diff -uNr a/gbw-node/README b/gbw-node/README
--- a/gbw-node/README 6c3d0898ec345de244948d1d992cbcc55dcd4e66feea03a855557a823389c01cbc1664e29af35802a16f654c5fd0e19a6e5fa64724f093f9c1c74cbb3a10e092
+++ b/gbw-node/README cab21dccc33b4fa780ba768de2c40b9aa1f811cc9b4e260b00b43374ff707c85fa37bf2f836108059047c002dad2455850392a26e65fc1ff37ff23b61f9520c7
@@ -39,14 +39,21 @@
 Operation
 ---------
 
-First the database must be initialized:
+The main program is "gbw-node", which provides a number of subcommands. Run "gbw-node help" for details.
 
-	mkdir ~/.gbw
-	sqlite3 ~/.gbw/db </package/gbw-node/library/schema-node.sql
+The database is initialized automatically on first run. It can then be queried directly using the SQLite shell :
 
-The main program is "gbw-node", which provides a number of subcommands. Run "gbw-node help" for details.
+	sqlite3 ~/.gbw/db
+
+When doing so, the following settings are recommended to include in ~/.sqliterc :
+
+	PRAGMA foreign_keys=ON;
+	.headers on
+	.mode quote
+
+The first enables enforcement of the declared referential constraints, which SQLite disables by default for compatibility reasons. The rest make the output more readable; especially quote mode is essential for viewing address and txid fields which are packed as blobs. If your SQLite version doesn't support it, ".mode insert" is a more verbose alternative.
 
-RPC username and password are read from ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf.
+RPC username and password for sending commands to the local bitcoind are read from ~/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf.
 
 It's possible for bitcoind to get blocked on writing to a pipe if a scan process is interrupted during the dumpblock call. To recover, allow the write to complete:
 
diff -uNr a/gbw-node/command/gbw-node b/gbw-node/command/gbw-node
--- a/gbw-node/command/gbw-node f514fbccaed6c2dc6071b65e61e1836e7db159342ef92550e8f4132cce90787f75598212eaeedd80d707d9b9ea370055529a356b98ceaf8b9097ad0e21a113d9
+++ b/gbw-node/command/gbw-node 87f5dff61f194f21839f5c0b2560382812016957525fa35cbaaaeaea95757c72b4cc2a1b4e281db65040c3fc9d7bda0d7bfb7a3da045e136c0f7776238958163
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/python2
 # J. Welsh, December 2019
 
-from os import getenv, open as os_open, O_RDONLY, O_WRONLY, mkdir, mkfifo, read, write, close, stat
+from os import getenv, open as os_open, O_CREAT, O_EXCL, O_RDONLY, O_WRONLY, mkdir, mkfifo, read, write, close, stat, rename
 from stat import S_ISDIR, S_ISFIFO
 from sys import argv, stdin, stdout, stderr, exit
 from socket import socket
@@ -32,12 +32,53 @@
 #   $ gbw-node reset
 #   $ gbw-node scan
 
+INSTALL_PATH = '/package/gbw-node-2'
+
 gbw_home = getenv('HOME') + '/.gbw'
 bitcoin_conf_path = getenv('HOME') + '/.bitcoin/bitcoin.conf'
 
