diff --git a/common.nix b/common.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 431e487..0000000
--- a/common.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,67 +0,0 @@
-{ pkgs, ... }: {
-  # customize nixos-rebuild build-vm to be a bit more convenient
-  virtualisation.vmVariant = {
-    # let us log in
-    users.mutableUsers = false;
-    users.users.root.hashedPassword = "";
-    services.openssh = {
-      enable = true;
-      settings = {
-        PermitRootLogin = "yes";
-        PermitEmptyPasswords = "yes";
-        UsePAM = "no";
-      };
-    };
-
-    # automatically log in
-    services.getty.autologinUser = "root";
-    services.getty.helpLine = ''
-      Type `C-a c` to access the qemu console
-      Type `C-a x` to quit
-    '';
-    # access to convenient things
-    environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
-      w3m
-      python3
-      xterm # for `resize`
-    ];
-    environment.loginShellInit = ''
-      eval "$(resize)"
-    '';
-    nix.extraOptions = ''
-      extra-experimental-features = nix-command flakes
-    '';
-
-    # no graphics. see nixos-shell
-    virtualisation = {
-      graphics = false;
-      qemu.consoles = [ "tty0" "hvc0" ];
-      qemu.options = [
-        "-serial null"
-        "-device virtio-serial"
-        "-chardev stdio,mux=on,id=char0,signal=off"
-        "-mon chardev=char0,mode=readline"
-        "-device virtconsole,chardev=char0,nr=0"
-      ];
-    };
-
-
-    # we can't forward port 80 or 443, so let's run nginx on a different port
-    networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 8443 8080 ];
-    services.nginx.defaultSSLListenPort = 8443;
-    services.nginx.defaultHTTPListenPort = 8080;
-    virtualisation.forwardPorts = [
-      {
-        from = "host";
-        host.port = 8080;
-        guest.port = 8080;
-      }
-      {
-        from = "host";
-        host.port = 8443;
-        guest.port = 8443;
-      }
-    ];
-    
-  };
-}
diff --git a/flake.lock b/flake.lock
index 419cf1d..9e0adef 100644
--- a/flake.lock
+++ b/flake.lock
@@ -2,18 +2,14 @@
   "nodes": {
     "nixpkgs": {
       "locked": {
-        "lastModified": 1708475490,
-        "narHash": "sha256-g1v0TsWBQPX97ziznfJdWhgMyMGtoBFs102xSYO4syU=",
-        "owner": "nixos",
-        "repo": "nixpkgs",
-        "rev": "0e74ca98a74bc7270d28838369593635a5db3260",
-        "type": "github"
+        "lastModified": 1724846166,
+        "narHash": "sha256-Um1Ahz09XHepSA1QQmdQk8nbsJEwHe54gP3naWp6D94=",
+        "path": "/home/qolen/nixpkgs",
+        "type": "path"
       },
       "original": {
-        "owner": "nixos",
-        "ref": "nixos-unstable",
-        "repo": "nixpkgs",
-        "type": "github"
+        "path": "/home/qolen/nixpkgs",
+        "type": "path"
       }
     },
     "root": {
diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
index bdc1b4f..ff723fa 100644
--- a/flake.nix
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -2,7 +2,8 @@
   description = "Testing mastodon configurations";
 
   inputs = {
-    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs?ref=nixos-unstable";
+    # nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs?ref=nixos-unstable";
+    nixpkgs.url = "path:/home/qolen/nixpkgs";
   };
 
   outputs = { self, nixpkgs }: 
@@ -12,31 +13,41 @@
   in {
 
     nixosModules = {
+      interactive-vm = import ./interactive-vm.nix;
       mastodon = import ./mastodon.nix;
+      mastodon-vm = import ./mastodon-vm.nix;
       peertube = import ./peertube.nix;
+      peertube-vm = import ./peertube-vm.nix;
       pixelfed = import ./pixelfed.nix;
+      pixelfed-vm = import ./pixelfed-vm.nix;
       garage = import ./garage.nix;
     };
 
     nixosConfigurations = {
       mastodon = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
         inherit system;
-        modules = [ ./common.nix ./mastodon.nix ./garage.nix ];
+        modules = with self.nixosModules; [ interactive-vm mastodon mastodon-vm garage ];
       };
 
       peertube = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
         inherit system;
-        modules = [ ./common.nix ./peertube.nix ./garage.nix ];
+        modules = with self.nixosModules; [ interactive-vm peertube peertube-vm garage ];
       };
 
