is_failure=True
+    )
+
+
+# simple functions used as our tasks (need to be named functions here
+# because pickle doesn't like lambdas)
+def incr(x):
+    return x + 1.0
+
+def return_1():
+    return 1.0
+
+def failure_func():
+    return 1.0/0.0
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def example_details():
+    return ExampleTaskDetails(
+        label="foo",
+        input_result_labels={},
+        task_func=return_1
+    )
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def result_store(tmp_path):
+    return ExampleResultStore(tmp_path)
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def task_store(tmp_path):
+    return ExampleTaskDetailsStore(tmp_path)
+
+
+class TestExampleResultStore:
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize('fixture', [
+        'example_result', 'failure_result'
+    ])
+    def test_is_failure_result(self, result_store, request, fixture):
+        result = request.getfixturevalue(fixture)
+        expected = (fixture == 'failure_result')
+        assert result_store.is_failure_result(result) == expected
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize('fixture', [
+        'example_result', 'failure_result'
+    ])
+    def test_store_result(self, result_store, request, fixture):
+        result = request.getfixturevalue(fixture)
+        result_store.store_result(result, retry=5)
+        filename = {
+            "example_result": "foo_result.json",
+            "failure_result": "foo_result_5.json",
+        }[fixture]
+        path = result_store.directory / filename
+        assert path.exists()
+        with open(path) as f:
+            dct = json.load(f)
+
+        recreated = ExampleResult(**dct)
+        assert result == recreated
+
+
+class TestExampleTaskDetailsStore:
+    def test_store_load_task_details_cycle(self, task_store,
+                                           example_details):
+        task_store.store_task_details(example_details.label,
+                                      example_details)
+        path = task_store.directory / f"{example_details.label}.p"
+        assert path.exists()
+        reloaded = task_store.load_task_details(example_details.label)
+        assert reloaded == example_details
+
+    def test_run_task(self, task_store, example_details):
+        result = task_store.run_task(example_details)
+        assert not result.is_failure
+        assert result.main_result == 1.0
+        assert result.label == "foo"
+
+    def test_run_task_failing_result(self, task_store):
+        details = ExampleTaskDetails(
+            label="baz",
+            input_result_labels={},
+            task_func=failure_func
+        )
+        result = task_store.run_task(details)
+        assert result.is_failure
+        assert result.main_result == "float division by zero"
+        assert result.label == "baz"
+
+    def test_workflow(self, task_store, result_store, example_details):
+        # depends on store_task_details working
+        example_details_2 = ExampleTaskDetails(
+            label="bar",
+            input_result_labels={'x': "foo"},
+            task_func=incr
+        )
+
+        # manually do the work of the worker here
+        result1 = task_store.run_task(example_details)
+        assert not result_store.is_failure_result(result1)
+        result_store.store_result(result1)
+        result2 = task_store.run_task(example_details_2)
+        assert not result_store.is_failure_result(result2)
+
+        assert result2.main_result == 2.0
diff --git a/exorcist/tests/test_nothing.py b/exorcist/tests/test_nothing.py
deleted file mode 100644
index 99bb93d..0000000
--- a/exorcist/tests/test_nothing.py
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,4 +0,0 @@
-import exorcist
-
-def test_temporary_to_make_pytest_pass():
-    ...