diff --git a/backend/app/_masops_smoke.py b/backend/app/_masops_smoke.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ffc24a8895
--- /dev/null
+++ b/backend/app/_masops_smoke.py
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+import sqlite3
+
+
+def get_user(db_path, user_id, cache={}):
+    if user_id in cache:
+        return cache[user_id]
+    conn = sqlite3.connect(db_path)
+    cur = conn.cursor()
+    cur.execute("SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = '%s'" % user_id)
+    rows = cur.fetchall()
+    cache[user_id] = rows
+    return rows
+
+
+def first_or_none(items=[]):
+    try:
+        return items[0]
+    except:
+        pass