       pixelfed = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
         inherit system;
-        modules = [ ./common.nix ./pixelfed.nix ./garage.nix ];
+        modules = with self.nixosModules; [ interactive-vm pixelfed pixelfed-vm garage ];
       };
 
       all = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
         inherit system;
-        modules = [ ./common.nix ./mastodon.nix ./peertube.nix ./pixelfed.nix ./garage.nix ];
+        modules = with self.nixosModules; [
+          interactive-vm
+          peertube peertube-vm
+          pixelfed pixelfed-vm
+          mastodon mastodon-vm
+          garage
+        ];
       };
     };
 
diff --git a/interactive-vm.nix b/interactive-vm.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dd94309
--- /dev/null
+++ b/interactive-vm.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,64 @@
+# customize nixos-rebuild build-vm to be a bit more convenient
+{ pkgs, ... }: {
+  # let us log in
+  users.mutableUsers = false;
+  users.users.root.hashedPassword = "";
+  services.openssh = {
+    enable = true;
+    settings = {
+      PermitRootLogin = "yes";
+      PermitEmptyPasswords = "yes";
+      UsePAM = false;
+    };
+  };
+
+  # automatically log in
+  services.getty.autologinUser = "root";
+  services.getty.helpLine = ''
+    Type `C-a c` to access the qemu console
+    Type `C-a x` to quit
+  '';
+  # access to convenient things
+  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
+    w3m
+    python3
+    xterm # for `resize`
+  ];
+  environment.loginShellInit = ''
+    eval "$(resize)"
+  '';
+  nix.extraOptions = ''
+    extra-experimental-features = nix-command flakes
+  '';
+
+  # no graphics. see nixos-shell
+  virtualisation = {
+    graphics = false;
+    qemu.consoles = [ "tty0" "hvc0" ];
+    qemu.options = [
+      "-serial null"
+      "-device virtio-serial"
+      "-chardev stdio,mux=on,id=char0,signal=off"
+      "-mon chardev=char0,mode=readline"
+      "-device virtconsole,chardev=char0,nr=0"
+    ];
+  };
+
+
+  # we can't forward port 80 or 443, so let's run nginx on a different port
+  networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 8443 8080 ];
+  services.nginx.defaultSSLListenPort = 8443;
+  services.nginx.defaultHTTPListenPort = 8080;
+  virtualisation.forwardPorts = [
+    {
+      from = "host";
+      host.port = 8080;
+      guest.port = 8080;
+    }
+    {
+      from = "host";
+      host.port = 8443;
+      guest.port = 8443;
+    }
+  ];
+}
diff --git a/mastodon-vm.nix b/mastodon-vm.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fcfe3e5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mastodon-vm.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+{ modulesPath, lib, config, ... }: {
+
+  imports = [ (modulesPath + "/virtualisation/qemu-vm.nix") ];
+
+  config = lib.mkMerge [
+    {
+      services.mastodon = {
+        # redirects to localhost, but allows it to have a proper domain name
+        localDomain = "mastodon.localhost";
+
+        smtp = {
+          fromAddress = "mastodon@mastodon.localhost";
+          createLocally = false;
+        };
+
+        extraConfig = {
+          EMAIL_DOMAIN_ALLOWLIST = "example.com";
+        };
+
+        # from the documentation: recommended is the amount of your CPU cores
+        # minus one. but it also must be a positive integer
+        streamingProcesses = lib.max 1 (config.virtualisation.cores - 1);
+      };
+
+      security.acme = {
+        defaults = {
+          # invalid server; the systemd service will fail, and we won't get
+          # properly signed certificates. but let's not spam the letsencrypt
+          # servers (and we don't own this domain anyways)
+          server = "https://127.0.0.1";
+          email = "none";
+        };
+      };
+
+      virtualisation.memorySize = 2048;
+      virtualisation.forwardPorts = [
+        {
+          from = "host";
+          host.port = 44443;
+          guest.port = 443;
+        }
+      ];
+    }
+
+    #### run mastodon as development environment
+    {
+
+      networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 55001 ];
+      services.mastodon = {
+        # needed so we can directly access mastodon at port 55001
+        # otherwise, mastodon has to be accessed *from* port 443, which we can't do via port forwarding
+        enableUnixSocket = false;
+        extraConfig = {
+          RAILS_ENV = "development";
+          # to be accessible from outside the VM
+          BIND = "0.0.0.0";
+          # for letter_opener (still doesn't work though)
+          REMOTE_DEV = "true";
+          LOCAL_DOMAIN = "mastodon.localhost:8443";
+        };
+      };
+
+      services.postgresql = {
+        enable = true;
+        ensureUsers = [
+          {
+            name = config.services.mastodon.database.user;
+            ensureClauses.createdb = true;
+            # ensurePermissions doesn't work anymore
+            # ensurePermissions = {
+            #   "mastodon_development.*" = "ALL PRIVILEGES";
