diff --git a/my/core/structure.py b/my/core/structure.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c04420
--- /dev/null
+++ b/my/core/structure.py
@@ -0,0 +1,151 @@
+import os
+import shutil
+import tempfile
+import zipfile
+
+from typing import Sequence, Generator, List, Union, Tuple
+from contextlib import contextmanager
+from pathlib import Path
+
+from . import warnings as core_warnings
+
+
+def _structure_exists(base_dir: Path, paths: Sequence[str]) -> bool:
+    """
+    Helper function for match_structure to check if
+    all subpaths exist at some base directory
+
+    For example:
+
+    dir1
+    ├── index.json
+    └── messages
+        └── messages.csv
+
+    _structure_exists(Path("dir1"), ["index.json", "messages/messages.csv"])
+    """
+    for p in paths:
+        target: Path = base_dir / p
+        if not target.exists():
+            return False
+    return True
+
+
+ZIP_EXT = {".zip"}
+
+
+@contextmanager
+def match_structure(
+    base: Path,
+    expected: Union[str, Sequence[str]],
+) -> Generator[Tuple[Path, ...], None, None]:
+    """
+    Given a 'base' directory or zipfile, recursively search for one or more paths that match the
+    pattern described in 'expected'. That can be a single string, or a list
+    of relative paths (as strings) you expect at the same directory.
+
+    This reduces the chances of the user misconfiguring gdpr exports, e.g.
+    if they zipped the folders instead of the parent directory or vice-versa
+
+    When this finds a matching directory structure, it stops searching in that subdirectory
+    and continues onto other possible subdirectories which could match
+
+    If base is a zipfile, this extracts the zipfile into a temporary directory
+    (configured by core_config.config.get_tmp_dir), and then searches the extracted
+    folder for matching structures
+
+    This returns the top of every matching folder structure it finds
+
+    As an example:
+
+    export_dir
+    ├── exp_2020
+    │   ├── channel_data
+    │   │   ├── data1
+    │   │   └── data2
+    │   ├── index.json
+    │   ├── messages
+    │   │   └── messages.csv
+    │   └── profile
+    │       └── settings.json
+    └── exp_2021
+        ├── channel_data
+        │   ├── data1
+        │   └── data2
+        ├── index.json
+        ├── messages
+        │   └── messages.csv
+        └── profile
+            └── settings.json
+
+    Giving the top directory as the base, and some expected relative path like:
+
+    with match_structure(Path("export_dir"), expected=("messages/messages.csv", "index.json")) as results:
+        # results in this block is (Path("export_dir/exp_2020"), Path("export_dir/exp_2021"))
+
+    This doesn't require an exhaustive list of expected values, but its a good idea to supply
+    a complete picture of the expected structure to avoid false-positives
+
+    This does not recursively unzip zipfiles in the subdirectories,
+    it only unzips into a temporary directory if 'base' is a zipfile
+
+    A common pattern for using this might be to use get_files to get a list
+    of zipfiles or top-level gdpr export directories, and use match_structure
+    to search the resulting paths for a export structure you're expecting
+    """
+    from . import core_config as CC
+
+    tdir = CC.config.get_tmp_dir()
+
+    if isinstance(expected, str):
+        expected = (expected,)
+
+    is_zip: bool = base.suffix in ZIP_EXT
+
+    searchdir: Path = base.absolute()
+    try:
+        # if the file given by the user is a zipfile, create a temporary
+        # directory and extract the zipfile to that temporary directory
+        #
+        # this temporary directory is removed in the finally block
+        if is_zip:
+            # sanity check before we start creating directories/rm-tree'ing things
+            assert base.exists(), f"zipfile at {base} doesn't exist"
+
+            sd = Path(tempfile.mkdtemp(dir=tdir))
+            searchdir = Path(sd)
+
+            zf = zipfile.ZipFile(base)
+            zf.extractall(path=sd)
+
+        matches: List[Path] = []
+        possible_targets: List[Path] = [searchdir]
+
+        while len(possible_targets) > 0:
+            p = possible_targets.pop(0)
+
+            # factored out into a function to avoid weird stuff with continues/loop state
+            if _structure_exists(p, expected):
+                matches.append(p)
+            else:
+                # extend the list of possible targets with any subdirectories
+                for f in os.scandir(p):
+                    if f.is_dir():
+                        possible_targets.append(p / f.name)
+
+        if len(matches) == 0:
+            core_warnings.high(
+                f"""While searching {base}, could not find a matching folder structure. Expected {expected}. You're probably missing required files in the gdpr/export"""
+            )
+
+        yield tuple(matches)
+
+    finally:
+
+        if is_zip:
+            # make sure we're not mistakenly deleting data
+            assert str(searchdir).startswith(
+                str(tdir)
+            ), f"Expected the temporary directory for extracting zip to start with the temporary directory prefix ({tdir}), found {searchdir}"
+
+            shutil.rmtree(str(searchdir))
diff --git a/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_export.zip b/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_export.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e0c8857
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_export.zip differ
diff --git a/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_subdirs/broken_export/comments/comments.json b/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_subdirs/broken_export/comments/comments.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_subdirs/broken_export/messages/index.csv b/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_subdirs/broken_export/messages/index.csv
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_subdirs/gdpr_export/comments/comments.json b/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_subdirs/gdpr_export/comments/comments.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_subdirs/gdpr_export/messages/index.csv b/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_subdirs/gdpr_export/messages/index.csv
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da5a1d5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_subdirs/gdpr_export/messages/index.csv
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+test message
diff --git a/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_subdirs/gdpr_export/profile/settings.json b/tests/core/structure_data/gdpr_subdirs/gdpr_export/profile/settings.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/tests/core/test_structure.py b/tests/core/test_structure.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9250957
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/core/test_structure.py
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+from my.core.structure import match_structure
+
+from pathlib import Path
+
+structure_data: Path = Path(__file__).parent / "structure_data"
+
+gdpr_expected = ("comments", "messages/index.csv", "profile")
+
+
+def test_gdpr_structure_exists() -> None:
+    with match_structure(structure_data, expected=gdpr_expected) as results:
+        assert results == (structure_data / "gdpr_subdirs" / "gdpr_export",)
+
+
+def test_gdpr_unzip() -> None:
+
+    with match_structure(
+        structure_data / "gdpr_export.zip", expected=gdpr_expected
+    ) as results:
+        assert len(results) == 1
+        extracted = results[0]
+        index_file = extracted / "messages" / "index.csv"
+        assert index_file.read_text().strip() == "test message"
+
+    # make sure the temporary directory this created no longer exists
+    assert not extracted.exists()
+