diff --git a/collectoss/application/cli/_cli_util.py b/collectoss/application/cli/_cli_util.py
index 0e1a7e1aa..4198fc248 100644
--- a/collectoss/application/cli/_cli_util.py
+++ b/collectoss/application/cli/_cli_util.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 import psutil
 import signal
 from urllib.parse import urlparse
+import sqlalchemy as s
 
 from collectoss.tasks.init.redis_connection import get_redis_connection
 
@@ -69,4 +70,21 @@ def raise_open_file_limit(num_files):
 
     resource.setrlimit(resource.RLIMIT_NOFILE, (num_files, current_hard))
 
-    return
\ No newline at end of file
+    return
+
+def get_db_version(engine):
+    """ a helper function to return the database version
+    used in print_db_version and upgrade_db_version in the db cli module
+    """
+    
+    db_version_sql = s.sql.text(
+        """
+        SELECT * FROM augur_operations.augur_settings WHERE setting = 'augur_data_version'
+        """
+    )
+
+    with engine.connect() as connection:
+        result = int(connection.execute(db_version_sql).fetchone()[2])
+
+    engine.dispose()
+    return result
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/collectoss/application/cli/db.py b/collectoss/application/cli/db.py
index fd5db52cf..237644ba3 100644
--- a/collectoss/application/cli/db.py
+++ b/collectoss/application/cli/db.py
@@ -29,6 +29,8 @@
     process_repo_group_csv,
 )
 
+from ._cli_util import get_db_version
+
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
@@ -258,21 +260,6 @@ def add_github_org(ctx, organization_name):
         controller.add_cli_org(organization_name)
 
