diff --git a/backend/app/config.py b/backend/app/config.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2eaa3a7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/config.py
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+from pydantic_settings import BaseSettings, SettingsConfigDict
+
+
+class Settings(BaseSettings):
+    model_config = SettingsConfigDict(env_file=".env", extra="ignore")
+
+    database_url: str
+    ollama_base_url: str
+    session_secret: str
+    port: int = 7777
+
+
+settings = Settings()
diff --git a/backend/app/db.py b/backend/app/db.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fa51df5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/db.py
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+from sqlalchemy.ext.asyncio import AsyncSession, async_sessionmaker, create_async_engine
+from sqlalchemy.orm import DeclarativeBase
+
+from app.config import settings
+
+engine = create_async_engine(settings.database_url, echo=False)
+async_session_maker = async_sessionmaker(engine, expire_on_commit=False)
+
+
+class Base(DeclarativeBase):
+    pass
+
+
+async def get_db() -> AsyncSession:
+    async with async_session_maker() as session:
+        yield session
diff --git a/backend/tests/conftest.py b/backend/tests/conftest.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ae63c4c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/tests/conftest.py
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+import os
+
+
+def pytest_configure(config):
+    """Set up minimal environment variables for tests before any imports."""
+    os.environ.setdefault("DATABASE_URL", "postgresql+asyncpg://test:test@localhost/test")
+    os.environ.setdefault("OLLAMA_BASE_URL", "http://localhost:11434")
+    os.environ.setdefault("SESSION_SECRET", "test-secret-key")
diff --git a/backend/tests/test_config.py b/backend/tests/test_config.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0c4d628
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/tests/test_config.py
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+from app.config import Settings
+
+
+def test_settings_load_from_env(monkeypatch):
+    monkeypatch.setenv("DATABASE_URL", "postgresql+asyncpg://u:p@host/db")
+    monkeypatch.setenv("OLLAMA_BASE_URL", "http://10.30.20.107:11434")
+    monkeypatch.setenv("SESSION_SECRET", "test-secret")
+    settings = Settings(_env_file=None)
+    assert settings.database_url == "postgresql+asyncpg://u:p@host/db"
+    assert settings.ollama_base_url == "http://10.30.20.107:11434"
+    assert settings.port == 7777