diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 05751ee..c432065 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,4 +1,86 @@
 # Dropshell Build
 
+A Docker-based build system for creating statically-linked C++ executables using Alpine Linux and musl libc.
+
+## Overview
+
+This repository provides a comprehensive C++ development environment with:
+
+1. **dropshell-build-base**: A base image with C++ toolchain and libraries
+2. **dropshell-build**: Multi-stage Docker build system for C++ projects  
+3. **Test projects**: Sample applications demonstrating the build system
+
+## Features
+
+### Libraries Available
+
+The base image includes statically-linked versions of:
+
+- **Web Framework**: Drogon with async HTTP capabilities
+- **Database Support**: PostgreSQL (libpq), MySQL/MariaDB, SQLite3
+- **HTTP Clients**: 
+  - Custom Drogon-based HTTP utilities (see `ipdemo`)
+  - CPR (C++ Requests) library for simplified HTTP requests
+- **Networking**: cURL, c-ares, OpenSSL
+- **JSON**: nlohmann/json, jsoncpp
+- **Compression**: zlib, zstd, lzma
+- **Logging**: spdlog, fmt
+- **Utilities**: ccache, mold linker
+
+### HTTP Client Options
+
+Two HTTP client approaches are available:
+
+1. **Drogon HTTP Utilities** (see `tests/ipdemo/src/http_utils.hpp`):
+   ```cpp
+   auto response = http_get("example.com", "/api/endpoint", true, 10.0);
+   if (response.success && response.status_code == 200) {
+       std::cout << response.body << std::endl;
+   }
+   ```
+
+2. **CPR Library** (C++ Requests):
+   ```cpp
+   #include <cpr/cpr.h>
+   cpr::Response r = cpr::Get(cpr::Url{"https://example.com/api"});
+   if (r.status_code == 200) {
+       std::cout << r.text << std::endl;
+   }
+   ```
+
+## Quick Start
+
+### Building the Base Image
+
+```bash
+cd build-base
+./build.sh
+```
+
+### Building a Project
+
+```bash
+./build.sh
+```
+
+### Testing
+
+```bash
+./test.sh
+```
+
+## Project Structure
+
+### Test Projects
+
+- **ipdemo**: Demonstrates Drogon HTTP utilities and JSON processing
+- **test_libs**: Tests all available libraries (fmt, spdlog, SQLite3, etc.)
+- **cprdemo**: Example using CPR library for HTTP requests (work in progress)
+
+### Environment Variables
+
+- `CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE`: "Debug" or "Release" (default: Debug)
+- `PROJECT`: Project name to build (default: ipdemo)
+
 ## Installation
 
diff --git a/build-base/Dockerfile.dropshell-build-base b/build-base/Dockerfile.dropshell-build-base
index fa1d219..10d2d03 100644
--- a/build-base/Dockerfile.dropshell-build-base
+++ b/build-base/Dockerfile.dropshell-build-base
@@ -46,7 +46,9 @@ RUN apk add --no-cache \
     xz-libs \
     xz-static \
     zlib-dev \
-    zlib-static 
+    zlib-static \
+    zstd-dev \
+    zstd-static 
     
 SHELL ["/bin/bash", "-c"]
 
@@ -132,11 +134,34 @@ WORKDIR /tmp
 RUN curl -LO https://curl.se/download/curl-${CURL_VERSION}.tar.gz && \
     tar xzf curl-${CURL_VERSION}.tar.gz && \
     cd curl-${CURL_VERSION} && \
-    ./configure --disable-shared --enable-static --with-ssl=/usr/local --prefix=/usr/local && \
+    ./configure --disable-shared --enable-static --with-ssl=/usr/local --prefix=/usr/local \
+        --with-zlib --with-zstd && \
     make -j$(nproc) && \
     make install && \
     cd / && rm -rf /tmp/curl-${CURL_VERSION} /tmp/curl-${CURL_VERSION}.tar.gz
 
+# Build CPR (C++ Requests) library statically
+ARG CPR_VERSION=1.10.5
+WORKDIR /tmp
+RUN curl -LO https://github.com/libcpr/cpr/archive/refs/tags/${CPR_VERSION}.tar.gz && \
+    tar xzf ${CPR_VERSION}.tar.gz && \
+    cd cpr-${CPR_VERSION} && \
+    mkdir build && cd build && \
+    cmake .. \
+        -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
+        -DBUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF \
+        -DCMAKE_POSITION_INDEPENDENT_CODE=ON \
+        -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local \
+        -DCPR_USE_SYSTEM_CURL=ON \
+        -DCPR_ENABLE_SSL=ON \
+        -DCURL_INCLUDE_DIR=/usr/local/include \
+        -DCURL_LIBRARY=/usr/local/lib/libcurl.a \
+        -DOPENSSL_ROOT_DIR=/usr/local \
+        -DOPENSSL_USE_STATIC_LIBS=TRUE && \
+    make -j$(nproc) && \
+    make install && \
+    cd / && rm -rf /tmp/cpr-${CPR_VERSION} /tmp/${CPR_VERSION}.tar.gz
+
 
