diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index bd846b1..f16bc8d 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -7,3 +7,5 @@ venv/
 *.pyc
 llnl_scraper.egg-info/
 .vscode/
+.idea/
+scraper/unf.json
diff --git a/scraper/functions.py b/scraper/functions.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a1e794c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scraper/functions.py
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+""" functions to use the code as a project package """
+from scraper import code_gov
+import logging
+import json
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+def scrape(configfile):
+    """
+    run the scraper using the config.json file
+
+    Parameters
+    __________
+    configfile : path
+        file path to the configuration file with format as outlined in README.md
+
+    Returns
+    _______
+    json
+        a JSON file of the scraped metadata
+    """
+
+    # open the config file
+    f = open(configfile)
+    config_json = json.load(f)
+
+    # process
+    code_json = code_gov.process_config(config_json)
+    code_gov.force_attributes(code_json, config_json)
+    logger.info("Number of Projects: %s", len(code_json["releases"]))
+
+    # return
+    return code_json.to_json()