diff --git a/nix/dev-shell.nix b/nix/dev-shell.nix
--- a/nix/dev-shell.nix
+++ b/nix/dev-shell.nix
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 , grpc
 , libiconv
 , libuv
+, mariadb
 , nodejs-16_x
 , olm
 , openjdk8
@@ -40,6 +41,7 @@
     arcanist
 
     # node development
+    mariadb
     nodejs-16_x
     yarn
     watchman # react native
@@ -90,7 +92,7 @@
 
   # shell commands to be ran upon entering shell
   shellHook = let
-    socket = "mysql-socket/mysql.sock";
+    socket = "mysql.sock";
   in ''
     if [[ "$OSTYPE" == 'linux'* ]]; then
       export MYSQL_UNIX_PORT=''${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR:-/run/user/$UID}/${socket}
@@ -100,6 +102,8 @@
     if [[ "$OSTYPE" == 'darwin'* ]]; then
       # Many commands for cocoapods expect the native BSD versions of commands
       export PATH=/usr/bin:$PATH
+      MARIADB_DIR=''${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/MariaDB
+      export MYSQL_UNIX_PORT="$MARIADB_DIR"/${socket}
       export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=''${ANDROID_SDK_ROOT:-$HOME/Library/Android/sdk}
     fi
 
diff --git a/nix/mariadb-up-mac.nix b/nix/mariadb-up-mac.nix
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/nix/mariadb-up-mac.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,130 @@
+{ lib
+, gnused
+, openssl
+, procps
+, mariadb
+, writeShellApplication
+, writeTextFile
+}:
+
+let
+  # Use small script executed by bash to have a normal shell environment.
+  mariadb-entrypoint = writeShellApplication {
+    name = "mariadb-init";
+    text = ''
+      MARIADB_DIR=''${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/MariaDB
+      # 'exec' allows for us to replace bash process with MariaDB
+      exec ${mariadb}/bin/mariadbd \
+        --socket "$MARIADB_DIR"/mysql.sock \
+        --datadir "$MARIADB_DIR" \
+        &> "$MARIADB_DIR"/logs \
+    '';
+  };
+
+  mariadb-version = let
+    versions = lib.versions;
+  in "${versions.major mariadb.version}.${versions.minor mariadb.version}";
+
+  # Small boiler-plate text file for us to write for keyserver
+  db_config_template = writeTextFile {
+    name = "db-config";
+    text = ''
+      {
+        "host": "localhost",
+        "user": "comm",
+        "password": "PASS",
+        "database": "comm",
+        "dbType": "mariadb${mariadb-version}"
+      }
+    '';
+  };
+
+# writeShellApplication is a "writer helper" which
+# will create a shellchecked executable shell script located in $out/bin/<name>
+# This shell script will be used to allow for impure+stateful actions
+in writeShellApplication {
+  name = "mariadb-up";
+  text = ''
+    # "$HOME/Library/Application Support/<app>" is the canonical path to use
+    # on darwin for storing user data for installed applications.
+    # However, mysql and mariadb don't quote paths in the mariadbd script,
+    # so use XDG conventions and hope $HOME doesn't have a space.
+    MARIADB_DATA_HOME="''${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}/MariaDB"
+    MARIADB_PIDFILE="$MARIADB_DATA_HOME"/mariadb.pid
+    export MYSQL_UNIX_PORT="$MARIADB_DATA_HOME"/mysql.sock
+
+    if [[ ! -d "$MARIADB_DATA_HOME"/mysql ]]; then
+      # mysql directory should exist if MariaDB has been initialized
+      echo "Initializing MariaDB database at $MARIADB_DATA_HOME" >&2
+      ${lib.getBin mariadb}/bin/mariadb-install-db \
+        --datadir="$MARIADB_DATA_HOME" \
+        --auth-root-authentication-method=socket
+    fi
+
+    # Check if MariaDB server was already started
+    set +e # allow for pgrep to not find matches
+    mariadb_count=$(${procps}/bin/pgrep -c mariadbd)
+    set -e
+
+    if [ "$mariadb_count" -eq "0" ]; then
+      echo "Starting MariaDB server"
+      # No MariaDB present, start our own
+      # Launch in subshell so if the original terminal is closed, the process
+      # will be inherited instead of also being forced closed
+      (${mariadb-entrypoint}/bin/mariadb-init &
+        echo "$!" > "$MARIADB_PIDFILE")
+
+      echo "Waiting for MariaDB to come up"
+      while [[ ! -S "$MYSQL_UNIX_PORT" ]]; do sleep 1; done
+
+    elif [[ "$mariadb_count" -eq "1" ]]; then
+
+      # Check if it was started by this script
+      running_pid="$(${procps}/bin/pgrep mariadbd)"
+      if [[ ! -f "$MARIADB_PIDFILE" ]] || \
+          [[ "$(cat "$MARIADB_PIDFILE")" != "$running_pid" ]]; then
+        echo "Existing MariaDB instance found outside of nix environment" >&2
+        echo "Please stop or kill existing service and attempt 'mariadb-up" >&2
+        exit 1
+      fi
+
+    else
+      echo "Many MariaDB instances found outside of nix environment" >&2
+      echo "Please stop existing services and attempt 'mariadb-up' again" >&2
+      exit 1
+
+    fi
+
+    # Initialize comm user, database, and secrets file for MariaDB
+    # Connecting through socket doesn't require a password
+    userCount=$(${lib.getBin mariadb}/bin/mariadb -u "$USER" \
+      -Bse "SELECT COUNT(1) FROM mysql.user WHERE user = 'comm';"
+    )
+    if [[ "$userCount" -eq 0 ]]; then
+      PASS=$(${lib.getBin openssl}/bin/openssl rand -hex 6)
+
+      echo "Creating comm user and comm database" >&2
+      ${lib.getBin mariadb}/bin/mariadb -u "$USER" \
+        -e"CREATE DATABASE comm;
+          CREATE USER comm@localhost IDENTIFIED BY '$PASS';
+          GRANT ALL ON "'comm.*'" TO comm@localhost;"
+      echo "Comm user and database has been created!" >&2
+
+      # Assume this was ran from git repository
+      PRJ_ROOT=$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)
+      KEYSERVER_DB_CONFIG="$PRJ_ROOT"/keyserver/secrets/db_config.json
+
+      echo "Writing connection information to $KEYSERVER_DB_CONFIG" >&2
+      mkdir -p "$(dirname "$KEYSERVER_DB_CONFIG")"
+
+      # It's very difficult to write json from bash, just copy a nix
+      # file then use sed to subsitute
+      cp ${db_config_template} "$KEYSERVER_DB_CONFIG"
+      chmod +w "$KEYSERVER_DB_CONFIG" # Nix files are read-only
+      ${gnused}/bin/sed -i -e "s|PASS|$PASS|g" "$KEYSERVER_DB_CONFIG"
+    fi
+
+    echo "View MariaDB Logs: tail -f $MARIADB_DATA_HOME/logs" >&2
+    echo "Kill MariaDB server: pkill mariadb" >&2
+  '';
+}
diff --git a/nix/overlay.nix b/nix/overlay.nix
--- a/nix/overlay.nix
+++ b/nix/overlay.nix
@@ -45,6 +45,11 @@
 
   devShell = final.callPackage ./dev-shell.nix { };
 
+  # Make our version of mariadb the default everywhere
+  mariadb = prev.mariadb_108;
+
+  mariadb-up = prev.callPackage ./mariadb-up-mac.nix { };
+
   mysql-down = prev.callPackage ./mysql-down-linux.nix { };
 
   mysql-up = prev.callPackage ./mysql-up-linux.nix { };