diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 35a396e5..5e9c8de0 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -10,6 +10,29 @@ Now you can access mastodon at <https://social.local.gd:44443>
 - You will have to "accept the security risk".
 - It may take a minute for the webpage to come online. Until then you will see 502 Bad Gateway
 
+Remember that if you want to clear the state from one launch to the next, you should delete the `nixos.qcow2` file that is created.
+
+# Account creation / access
+
+Mastodon throws a hissyfit when trying to create accounts / login if it's not being **accessed** on port 443. This is a problem with the way we've set up port forwarding.
+
+My current (terrible) solution is to run 
+```
+nixos-rebuild build-vm --flake .#mastodon
+
+# start a proxy server to the server on port 1234 (you can pick your favourite port)
+ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o LogLevel=Error -D 1234 root@localhost -p 2222
+
+# optional. create a new firefox profile so we don't have to undo the settings when we're done
+mkdir /tmp/profile && firefox --profile /tmp/profile
+```
+
+Then configure Firefox by going to `about:config` and setting `network.proxy.allow_hijacking_localhost` to `true`, and in `about:preferences` set the proxy to manual `localhost` port `1234`, and enable `Proxy DNS` at the bottom.
+
+Navigate to <https://social.local.gd>, and click "create account"
+
+- email verification is WIP, but should be accessible at <https://social.local.gd/letter_opener>
+
 # TODOs
 
 - [ ] set up a domain name and a DNS service so we can do deploy this to an actual machine
@@ -24,7 +47,12 @@ Now you can access mastodon at <https://social.local.gd:44443>
 - [ ] configure scaling behaviour
   - SEE: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/scaling/
 - [ ] remove the need for "accept security risk" dialogue if possible
+- [ ] development environment does not work seamlessly. 
+- [ ] don't require proxy server
+  - either forward 443 directly, or get mastodon to accept connections on a different port (maybe 3000? see development environment documentation)
+- [ ] get letter_opener working
 
 # resources
 
 - Tutorial for setting up better logging: https://krisztianfekete.org/self-hosting-mastodon-on-nixos-a-proof-of-concept/
+- Setting up development environment: https://docs.joinmastodon.org/dev/setup/
diff --git a/configuration.nix b/configuration.nix
index 4fb4d41f..9cdcede4 100644
--- a/configuration.nix
+++ b/configuration.nix
@@ -26,7 +26,15 @@
 
   # let us log in
   users.mutableUsers = false;
-  users.users.root.password = " ";
+  users.users.root.hashedPassword = "";
+  services.openssh = {
+    enable = true;
+    settings = {
+      PermitRootLogin = "yes";
+      PermitEmptyPasswords = "yes";
+      UsePAM = "no";
+    };
+  };
 
   # access to convenient things
   environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ w3m python3 ];
@@ -45,6 +53,24 @@
         fromAddress = "mastodon@social.local.gd";
         createLocally = false;
       };
+
+      extraConfig = {
+        EMAIL_DOMAIN_ALLOWLIST = "example.com";
+        RAILS_ENV = "development";
+        # for letter_opener
+        REMOTE_DEV = "true";
+      };
+      # database = {
+      #   # createLocally = false;
+      #   # host = "/run/postgresql";
+      #   # port = null;
+      #   name = "mastodon_development";
+      #   user = "mastodon_development";
+      # };
+      # user = "mastodon_development";
+
+      # database.createLocally = false;
+
       # from the documentation: recommended is the amount of your CPU cores minus one.
       # but it also must be a positive integer
       streamingProcesses = let
@@ -54,6 +80,41 @@
         max 1 (ncores - 1);
     };
 
+    # users.users.mastodon_development = {
+    #   isSystemUser = true;
+    #   home = config.services.mastodon.package;
+    #   group = "mastodon";
+    #   packages = [ config.services.mastodon.package pkgs.imagemagick ];
+    # };
+
+    services.postgresql = {
+      enable = true;
+      ensureUsers = [
+        {
+          name = config.services.mastodon.database.user;
+          ensureClauses.createdb = true;
+          # ensurePermissions."mastodon_development_test.*" = "ALL PRIVILEGES";
+        }
+      ];
+      # ensureDatabases = [ "mastodon_development_test" ];
+    };
+
+    systemd.services.mastodon-init-db.script = lib.mkForce ''
+        if [ `psql -c \
+                "select count(*) from pg_class c \
+                join pg_namespace s on s.oid = c.relnamespace \
+                where s.nspname not in ('pg_catalog', 'pg_toast', 'information_schema') \
+                and s.nspname not like 'pg_temp%';" | sed -n 3p` -eq 0 ]; then
+          echo "Seeding database"
+          rails db:setup
+          # SAFETY_ASSURED=1 rails db:schema:load
+          rails db:seed
+        else
+          echo "Migrating database (this might be a noop)"
+          rails db:migrate
+        fi
+    '';
+
     security.acme = {
       defaults = {
         # invalid server; the systemd service will fail, and we won't get properly signed certificates
@@ -63,6 +124,12 @@
       };
     };
 
+    services.nginx.virtualHosts.${config.services.mastodon.localDomain} = {
+      # extraConfig = ''
+      #   add_header Referrer-Policy "same-origin";
+      # '';
+    };
+
     virtualisation.memorySize = 2048;
     virtualisation.forwardPorts = [
       {
@@ -70,6 +137,11 @@
         host.port = 44443;
         guest.port = 443;
       }
+      {
+        from = "host";
+        host.port = 2222;
+        guest.port = 22;
+      }
     ];
   };
 }