diff --git a/images/devcontainer/default.nix b/images/devcontainer/default.nix
index 13e272b..088bbcd 100644
--- a/images/devcontainer/default.nix
+++ b/images/devcontainer/default.nix
@@ -5,9 +5,11 @@
 , cacert
 , coreutils
 , curl
+, direnv
 , gcc-unwrapped
 , gitReallyMinimal
 , glibc
+, gnugrep
 , gnutar
 , gzip
 , iana-etc
@@ -44,10 +46,15 @@ let
       # for user management
       shadow
 
+      # more userland tools
+      gnugrep
+      direnv
+
       # for the vscode extension
       gcc-unwrapped
       iproute
       sedutil
+
     ];
   };
 
@@ -73,20 +80,14 @@ let
       # might as well...
       ln -s /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin/bash bin/bash
 
+      # setup shadow, bashrc
+      cp -r ${./root/etc} etc
+      chmod +w etc etc/group etc/passwd etc/shadow
+
       # setup iana-etc for haskell binaries
-      mkdir etc
       ln -s /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/protocols etc/protocols
       ln -s /nix/var/nix/profiles/default/etc/services etc/services
 
-      # setup shadow
-      mkdir etc/pam.d
-      cp ${./root/etc/bashrc} etc/bashrc
-      cp ${./root/etc/group} etc/group
-      cp ${./root/etc/passwd} etc/passwd
-      cp ${./root/etc/shadow} etc/shadow
-      cp ${./root/etc/nsswitch.conf} etc/nsswitch.conf
-      cp ${./root/etc/pam.d/other} etc/pam.d/other
-
       # make sure /tmp exists
       mkdir -m 0777 tmp
 
diff --git a/images/devcontainer/root/etc/bashrc b/images/devcontainer/root/etc/bashrc
index 814bc54..f5c1ee7 100644
--- a/images/devcontainer/root/etc/bashrc
+++ b/images/devcontainer/root/etc/bashrc
@@ -3,4 +3,6 @@ if [[ $- == *i* ]]; then
 
 PS1='\[\033[0;32;40m\][nix]$\[\033[0m\] '
 
+# setup direnv
+eval "$(direnv hook bash)"
 fi