 ARG MARIADB_CONNECTOR_VERSION=3.4.5
 WORKDIR /tmp
diff --git a/tests/build.sh b/tests/build.sh
index f006fc7..4ce17fb 100755
--- a/tests/build.sh
+++ b/tests/build.sh
@@ -32,3 +32,6 @@ build_project "ipdemo"
 echo "Building test_libs..."
 build_project "test_libs"
 
+echo "Building cprdemo..."
+build_project "cprdemo"
+
diff --git a/tests/cprdemo/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/cprdemo/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a10c1ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/cprdemo/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
+
+# Project setup
+if(NOT DEFINED PROJECT_NAME)
+    message(FATAL_ERROR "PROJECT_NAME is not defined. Pass it via -DPROJECT_NAME=<name>")
+endif()
+
+string(TIMESTAMP PROJECT_VERSION "%Y.%m%d.%H%M")
+project(${PROJECT_NAME} VERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION} LANGUAGES CXX)
+
+# Build configuration
+set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 23)
+set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
+set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "-static")
+set(CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_SUFFIXES ".a")
+set(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS OFF)
+set(CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH /usr/local)
+
+# Create executable
+file(GLOB_RECURSE SOURCES "src/*.cpp")
+add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} ${SOURCES})
+
+# Configure version.hpp
+configure_file("src/version.hpp.in" "src/autogen/version.hpp" @ONLY)
+
+# Pre-build script
+add_custom_target(run_prebuild_script ALL 
+    COMMAND bash ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake_prebuild.sh
+    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
+add_dependencies(${PROJECT_NAME} run_prebuild_script)
+
+# Include directories
+target_include_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE 
+    ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/src/autogen 
+    src)
+
+# Find packages
+find_package(OpenSSL REQUIRED)
+find_package(PkgConfig REQUIRED)
+find_package(nlohmann_json REQUIRED)
+
+# Find CURL manually since we built it without CMake targets
+find_library(CURL_LIBRARY NAMES curl libcurl PATHS /usr/local/lib NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
+find_path(CURL_INCLUDE_DIR NAMES curl/curl.h PATHS /usr/local/include NO_DEFAULT_PATH)
+
+# Create CURL target if not found
+if(NOT TARGET CURL::libcurl)
+    add_library(CURL::libcurl STATIC IMPORTED)
+    set_target_properties(CURL::libcurl PROPERTIES
+        IMPORTED_LOCATION ${CURL_LIBRARY}
+        INTERFACE_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES ${CURL_INCLUDE_DIR}
+        INTERFACE_LINK_LIBRARIES "/usr/lib/libz.a;/usr/lib/libzstd.a"
+    )
+endif()
+
+# Find CPR after CURL target is available
+find_package(cpr REQUIRED)
+
+# Link libraries
+target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE
+    nlohmann_json::nlohmann_json 
+    cpr::cpr
+    lzma dl)
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/cprdemo/cmake_prebuild.sh b/tests/cprdemo/cmake_prebuild.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000..ec4d6a8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/cprdemo/cmake_prebuild.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+
+echo "CPR Demo Pre-build Script"
+echo "========================="
+echo "Build time: $(date)"
+echo "Working directory: $(pwd)"
+echo "CMAKE args: $@"
+echo "CPR Demo ready for build"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/cprdemo/src/assert.hpp b/tests/cprdemo/src/assert.hpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f27bf1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/cprdemo/src/assert.hpp
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#pragma once
+
+#include <iostream>
+#include <stdexcept>
+
+#define ASSERT(condition, message) \
+    do { \
+        if (!(condition)) { \
+            std::cerr << "Assertion failed: " << message << std::endl; \
+            std::cerr << "File: " << __FILE__ << ", Line: " << __LINE__ << std::endl; \
+            throw std::runtime_error(message); \
+        } \
+    } while (false)
diff --git a/tests/cprdemo/src/main.cpp b/tests/cprdemo/src/main.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..feff3b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/cprdemo/src/main.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+#include <iostream>
+#include <nlohmann/json.hpp>
+#include <cpr/cpr.h>
+
+#include "version.hpp"
+#include "assert.hpp"
+
+void crashy() {
+    ASSERT(false, "SUCCESS!");
+}
+
+int main() {
+    std::cout << "cprdemo version: " << cprdemo::VERSION << std::endl;
+    std::cout << std::endl;
+    std::cout << "Retrieving IP address using CPR..." << std::endl;
+
+    // Use CPR to make HTTP GET request
+    cpr::Response r = cpr::Get(cpr::Url{"https://ipinfo.io/ip"});
+
+    ASSERT(r.status_code == 200, "Failed to get IP");
+
+    nlohmann::json j;
+    j["ip"] = r.text;
+    j["status"] = r.status_code;
+
+    std::cout << j.dump(4) << std::endl;
+
+    std::cout << "Done" << std::endl;
+
+    crashy();
+
+    return 0;
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/cprdemo/src/version.hpp.in b/tests/cprdemo/src/version.hpp.in
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a9e3449
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/cprdemo/src/version.hpp.in
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+#pragma once
+
+namespace @PROJECT_NAME@ {
+    constexpr const char* VERSION = "@PROJECT_VERSION@";
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/test.sh b/tests/test.sh
index e6621b0..bd5b5b2 100755
--- a/tests/test.sh
+++ b/tests/test.sh
@@ -28,3 +28,13 @@ else
     echo "ipdemo binary not found - run ./build.sh first"
 fi
 
