diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..34dd0aa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -0,0 +1,85 @@
+# Rust build artifacts
+/target/
+Cargo.lock
+
+# IDE files
+.vscode/
+.idea/
+*.swp
+*.swo
+
+# OS files
+.DS_Store
+Thumbs.db
+
+# Logs
+*.log
+
+# Environment files
+.env
+.env.local
+
+# Temporary files
+/tmp/
+*.tmp
+*.temp
+
+# Node.js (for any JS/TS tools)
+node_modules/
+npm-debug.log*
+yarn-debug.log*
+yarn-error.log*
+
+# Python
+__pycache__/
+*.py[cod]
+*$py.class
+*.so
+.Python
+build/
+develop-eggs/
+dist/
+downloads/
+eggs/
+.eggs/
+lib/
+lib64/
+parts/
+sdist/
+var/
+wheels/
+pip-wheel-metadata/
+share/python-wheels/
+*.egg-info/
+.installed.cfg
+*.egg
+MANIFEST
+
+# Jupyter Notebook
+.ipynb_checkpoints
+
+# pyenv
+.python-version
+
+# Celery stuff
+celerybeat-schedule
+celerybeat.pid
+
+# SageMath parsed files
+*.sage.py
+
+# Environments
+.venv
+env/
+venv/
+ENV/
+env.bak/
+venv.bak/
+
+# mypy
+.mypy_cache/
+.dmypy.json
+dmypy.json
+
+# Pyre type checker
+.pyre/
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/Cargo.toml b/Cargo.toml
index 1a08943..3a34e94 100644
--- a/Cargo.toml
+++ b/Cargo.toml
@@ -1,11 +1,12 @@
 [workspace]
 resolver = "2"
 members = [
-    "apps/*",
     "services/*",
-    "packages/*",
-    "trainer",
 ]
+# TODO: Add back when apps and packages are created
+# "apps/*",
+# "packages/*",
+# "trainer",
 exclude = [
     "vendor/*",
     "external/*",
@@ -27,7 +28,7 @@ tokio-util = "0.7"
 # Web framework
 axum = "0.7"
 tower = "0.5"
-tower-http = { version = "0.6", features = ["cors", "trace", "compression"] }
+tower-http = { version = "0.6", features = ["cors", "trace", "compression-br", "compression-gzip"] }
 
 # Serialization
 serde = { version = "1.0", features = ["derive"] }
diff --git a/apps/README.md b/apps/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b2c60ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Apps
+
+User-facing applications will be placed here.
+
+This directory is currently empty but configured in the workspace for future development.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/external/README.md b/external/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..76136fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/external/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# External
+
+Git submodule imports of large external projects.
+
+External repositories will be imported here using git submodules for read-only access to upstream projects.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/notebooks/README.md b/notebooks/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e67d48e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/notebooks/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Notebooks
+
+Jupyter notebooks for data analysis, ML experiments, and documentation.
+
+This directory will contain example notebooks and data science workflows.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/packages/README.md b/packages/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7e1fa41
--- /dev/null
+++ b/packages/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Packages
+
+Shared libraries and internal packages will be placed here.
+
+This directory is currently empty but configured in the workspace for future development.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/scripts/import-repos.sh b/scripts/import-repos.sh
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
diff --git a/setup.sh b/setup.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..1f390f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/setup.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,55 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+echo "🚀 Setting up FlexNetOS/star-mono repository..."
+
+# Check if we're in the right directory
+if [ ! -f "Cargo.toml" ] || [ ! -d "services" ]; then
+    echo "❌ Please run this script from the root of the star-mono repository"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Check if Rust is installed
+if ! command -v cargo &> /dev/null; then
+    echo "📦 Installing Rust toolchain..."
+    curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y
+    source "$HOME/.cargo/env"
+else
+    echo "✅ Rust toolchain found"
+fi
+
+# Build the workspace
+echo "🔨 Building workspace..."
+cargo build --workspace
+
+if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+    echo "✅ Build successful!"
+else
+    echo "❌ Build failed!"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+# Test the API service
+echo "🧪 Testing API service..."
+cargo run --bin api-gateway &
+API_PID=$!
+sleep 3
+
+# Test health endpoint
+if curl -s http://localhost:3000/health > /dev/null; then
+    echo "✅ API service is working!"
+else
+    echo "⚠️  API service test failed (this is normal if port 3000 is busy)"
+fi
+
+# Stop the API service
+kill $API_PID 2>/dev/null
+
+echo ""
+echo "🎉 Setup complete!"
+echo ""
+echo "Next steps:"
+echo "1. Run './scripts/import-repos.sh' to import external repositories"
+echo "2. Run 'cargo run --bin api-gateway' to start the API service"
+echo "3. Test with: curl http://localhost:3000/health"
+echo ""
+echo "For more information, see README.md"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/trainer/README.md b/trainer/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..120cfa4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/trainer/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Trainer
+
+ML training pipelines and related tooling will be placed here.
+
+This directory is currently empty but configured in the workspace for future development.
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/vendor/README.md b/vendor/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2711fb7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/vendor/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# Vendor
+
+Git subtree imports of external repositories that we modify.
+
+External repositories will be imported here using git subtrees for easier development and customization.
\ No newline at end of file