diff --git a/swh/lister/cli.py b/swh/lister/cli.py
index c725213..f8cc623 100644
--- a/swh/lister/cli.py
+++ b/swh/lister/cli.py
@@ -1,145 +1,147 @@
-# Copyright (C) 2018-2019  The Software Heritage developers
+# Copyright (C) 2018-2020  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
 
+# WARNING: do not import unnecessary things here to keep cli startup time under
+# control
 import os
 import logging
 from copy import deepcopy
 
 import click
-from sqlalchemy import create_engine
 
 from swh.core.cli import CONTEXT_SETTINGS
 from swh.lister import get_lister, SUPPORTED_LISTERS, LISTERS
-from swh.lister.core.models import initialize
 
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
 # the key in this dict is the suffix used to match new task-type to be added.
 # For example for a task which function name is "list_gitlab_full', the default
 # value used when inserting a new task-type in the scheduler db will be the one
 # under the 'full' key below (because it matches xxx_full).
 DEFAULT_TASK_TYPE = {
     "full": {  # for tasks like 'list_xxx_full()'
         "default_interval": "90 days",
         "min_interval": "90 days",
         "max_interval": "90 days",
         "backoff_factor": 1,
     },
     "*": {  # value if not suffix matches
         "default_interval": "1 day",
         "min_interval": "1 day",
         "max_interval": "1 day",
         "backoff_factor": 1,
     },
 }
 
 
 @click.group(name="lister", context_settings=CONTEXT_SETTINGS)
 @click.option(
     "--config-file",
     "-C",
     default=None,
     type=click.Path(exists=True, dir_okay=False,),
     help="Configuration file.",
 )
 @click.option(
     "--db-url",
     "-d",
     default=None,
     help="SQLAlchemy DB URL; see "
     "<http://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/latest/core/engines.html#database-urls>",
 )  # noqa
 @click.pass_context
 def lister(ctx, config_file, db_url):
     """Software Heritage Lister tools."""
     from swh.core import config
 
     ctx.ensure_object(dict)
 
     if not config_file:
         config_file = os.environ.get("SWH_CONFIG_FILENAME")
     conf = config.read(config_file)
     if db_url:
         conf["lister"] = {"cls": "local", "args": {"db": db_url}}
     ctx.obj["config"] = conf
 
 
 @lister.command(name="db-init", context_settings=CONTEXT_SETTINGS)
 @click.option(
     "--drop-tables",
     "-D",
     is_flag=True,
     default=False,
     help="Drop tables before creating the database schema",
 )
 @click.pass_context
 def db_init(ctx, drop_tables):
     """Initialize the database model for given listers.
 
     """
+    from sqlalchemy import create_engine
+    from swh.lister.core.models import initialize
 
     cfg = ctx.obj["config"]
     lister_cfg = cfg["lister"]
     if lister_cfg["cls"] != "local":
         click.echo("A local lister configuration is required")
         ctx.exit(1)
 
     db_url = lister_cfg["args"]["db"]
     db_engine = create_engine(db_url)
 
     registry = {}
     for lister, entrypoint in LISTERS.items():
         logger.info("Loading lister %s", lister)
         registry[lister] = entrypoint.load()()
 
     logger.info("Initializing database")
     initialize(db_engine, drop_tables)
 
     for lister, entrypoint in LISTERS.items():
         registry_entry = registry[lister]
         init_hook = registry_entry.get("init")
         if callable(init_hook):
             logger.info("Calling init hook for %s", lister)
             init_hook(db_engine)
 
 
 @lister.command(
     name="run",
     context_settings=CONTEXT_SETTINGS,
     help="Trigger a full listing run for a particular forge "
     "instance. The output of this listing results in "
     '"oneshot" tasks in the scheduler db with a priority '
     "defined by the user",
 )
 @click.option(
     "--lister", "-l", help="Lister to run", type=click.Choice(SUPPORTED_LISTERS)
 )
 @click.option(
     "--priority",
     "-p",
     default="high",
     type=click.Choice(["high", "medium", "low"]),
     help="Task priority for the listed repositories to ingest",
 )
 @click.argument("options", nargs=-1)
 @click.pass_context
 def run(ctx, lister, priority, options):
     from swh.scheduler.cli.utils import parse_options
 
     config = deepcopy(ctx.obj["config"])
 
     if options:
         config.update(parse_options(options)[1])
 
     config["priority"] = priority
     config["policy"] = "oneshot"
 
     get_lister(lister, **config).run()
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     lister()