diff --git a/src/core/coreref.ts b/src/core/coreref.ts
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..68f9380
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/core/coreref.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+import { ChannelManager } from '../channel';
+import { NPMExecutor } from '../npm';
+import { PluginManager, PluginMetaLoader } from '../plugin';
+import { RepositoryManager } from '../plugin/repository';
+import { Configuration, IEnvironment } from '../types';
+import { ScopedEventEmitter } from '../util';
+
+export interface ISqueebotCore {
+  environment: IEnvironment;
+  npm: NPMExecutor;
+  stream: ScopedEventEmitter;
+  pluginManager: PluginManager;
+  repositoryManager: RepositoryManager;
+  channelManager: ChannelManager;
+  pluginLoader: PluginMetaLoader;
+  config: Configuration;
+
+  initialize(autostart: boolean): Promise<void>;
+  shutdown(): void;
+}
diff --git a/src/core/index.ts b/src/core/index.ts
index 84616cc..022c175 100644
--- a/src/core/index.ts
+++ b/src/core/index.ts
@@ -1,2 +1,3 @@
-export { loadEnvironment } from './environment';
-export { Logger, logger } from './logger';
+export * from './environment';
+export * from './logger';
+export * from './coreref';
diff --git a/src/types/config.ts b/src/types/config.ts
index 0273a9b..a2ed24f 100644
--- a/src/types/config.ts
+++ b/src/types/config.ts
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ export class Configuration {
     if (key.indexOf('.') !== -1) {
       const split = key.split('.');
       const first = this.get(split[0], null, from);
-      if (first) {
+      if (first != null) {
         return this.get(split.slice(1).join('.'), defval, first);
       }
       return defval;
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ export class Configuration {
       return defval;
     }
 
-    if (!from[key]) {
+    if (from[key] == null) {
       return defval;
     }
 
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ export class Configuration {
     if (key.indexOf('.') !== -1) {
       const split = key.split('.');
       const first = this.get(split[0], null, from);
-      if (first) {
+      if (first != null) {
         return this.set(split.slice(1).join('.'), value, first);
       }
       return false;
@@ -90,10 +90,6 @@ export class Configuration {
       return false;
     }
 
-    if (!from[key]) {
-      return false;
-    }
-
     from[key] = value;
     return true;
   }
@@ -102,7 +98,7 @@ export class Configuration {
     this.defaults = defconf;
   }
 
-  private saveDefaults(): void {
+  public saveDefaults(): void {
     this.config = this.defaults || {};
     this.save();
   }