{ pkgs, self, config, ... }: {

  home.packages = with pkgs; [
    # shell utils
    coreutils
    direnv
    ripgrep
    tree
    wget

    # data manipulation
    jless
    jq
    yq

    # dicts
    aspell
    aspellDicts.en
    aspellDicts.en-computers
    aspellDicts.en-science

    # nix related
    nil
    nix-direnv
    nixd
    nixfmt
    nixpkgs-fmt
    rnix-lsp

    # my own stuff
    self.packages.${pkgs.system}.git-blame-stats
    self.packages.${pkgs.system}.git-broom
  ];

  xdg = {
    configFile = {
      "aspell/config".text = ''
        local-data-dir ${pkgs.aspell}/lib/aspell
        data-dir ${pkgs.aspellDicts.en}/lib/aspell
        personal ${config.xdg.configHome}/aspell/en_US.personal
        repl ${config.xdg.configHome}/aspell/en_US.repl
      '';
    };
  };

  home.sessionVariables = {
    EDITOR = "emacsclient -a=";
    VISUAL = "emacsclient -a=";
    LESS = "-FRSXM";
    LESSCHARSET = "utf-8";
    PAGER = "less";
    ASPELL_CONF = "conf ${config.xdg.configHome}/aspell/config;";
    # for some reason, if I don't set this, zsh is picked up and mess up stuff.
    SHELL = "${pkgs.fish}/bin/fish";
  };

  programs.direnv = {
    enable = true;
    nix-direnv.enable = true;
    enableZshIntegration = true;
    config = {
      global.disable_stdin = true;
      global.strict_env = true;
    };
  };
}