diff --git a/alex/core.nix b/alex/core.nix
index 371e747..a314a46 100644
--- a/alex/core.nix
+++ b/alex/core.nix
@@ -16,6 +16,12 @@
     tm    = "tmux attach || tmux";
   };
 
+  programs.direnv = {
+	enable = true;
+	# enableFishIntegration = true;
+	nix-direnv.enable = true;
+};
+
   home.file.".config/atuin/config.toml".source = ./atuin/config.toml;
   home.file.".config/nvim/init.lua".source = ./nvim/init.lua;
   home.file.".config/tmux/tmux.conf".source = ./tmux/tmux.conf;
diff --git a/hosts/modules/base.nix b/hosts/modules/base.nix
index 2eab27a..46a9f37 100644
--- a/hosts/modules/base.nix
+++ b/hosts/modules/base.nix
@@ -29,17 +29,19 @@
   # break fish man completion and apropos.
   documentation.man.generateCaches = false;
 
-  # enable a 1GB swap file
-  swapDevices = [{
-    device = "/swapfile";
-    size = 1024;
-  }];
-
   # enable zram. not totally sure if this does it in physical ram or just swap
   zramSwap.enable = true;
 
+  boot.kernel.sysctl = {
+    "vm.swappiness" = 10;
+  };
+
   # enable earlyoom to stop the system becoming unresponsive when out of ram
-  services.earlyoom.enable = true;
+  services.earlyoom = {
+    enable = true;
+    freeMemThreshold = 10;
+    freeSwapThreshold = 90;
+  };
 
   networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 8000 8080 ];
 
@@ -67,6 +69,19 @@
   # fish shell
   programs.fish.enable = true;
 
+  # direnv
+  programs.direnv = {
+    enable = true;
+    package = pkgs.direnv;
+    silent = false;
+    loadInNixShell = true;
+    direnvrcExtra = "";
+    nix-direnv = {
+      enable = true;
+      package = pkgs.nix-direnv;
+    };
+  };
+
   # Create a library path that only applies to unpackaged programs by using
   # nix-ldo
   # https://nix.dev/guides/faq#how-to-run-non-nix-executables