diff --git a/src/virus_clade_utils/get_clade_list.py b/src/virus_clade_utils/get_clade_list.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b77d682
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/virus_clade_utils/get_clade_list.py
@@ -0,0 +1,98 @@
+"""Get a list of SARS-CoV-2 clades."""
+
+import time
+from datetime import timedelta
+
+import polars as pl
+import structlog
+from cloudpathlib import AnyPath
+
+from virus_clade_utils.util.config import Config
+from virus_clade_utils.util.sequence import (
+    download_covid_genome_metadata,
+    filter_covid_genome_metadata,
+    get_clade_counts,
+    get_covid_genome_metadata,
+)
+
+logger = structlog.get_logger()
+
+
+def clades_to_model(
+    clade_counts: pl.LazyFrame, threshold: float = 0.01, threshold_weeks: int = 3, max_clades: int = 9
+) -> list[str]:
+    """
+    Determine list of clades to model
+
+    Parameters
+    ----------
+    clade_counts : polars.LazyFrame
+        Clade counts by date and location, summarized from Nextstrain metadata
+    threshold : float
+        Clades that account for at least ``threshold`` proportion of reported
+        sequences are candidates for inclusion.
+    threshold_weeks : int
+        The number of weeks that we look back to identify clades.
+
+    Returns
+    -------
+    list of strings
+    """
+    start = time.perf_counter()
+
+    # based on the data's most recent date, get the week start three weeks ago (not including this week)
+    max_day = clade_counts.select(pl.max("date")).collect().item()
+    three_sundays_ago = max_day - timedelta(days=max_day.weekday() + 7 * (threshold_weeks))
+
+    # sum over weeks, combine states, and limit to just the past 3 weeks (not including current week)
+    lf = (
+        clade_counts.filter(pl.col("date") >= three_sundays_ago)
+        .sort("date")
+        .group_by_dynamic("date", every="1w", start_by="sunday", group_by="clade")
+        .agg(pl.col("count").sum())
+    )
+
+    # create a separate frame with the total counts per week
+    total_counts = lf.group_by("date").agg(pl.col("count").sum().alias("total_count"))
+
+    # join with count data to add a total counts per day column
+    prop_dat = lf.join(total_counts, on="date").with_columns(
+        (pl.col("count") / pl.col("total_count")).alias("proportion")
+    )
+
+    # retrieve list of variants which have crossed the threshold over the past threshold_weeks
+    high_prev_variants = prop_dat.filter(pl.col("proportion") > threshold).select("clade").unique().collect()
+
+    # if more than the specified number of clades cross the threshold,
+    # take the clades with the largest counts over the past threshold_weeks
+    if len(high_prev_variants) > max_clades:
+        high_prev_variants = prop_dat.group_by("clade").agg(pl.col("count").sum()).sort("count", descending=True)
+
+    variants = high_prev_variants.get_column("clade").to_list()[:max_clades]
+
+    end = time.perf_counter()
+    elapsed = end - start
+    logger.info("generated clade list", elapsed=elapsed)
+
+    return variants
+
+
+def main():
+    # FIXME: provide ability to instantiate Config for the
+    # get_clade_list function and get the data_path from there
+    data_path = AnyPath(".").home() / "covid_variant"
+
+    genome_metadata_path = download_covid_genome_metadata(
+        Config.nextstrain_latest_genome_metadata,
+        data_path,
+    )
+    lf_metadata = get_covid_genome_metadata(genome_metadata_path)
+    lf_metadata_filtered = filter_covid_genome_metadata(lf_metadata)
+    counts = get_clade_counts(lf_metadata_filtered)
+    clade_list = clades_to_model(counts)
+
+    return clade_list
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    main()