diff --git a/api/Program.cs b/api/Program.cs
index 302b215..efa938c 100644
--- a/api/Program.cs
+++ b/api/Program.cs
@@ -57,4 +57,19 @@ if (app.Environment.IsEnvironment("Development")) {
 
 app.MapControllers();
 
+// attempt enitity-framework migrations at startup. love you stack overflow
+using (var scope = app.Services.CreateScope()) {
+    var db = scope.ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<AppDbContext>();
+
+    var retries = 10;
+    while (retries-- > 0) {
+        try {
+            db.Database.Migrate();
+            break;
+        } catch {
+            Thread.Sleep(5000);
+        }
+    }
+}
+
 app.Run();