+            #   "mastodon_test.*" = "ALL PRIVILEGES";
+            # }
+          }
+        ];
+        # ensureDatabases = [ "mastodon_development_test" "mastodon_test" ];
+      };
+
+      # Currently, nixos seems to be able to create a single database per
+      # postgres user. This works for the production version of mastodon, which
+      # is what's packaged in nixpkgs. For development, we need two databases,
+      # mastodon_development and mastodon_test. This used to be possible with
+      # ensurePermissions, but that's broken and has been removed. Here I copy
+      # the mastodon-init-db script from upstream nixpkgs, but add the single
+      # line `rails db:setup`, which asks mastodon to create the postgres
+      # databases for us.
+      # FIXME: the commented out lines were breaking things, but presumably they're necessary for something.
+      # TODO: see if we can fix the upstream ensurePermissions stuff. See commented out lines in services.postgresql above for what that config would look like.
+      systemd.services.mastodon-init-db.script = lib.mkForce ''
+        result="$(psql -t --csv -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%';")" || error_code=$?
+        if [ "''${error_code:-0}" -ne 0 ]; then
+          echo "Failure checking if database is seeded. psql gave exit code $error_code"
+          exit "$error_code"
+        fi
+        if [ "$result" -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
+      '';
+      virtualisation.forwardPorts = [
+        {
+          from = "host";
+          host.port = 55001;
+          guest.port = 55001;
+        }
+      ];
+    }
+  ];
+}
diff --git a/mastodon.nix b/mastodon.nix
index 95fde42..e0c2ea4 100644
--- a/mastodon.nix
+++ b/mastodon.nix
@@ -4,188 +4,78 @@ let
     secret = "7d37d093435a41f2aab8f13c19ba067d9776c90215f56614adad6ece597dbb34";
   };
 in
-{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }: lib.mkMerge [
-  { # garage setup
-    services.garage = {
-      ensureBuckets = {
-        mastodon = {
-          website = true;
-          corsRules = {
-            enable = true;
-            allowedHeaders = [ "*" ];
-            allowedMethods = [ "GET" ];
-            allowedOrigins = [ "*" ];
-          };
+{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }: {
+ #### garage setup
+  services.garage = {
+    ensureBuckets = {
+      mastodon = {
+        website = true;
+        corsRules = {
+          enable = true;
+          allowedHeaders = [ "*" ];
+          allowedMethods = [ "GET" ];
+          allowedOrigins = [ "*" ];
         };
       };
-      ensureKeys = {
-        mastodon = {
-          inherit (snakeoil_key) id secret;
-          ensureAccess = {
-            mastodon = {
-              read = true;
-              write = true;
-              owner = true;
-            };
+    };
+    ensureKeys = {
+      mastodon = {
+        inherit (snakeoil_key) id secret;
+        ensureAccess = {
+          mastodon = {
+            read = true;
+            write = true;
+            owner = true;
           };
         };
       };
     };
-    services.mastodon = {
-      extraConfig = rec {
-        S3_ENABLED = "true";
-        S3_ENDPOINT = "http://s3.garage.localhost:3900";
-        S3_REGION = "garage";
-        S3_BUCKET = "mastodon";
-        # use <S3_BUCKET>.<S3_ENDPOINT>
-        S3_OVERRIDE_PATH_STLE = "true";
-        AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = snakeoil_key.id;
-        AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = snakeoil_key.secret;
-        S3_PROTOCOL = "http";
-        S3_HOSTNAME = "web.garage.localhost:3902";
-        # by default it tries to use "<S3_HOSTNAME>/<S3_BUCKET>"
-        S3_ALIAS_HOST = "${S3_BUCKET}.${S3_HOSTNAME}";
-        # SEE: the last section in https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/optional/object-storage/
-        # TODO: can we set up ACLs with garage?
-        S3_PERMISSION = "";
-      };
+  };
+  services.mastodon = {
+    extraConfig = rec {
+      S3_ENABLED = "true";
+      # TODO: this shouldn't be hard-coded, it should come from the garage configuration
+      S3_ENDPOINT = "http://s3.garage.localhost:3900";
+      S3_REGION = "garage";
+      S3_BUCKET = "mastodon";
+      # use <S3_BUCKET>.<S3_ENDPOINT>
+      S3_OVERRIDE_PATH_STLE = "true";
+      AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID = snakeoil_key.id;
+      AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY = snakeoil_key.secret;
+      S3_PROTOCOL = "http";
+      S3_HOSTNAME = "web.garage.localhost:3902";
+      # by default it tries to use "<S3_HOSTNAME>/<S3_BUCKET>"
+      S3_ALIAS_HOST = "${S3_BUCKET}.${S3_HOSTNAME}";
+      # SEE: the last section in https://docs.joinmastodon.org/admin/optional/object-storage/
+      # TODO: can we set up ACLs with garage?
+      S3_PERMISSION = "";
     };
-  }
-  # mastodon setup
-  {
-    # open up access to the mastodon web interface
-    networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 443 ];
+  };
 
