diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -46,10 +46,11 @@
 3. create configuration file ~/.config/swh/lister-github.com.yml
 4. Bootstrap the db instance schema
 
-``` sh
-$ createdb lister-github.com
-$ bin/ghlister --db-url postgres:///lister-github.com createdb
-```
+    $ createdb lister-github
+    $ python3 -m swh.lister.cli --db-url postgres:///lister-github \
+        --lister github \
+        --create-tables
+
 
 Configuration file samples
 -------------------------
diff --git a/swh/lister/cli.py b/swh/lister/cli.py
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/swh/lister/cli.py
@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# Copyright (C) 2018  The Software Heritage developers
+# See the AUTHORS file at the top-level directory of this distribution
+# License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
+# See top-level LICENSE file for more information
+
+import click
+
+
+@click.command()
+@click.option(
+    '--db-url', '-d', default='postgres:///lister-gitlab.com',
+    help='SQLAlchemy DB URL; see '
+         '<http://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/latest/core/engines.html#database-urls>')  # noqa
+@click.option('--lister', required=1,
+              type=click.Choice(['github', 'gitlab', 'bitbucket']),
+              help='Lister to act upon')
+@click.option('--create-tables', is_flag=True, default=False,
+              help='create tables')
+@click.option('--drop-tables', is_flag=True, default=False,
+              help='Drop db')
+def cli(db_url, lister, create_tables, drop_tables):
+    """Initialize db model according to lister.
+
+    """
+    supported_listers = ['github', 'gitlab', 'bitbucket']
+    override_conf = {'lister_db_url': db_url}
+
+    if lister == 'github':
+        from .github import models
+        from .github.lister import GitHubLister
+
+        _lister = GitHubLister(lister_name='github.com',
+                               api_baseurl='https://api.github.com',
+                               override_config=override_conf)
+    elif lister == 'bitbucket':
+        from .bitbucket import models
+        from .bitbucket.lister import BitBucketLister
+        _lister = BitBucketLister(lister_name='bitbucket.com',
+                                  api_baseurl='https://api.bitbucket.org/2.0',
+                                  override_config=override_conf)
+
+    elif lister == 'gitlab':
+        from .gitlab import models
+        from .gitlab.lister import GitLabLister
+        _lister = GitLabLister(lister_name='gitlab.com',
+                               api_baseurl='https://gitlab.com/api/v4/',
+                               override_config=override_conf)
+    else:
+        raise ValueError('Only supported listers are %s' % supported_listers)
+
+    if drop_tables:
+        models.ModelBase.metadata.drop_all(_lister.db_engine)
+
+    if create_tables:
+        models.ModelBase.metadata.create_all(_lister.db_engine)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    cli()