diff --git a/.envrc b/.envrc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3550a30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.envrc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+use flake
diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 4bf1a81..8986f1d 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -51,3 +51,6 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Build the project
         run: npm run build
+
+      - name: Build examples
+        run: find examples -maxdepth 2 -type f -iname package.json -execdir "npm install && npm build" \;
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index b32b3d8..c38ed6e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,3 +9,4 @@
 /.psa*
 /.vscode/
 /.spago/
+/.direnv/ 
diff --git a/flake.lock b/flake.lock
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a1d2cd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flake.lock
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+{
+  "nodes": {
+    "flake-utils": {
+      "locked": {
+        "lastModified": 1653893745,
+        "narHash": "sha256-0jntwV3Z8//YwuOjzhV2sgJJPt+HY6KhU7VZUL0fKZQ=",
+        "owner": "numtide",
+        "repo": "flake-utils",
+        "rev": "1ed9fb1935d260de5fe1c2f7ee0ebaae17ed2fa1",
+        "type": "github"
+      },
+      "original": {
+        "owner": "numtide",
+        "repo": "flake-utils",
+        "type": "github"
+      }
+    },
+    "nixpkgs": {
+      "locked": {
+        "lastModified": 1655122334,
+        "narHash": "sha256-Rwwvo9TDCH0a4m/Jvoq5wZ3FLSLiVLBD1FFfN/3XawA=",
+        "owner": "NixOS",
+        "repo": "nixpkgs",
+        "rev": "e1a1cfb56504d1b82a3953bfb0632b37a1ca8d30",
+        "type": "github"
+      },
+      "original": {
+        "owner": "NixOS",
+        "ref": "nixpkgs-unstable",
+        "repo": "nixpkgs",
+        "type": "github"
+      }
+    },
+    "root": {
+      "inputs": {
+        "flake-utils": "flake-utils",
+        "nixpkgs": "nixpkgs"
+      }
+    }
+  },
+  "root": "root",
+  "version": 7
+}
diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ca752d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+{
+  description = "Provide an environment for working in this repo";
+
+  # to handle mac and linux
+  inputs.flake-utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";
+
+  # we want to use a consistent nixpkgs across developers.
+  inputs.nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable";
+
+  outputs = all@{ self, nixpkgs, flake-utils, ... }:
+    flake-utils.lib.eachDefaultSystem (system:
+      let
+        pkgs = import nixpkgs {
+          inherit system;
+        };
+        packages =
+          let
+            # everything we want available in our development environment that isn't managed by
+            # npm, spago
+            # we do not differentiate between libraries needed for building and tools at the moment.
+            sharedPackages = with pkgs; [
+              nodejs-16_x
+            ];
+          in
+            sharedPackages;
+      in {
+        # produce our actual shell
+        devShell = pkgs.mkShell rec {
+          # make our packages available
+          buildInputs = packages;
+        };
+      }
+    );
+}
diff --git a/tools/publish-shell.nix b/tools/publish-shell.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..38ec253
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tools/publish-shell.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+# Universal shell for PureScript repos
+{ pkgs ? import (builtins.fetchGit {
+  # https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/releases/tag/21.11
+  url = "https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs/";
+  ref = "refs/tags/21.11";
+  rev = "a7ecde854aee5c4c7cd6177f54a99d2c1ff28a31";
+  }) {}
+}:
+let
+  easy-ps-src = builtins.fetchGit {
+    url = "https://github.com/justinwoo/easy-purescript-nix.git";
+    ref = "master";
+    rev = "0ad5775c1e80cdd952527db2da969982e39ff592";
+  };
+  easy-ps = import easy-ps-src { inherit pkgs; };
+in
+pkgs.mkShell {
+  nativeBuildInputs = [
+    easy-ps.purs-0_15_0
+    easy-ps.spago
+    easy-ps.pulp-16_0_0-0
+    easy-ps.psc-package
+    easy-ps.purs-tidy
+    pkgs.nodejs-16_x
+    pkgs.nodePackages.bower
+  ];
+  LC_ALL = "C.UTF-8"; # https://github.com/purescript/spago/issues/507
+  # https://github.com/purescript/spago#install-autocompletions-for-bash
+  shellHook = ''
+    source <(spago --bash-completion-script `which spago`)
+  '';
+}