-    services.mastodon = {
-      enable = true;
+  #### mastodon setup
 
-      # TODO: set up a domain name, and a DNS service so that this can run not in a vm
-      # localDomain = "domain.social";
-      configureNginx = true;
+  # open up access to the mastodon web interface
+  networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 443 ];
 
-      # TODO: configure a mailserver so this works
-      # smtp.fromAddress = "mastodon@mastodon.localhost";
+  services.mastodon = {
+    enable = true;
 
-      # TODO: this is hardware-dependent. let's figure it out when we have hardware
-      # streamingProcesses = 1;
-    };
+    # TODO: set up a domain name, and a DNS service so that this can run not in a vm
+    # localDomain = "domain.social";
+    configureNginx = true;
 
-    security.acme = {
-      acceptTerms = true;
-      preliminarySelfsigned = true;
-      # TODO: configure a mailserver so we can set up acme
-      # defaults.email = "test@example.com";
-    };
-  }
+    # TODO: configure a mailserver so this works
+    # smtp.fromAddress = "mastodon@domain.social";
 
-  # VM setup
-  {
-    services.mastodon = {
-      # redirects to localhost, but allows it to have a proper domain name
-      localDomain = "mastodon.localhost";
+    # TODO: this is hardware-dependent. let's figure it out when we have hardware
+    # streamingProcesses = 1;
+  };
 
-      smtp = {
-        fromAddress = "mastodon@mastodon.localhost";
-        createLocally = false;
-      };
+  security.acme = {
+    acceptTerms = true;
+    preliminarySelfsigned = true;
+    # TODO: configure a mailserver so we can set up acme
+    # defaults.email = "test@example.com";
+  };
+}
 
