diff --git a/server/src/main.rs b/server/src/main.rs
index f4fa954..e692829 100644
--- a/server/src/main.rs
+++ b/server/src/main.rs
@@ -110,18 +110,42 @@ async fn shutdown_signal() {
         .expect("Failed to capture ctrl-c signal");
 }
 #[tokio::main]
-async fn main() {
-    dotenv().ok();
-    println!("Servering on localhost:8888");
-    let addr = SocketAddr::from(([127,0,0,1], 8888));
+async fn main() -> Result<(), u16>{
+    const NO_ERR: u16 = 0;
+    const CONFIG_ERR: u16 = 1;
+    const SHUTDOWN_ERR: u16 = 2;
 
-    let service = make_service_fn(|_conn| async {
-        Ok::<_, Infallible>(service_fn(main_responder))
-    });
+    let mut main_ret: u16 = 0;
+    // setting up environment variables
+    let d_result = dotenv();
+    if let Err(_d) = d_result {
+        // we may be on a pipeline/prod environment so .env may not be there
+        if let Err(_e) = env::var("DATABASE_URL") {
+            main_ret |= CONFIG_ERR;
+        }
+    }
+    if main_ret == NO_ERR {
+        println!("Servering on localhost:8888");
+        let addr = SocketAddr::from(([127,0,0,1], 8888));
+        let service = make_service_fn(|_conn| async {
+            Ok::<_, Infallible>(service_fn(main_responder))
+        });
+        let server = Server::bind(&addr).serve(service);
+        let graceful_shutdown = server.with_graceful_shutdown(shutdown_signal());
 
-    let server = Server::bind(&addr).serve(service);
-    let graceful_shutdown = server.with_graceful_shutdown(shutdown_signal());
-    if let Err(e) = graceful_shutdown.await {
-        eprintln!("Server shutdown error: {}", e);
+        if let Err(e) = graceful_shutdown.await {
+            main_ret |= SHUTDOWN_ERR;
+            eprintln!("Server shutdown error: {}", e);
+        }
+    }
+
+    if main_ret != 0 {
+        // dumb as heck loggin method here
+        if main_ret & CONFIG_ERR != 0 {println!("ERROR: Config was not setup properly => Missing {{DATABASE_URL}}");}
+        if main_ret & SHUTDOWN_ERR != 0 {println!("ERROR: Couldn't shutdown gracefully");}
+        Err(main_ret)
+    }
+    else {
+        Ok(())
     }
 }