diff --git a/tools/CMakeLists.txt b/tools/CMakeLists.txt
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..631155bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.14)
+project(tmctooltest)
+include(FetchContent)
+
+set(CMAKE_CXX_STANDARD 20)
+set(CMAKE_CXX_EXTENSIONS OFF)
+
+add_library(project_settings INTERFACE)
+
+# setup compiler warnings
+file(DOWNLOAD https://raw.githubusercontent.com/cpp-best-practices/cpp_starter_project/master/cmake/CompilerWarnings.cmake ${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/CompilerWarnings.cmake)
+include(${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/CompilerWarnings.cmake)
+set_project_warnings(project_settings)
+
+# nlohmann/json
+# this repo is a mirror, that only holds the release versions of the headers to keep the size small
+FetchContent_Declare(
+        json
+        GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/ArthurSonzogni/nlohmann_json_cmake_fetchcontent
+        GIT_TAG v3.10.4
+)
+# {fmt}
+FetchContent_Declare(
+        fmt
+        GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/fmtlib/fmt.git
+        GIT_TAG 8.0.1
+)
+# CLI11
+FetchContent_Declare(
+        cli11
+        GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/CLIUtils/CLI11
+        GIT_TAG v2.1.2
+)
+FetchContent_MakeAvailable(json fmt cli11)
+
+add_library(filesystem INTERFACE)
+if (${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID} STREQUAL "GNU")
+    if (${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION} VERSION_LESS 9.0.0)
+        target_link_libraries(filesystem INTERFACE stdc++fs)
+    endif ()
+endif ()