+# Test cprdemo
+if [ -f "${SCRIPT_DIR}/output/cprdemo" ]; then
+    echo ""
+    echo "Testing cprdemo..."
+    echo "Running cprdemo..."
+    # Run cprdemo and capture both stdout and stderr, ignoring the crash
+    "${SCRIPT_DIR}/output/cprdemo" 2>&1 || true
+    echo "cprdemo test completed!"
+fi
+
diff --git a/tests/test_libs/CMakeLists.txt b/tests/test_libs/CMakeLists.txt
index 072e940..6b60e43 100644
--- a/tests/test_libs/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/tests/test_libs/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,12 +1,29 @@
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
-project(test_libs)
 
+# Project setup
+if(NOT DEFINED PROJECT_NAME)
+    message(FATAL_ERROR "PROJECT_NAME is not defined. Pass it via -DPROJECT_NAME=<name>")
+endif()
+
+string(TIMESTAMP PROJECT_VERSION "%Y.%m%d.%H%M")
+project(${PROJECT_NAME} VERSION ${PROJECT_VERSION} LANGUAGES CXX)
+
+# Build configuration
 set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 17)
 set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD_REQUIRED ON)
-
-# Force static linking
-set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "-static -static-libgcc -static-libstdc++")
+set(CMAKE_EXE_LINKER_FLAGS "-static")
 set(CMAKE_FIND_LIBRARY_SUFFIXES ".a")
+set(BUILD_SHARED_LIBS OFF)
+set(CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH /usr/local)
+
+# Create executable from the cpp file in root (special case for test_libs)
+add_executable(${PROJECT_NAME} test_libs.cpp)
+
+# Pre-build script
+add_custom_target(run_prebuild_script ALL 
+    COMMAND bash ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake_prebuild.sh
+    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR})
+add_dependencies(${PROJECT_NAME} run_prebuild_script)
 
 # Find packages
 find_package(PkgConfig REQUIRED)
@@ -17,17 +34,8 @@ find_package(Threads REQUIRED)
 # Find SQLite3 using pkg-config as fallback
 pkg_check_modules(SQLite3 REQUIRED sqlite3)
 
-# Add custom target to run cmake_prebuild.sh at the start of the build process
-add_custom_target(run_prebuild_script ALL
-    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E echo "Running cmake_prebuild.sh..."
-    COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E env bash ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/cmake_prebuild.sh
-    WORKING_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}
-)
-
-
-add_executable(test_libs test_libs.cpp)
-
-target_link_libraries(test_libs 
+# Link libraries
+target_link_libraries(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE
     fmt::fmt
     spdlog::spdlog
     ${SQLite3_STATIC_LIBRARIES}
@@ -35,5 +43,5 @@ target_link_libraries(test_libs
     rt
 )
 
-target_include_directories(test_libs PRIVATE ${SQLite3_INCLUDE_DIRS})
-target_compile_options(test_libs PRIVATE ${SQLite3_CFLAGS_OTHER})
\ No newline at end of file
+target_include_directories(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE ${SQLite3_INCLUDE_DIRS})
+target_compile_options(${PROJECT_NAME} PRIVATE ${SQLite3_CFLAGS_OTHER})
\ No newline at end of file