 
-# get_db_version is a helper function to print_db_version and upgrade_db_version
-def get_db_version(engine):
-    db_version_sql = s.sql.text(
-        """
-        SELECT * FROM augur_operations.augur_settings WHERE setting = 'augur_data_version'
-        """
-    )
-
-    with engine.connect() as connection:
-        result = int(connection.execute(db_version_sql).fetchone()[2])
-
-    engine.dispose()
-    return result
-
-
 @cli.command("print-db-version")
 @test_connection
 @test_db_connection
diff --git a/collectoss/application/cli/selftest.py b/collectoss/application/cli/selftest.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..587d939f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/collectoss/application/cli/selftest.py
@@ -0,0 +1,171 @@
+# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
+import logging
+from typing import Union
+import click
+from sqlalchemy import Constraint, ForeignKeyConstraint, Index, select, func, Table
+
+from collectoss.application.cli import (
+    test_db_connection,
+    with_database,
+    DatabaseContext,
+)
+from collectoss.application.db.models.augur_data import Commit
+
+from alembic.config import Config
+from alembic import command
+from alembic.util.exc import AutogenerateDiffsDetected
+
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+@click.group("selftest", short_help="CollectOSS self-testing utilities")
+@click.pass_context
+def cli(ctx):
+    ctx.obj = DatabaseContext()
+
+
+def check_database_parity_with_versioned_model() -> list:
+    """Checks for alignent between the versioned SQLAlchemy models and the actual database state
+
+    Returns:
+        list: a list of diff entries in alembic's format
+    """
+    alembic_cfg = Config("alembic.ini")
+    try:
+        # 2. Call the 'check' command
+        # This will raise an AutogenerateDiffsDetected error if 
+        # the database is out of sync with the models.
+        command.check(alembic_cfg)
+        return []
+        
+        
+    except AutogenerateDiffsDetected as e:
+        return list(e.diffs)
+
+
+def humanize_alembic_diff(diff: list[Union[tuple, list]], debug=False) -> list[str]:
+    """transform an alembic diff for printing in a more intuitive way
+
+    Args:
+        diff (list): A diff list created by Alembic
+
+    Returns:
+        list[str]: A list of findings as strings
+    """
+    output: list[str] = []
+
+    if len(diff) == 0:
+        return output
+
+    # Alembic diffs use their own bespoke format, documented in https://alembic.sqlalchemy.org/en/latest/api/autogenerate.html#alembic.autogenerate.compare_metadata
+    for item in diff:
+        # coerce every item into a mini-diff list to make processing easier
+        changes_to_process = item if isinstance(item, list) else [item]
+
+        for change in changes_to_process:
+            finding = ""
+
+            if debug:
+                # its not the most ideal to do this here rather than bypassing the whole function,
+                # but debug mode still benefits from the type coercion above
+                finding = str(change)
+                output.append(finding)
+
+                continue
+
+            action, category = change[0].split("_")
+
+            action_text = ""
+
+            if action == "add":
+                action_text = "found in models but not database"
+            elif action == "modify":
+                action_text = "modified"
+            elif action == "remove":
+                action_text = "found in database but not models"
+            
+
+            if category == "table":
+                table_def:Table = change[1]
+                finding += f"Table {table_def.name} in schema {table_def.schema}"
+                
+            elif category == "column":
+                _, _, table_name, col_def = change
+                finding += f"Column {col_def.name} in table {table_name}"
+
+            elif category == "fk":
+                fk_def:ForeignKeyConstraint = change[1]
+                fk_name = f" called '{fk_def.name}'" if fk_def.name else ""
+                finding += f"Foreign Key{fk_name} on `{fk_def.table.columns[0]}` linking to `{fk_def.table}`"
+
+                attrs = []
+                if fk_def.onupdate:
+                    attrs.append(f"ON UPDATE {fk_def.onupdate}")
+                if fk_def.ondelete:
+                    attrs.append(f"ON DELETE {fk_def.ondelete}")
+                if fk_def.deferrable:
+                    attrs.append("DEFERRABLE")
+                if fk_def.initially:
+                    attrs.append(f"INITIALLY {fk_def.initially}")
+                
+                if attrs:
+                    finding += f"\n\tRules: {' | '.join(attrs)}"
+            elif category == "index":
+                index_def:Index = change[1]
+                cols = [c.name for c in index_def.columns]
+                finding += f"Index {index_def.name} on '{index_def.table}' covering {','.join(cols)}"
+            
+            elif category == "constraint":
+                constraint_def:Constraint = change[1]
+                constraint_name = f" called '{constraint_def.name}'" if constraint_def.name else ""
+                constraint_type = constraint_def.__class__.__name__ or "Constraint"
+                constraint_covers = [c.name for c in constraint_def.columns]
+                finding += f"{constraint_type}{constraint_name} covering {','.join(constraint_covers)}"
+            
+            elif category == "nullable":
+                _, schema, table_name, col_name, _, old, new = change
+                print(f"Column {col_name} in table {table_name} nullable changed: {old} -> {new}")
+            
+            else:
+                finding += "unknown type found in alembic diff:\n"
+                finding += str(change)
+
+            finding += f"\n\t{action_text}"
+            output.append(finding)
+
+    return output
+
+
+@cli.command("report")
+@click.option("--debug", is_flag=True, default=False, help="Show more detailed information for debuging purposes")
+@test_db_connection
+@with_database
+@click.pass_context
+def run_selftest_report(ctx, debug):
+    """
+    Run queries to evaluate various aspects of the collectoss system's functioning and produce a report
+    """
+    click.echo('Generating CollectOSS selftest report....')
+
+    model_diffs = check_database_parity_with_versioned_model()
+    
+    cmt_author_name_issue_233_query = (
+        select(func.count())
+        .select_from(Commit)
+        .where(Commit.cmt_author_name == '')
+    )
+    cmt_author_name_issue_233_count = None
+
+    with ctx.obj.engine.begin() as connection:
+        cmt_author_name_issue_233_count = connection.execute(cmt_author_name_issue_233_query).scalar_one()
+        click.echo(f'Issue 233 count: {cmt_author_name_issue_233_count} commit changes in the `commits` table contain authors with an empty string as their name')
+
+    model_diff_findings = humanize_alembic_diff(model_diffs, debug=debug)
+
+    if len(model_diff_findings) == 0:
+        print("✅ No drift detected. Database is in sync with models.")
+    else:
+        print(f"❌ Database drift detected:")
+        for f in model_diff_findings:
+            print(f)
\ No newline at end of file