-# Further knobs in main() for database tuning.
 db = None
 
+def require_db():
+	global db
+	if db is None:
+		db_path = gbw_home + '/db'
+		try:
+			stat(db_path)
+		except OSError, e:
+			if e.errno == errno.ENOENT:
+				init_db()
+			else:
+				raise
+		# Database tuning knobs here
+		db = sqlite3.connect(db_path, timeout=600) # in seconds
+		db.execute('PRAGMA foreign_keys=ON')
+		db.execute('PRAGMA cache_size=-8000') # negative means in KiB
+		db.execute('PRAGMA wal_autocheckpoint=10000') # in pages (4k)
+
+def init_db():
+	# NB: this function will clobber the db file if it exists!
+	db_path = gbw_home + '/db'
+	temp_db_path = gbw_home + '/temp_initial_db'
+	log_err('Initializing database at %s ...' % db_path)
+	with open(INSTALL_PATH + '/library/schema-node.sql') as f:
+		schema = f.read()
+	try:
+		close(os_open(temp_db_path, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_EXCL, 0666))
+	except OSError, e:
+		if e.errno == errno.EEXIST:
+			log_err('Failed: %s exists! If this came from a prior incomplete run, you can remove it and try again. Otherwise, another initialization process may be running already.' % temp_db_path)
+			exit(-1)
+		raise
+	temp_db = sqlite3.connect(temp_db_path)
+	temp_db.executescript(schema)
+	temp_db.close()
+	rename(temp_db_path, gbw_home + '/db')
+	log_err('Success.')
+
+def log_err(msg):
+	stderr.write('gbw-node: %s\n' % msg)
+
 b2lx = lambda b: b2a_hex(b[::-1])
 lx2b = lambda x: a2b_hex(x)[::-1]
 
@@ -458,9 +499,6 @@
 		n_tx += 1
 	stdout.write(' spent-outs %s\n' % count_in)
 
-def log_err(msg):
-	stderr.write('gbw-node: %s\n' % msg)
-
 def require_tag(name):
 	i = get_tag_id(name)
 	if i is None:
@@ -766,13 +804,9 @@
 	return rows[0]
 
 def main():
-	global db
 	signal.signal(signal.SIGINT, signal.SIG_DFL)
 	require_dir(gbw_home)
-	db = sqlite3.connect(gbw_home + '/db', timeout=600) # in seconds
-	db.execute('PRAGMA foreign_keys=ON')
-	db.execute('PRAGMA cache_size=-8000') # negative means in KiB
-	db.execute('PRAGMA wal_autocheckpoint=10000') # in pages (4k)
+	require_db()
 	try:
 		if len(argv) < 2:
 			raise UsageError('missing command')
diff -uNr a/gbw-node/manifest b/gbw-node/manifest
--- a/gbw-node/manifest 54264d11fdcea1b9d42ac2f5766bcca743b517d6028aefd4f56532b1311654b98bfc085b22fe3d0eac1a85ba3b04cd50191de3295d228f90d265b2e7282fb01c
+++ b/gbw-node/manifest 076e5507ae3f63c412bd160b5b2eeb17cef8fc3bcb2dfd949220528f85aa08b7db585c223391de5cbf74eaf5241d3573789c0a5fbb14ca3803370c8c7756e318
@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@
 711740 gbw-node_usrbin jfw As seen also with gscm, change command symlink from /command/gbw-node to /usr/bin/gbw-node, and correct the install script for the case of replacing an existing version. Update README and bump version to reflect the packaging changes.
 783265 gbw-node_error_reporting jfw Fix undefined reference on reporting a bad address in cmd_tags. More generally, simplify arglist processing and fix the silent ignoring of excess CLI arguments, by having Python unpack the arglist automatically into named parameters of each command handler function. Report more context for address decoding errors. Clarify help text regarding input format for watch and push commands.
 783269 gbw-node_error_tolerance jfw Don't die immediately on bad input lines.
+783270 gbw-node_db_auto_init jfw Automate database initialization from schema script; update and expand related documentation.
diff -uNr a/gbw-node/package/install b/gbw-node/package/install
--- a/gbw-node/package/install cec63f16206fe24a42d7ba1231fc777e385afa7bf62748374b0faa6d67dc9133d521128e5ce5911106c6fa6f95d841d40ead2f62548c2543aa8ab5b87894aeeb
+++ b/gbw-node/package/install 4d48bc47d532c169ade4e8757048318fd5b013b1b94533b4088d1dd8bb1855224b1b4f64a083a5a3dc1559948c163f8b01f63ba38bc0a1d29b82896f7a8c4568
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 
 # Versioned path duplicated in:
 # README
+# command/gbw-node
 
 echo "Creating symlink $P -> $P-$V..."
 rm -f $P