-      extraConfig = {
-        EMAIL_DOMAIN_ALLOWLIST = "example.com";
-      };
-
-      # from the documentation: recommended is the amount of your CPU cores minus one.
-      # but it also must be a positive integer
-      streamingProcesses = lib.max 1 (config.virtualisation.cores - 1);
-    };
-
-    security.acme = {
-      defaults = {
-        # invalid server; the systemd service will fail, and we won't get properly signed certificates
-        # but let's not spam the letsencrypt servers (and we don't own this domain anyways)
-        server = "https://127.0.0.1";
-        email = "none";
-      };
-    };
-
-    virtualisation.memorySize = 2048;
-    virtualisation.forwardPorts = [
-      {
-        from = "host";
-        host.port = 44443;
-        guest.port = 443;
-      }
-    ];
-  }
-
-  # run mastodon as development environment
-  {
-    networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 55001 ];
-    services.mastodon = {
-      # needed so we can directly access mastodon at port 55001
-      # otherwise, mastodon has to be accessed *from* port 443, which we can't do via port forwarding
-      enableUnixSocket = false;
-      extraConfig = {
-        RAILS_ENV = "development";
-        # to be accessible from outside the VM
-        BIND = "0.0.0.0";
-        # for letter_opener (still doesn't work though)
-        REMOTE_DEV = "true";
-        LOCAL_DOMAIN = "mastodon.localhost:8443";
-      };
-    };
-
-    services.postgresql = {
-      enable = true;
-      ensureUsers = [
-        {
-          name = config.services.mastodon.database.user;
-          ensureClauses.createdb = true;
-          # ensurePermissions doesn't work anymore
-          # ensurePermissions = {
-          #   "mastodon_development.*" = "ALL PRIVILEGES";
-          #   "mastodon_test.*" = "ALL PRIVILEGES";
-          # }
-        }
-      ];
-      # ensureDatabases = [ "mastodon_development_test" "mastodon_test" ];
-    };
-
-    # Currently, nixos seems to be able to create a single database per
-    # postgres user. This works for the production version of mastodon, which
-    # is what's packaged in nixpkgs. For development, we need two databases,
-    # mastodon_development and mastodon_test. This used to be possible with
-    # ensurePermissions, but that's broken and has been removed. Here I copy
-    # the mastodon-init-db script from upstream nixpkgs, but add the single
-    # line `rails db:setup`, which asks mastodon to create the postgres
-    # databases for us.
-    # FIXME: the commented out lines were breaking things, but presumably they're necessary for something.
-    # TODO: see if we can fix the upstream ensurePermissions stuff. See above for what that config would look like.
-    systemd.services.mastodon-init-db.script = lib.mkForce ''
-      result="$(psql -t --csv -c \
-          "select count(*) from pg_class c \
-          join pg_namespace s on s.oid = c.relnamespace \
-          where s.nspname not in ('pg_catalog', 'pg_toast', 'information_schema') \
-          and s.nspname not like 'pg_temp%';")" || error_code=$?
-      if [ "''${error_code:-0}" -ne 0 ]; then
-        echo "Failure checking if database is seeded. psql gave exit code $error_code"
-        exit "$error_code"
-      fi
-      if [ "$result" -eq 0 ]; then
-        echo "Seeding database"
-        rails db:setup
-        # SAFETY_ASSURED=1 rails db:schema:load
-        rails db:seed
-      # else
-        # echo "Migrating database (this might be a noop)"
-        # rails db:migrate
-      fi
-    '';
-    virtualisation.forwardPorts = [
-      {
-        from = "host";
-        host.port = 55001;
-        guest.port = 55001;
-      }
-    ];
-  }
-]
diff --git a/peertube-vm.nix b/peertube-vm.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d38a625
--- /dev/null
+++ b/peertube-vm.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+{ pkgs, modulesPath, ... }: {
+  imports = [ (modulesPath + "/virtualisation/qemu-vm.nix") ];
+  services.peertube = {
+    enable = true;
+    # redirects to localhost, but allows it to have a proper domain name
+    localDomain = "peertube.localhost";
+    enableWebHttps = false;
+    settings = {
+      listen.hostname = "0.0.0.0";
+      instance.name = "PeerTube Test VM";
+    };
+    # TODO: use agenix
+    secrets.secretsFile = pkgs.writeText "secret" ''
+      574e093907d1157ac0f8e760a6deb1035402003af5763135bae9cbd6abe32b24
+    '';
+
+    # TODO: in most of nixpkgs, these are true by default. upstream that unless there's a good reason not to.
+    redis.createLocally = true;
+    database.createLocally = true;
+    configureNginx = true;
+  };
+
+  virtualisation.forwardPorts = [
+    {
+      from = "host";
+      host.port = 9000;
+      guest.port = 9000;
+    }
+  ];
+}
diff --git a/peertube.nix b/peertube.nix
index 4e641b0..e0d4926 100644
--- a/peertube.nix
+++ b/peertube.nix
@@ -83,34 +83,4 @@ in
     AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=${snakeoil_key.id}
     AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=${snakeoil_key.secret}
   '';
-
-  virtualisation.vmVariant = { config, ... }: {
-    services.peertube = {
-      enable = true;
-      # redirects to localhost, but allows it to have a proper domain name
-      localDomain = "peertube.localhost";
-      enableWebHttps = false;
-      settings = {
-        listen.hostname = "0.0.0.0";
-        instance.name = "PeerTube Test VM";
-      };
-      # TODO: use agenix
-      secrets.secretsFile = pkgs.writeText "secret" ''
-        574e093907d1157ac0f8e760a6deb1035402003af5763135bae9cbd6abe32b24
-      '';
-
-      # TODO: in most of nixpkgs, these are true by default. upstream that unless there's a good reason not to.
-      redis.createLocally = true;
-      database.createLocally = true;
-      configureNginx = true;
-    };
-
-    virtualisation.forwardPorts = [
-      {
-        from = "host";
-        host.port = 9000;
-        guest.port = 9000;
-      }
-    ];
-  };
 }
diff --git a/pixelfed-vm.nix b/pixelfed-vm.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c065e17
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pixelfed-vm.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+{ pkgs, modulesPath, ... }: {
+  imports = [ (modulesPath + "/virtualisation/qemu-vm.nix") ];
+  networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 80 ];
+  services.pixelfed = {
+    enable = true;
+    domain = "pixelfed.localhost";
+    # TODO: secrets management!
+    secretFile = pkgs.writeText "secrets.env" ''
+      APP_KEY=adKK9EcY8Hcj3PLU7rzG9rJ6KKTOtYfA
+    '';
+    settings = {
+      OPEN_REGISTRATION = true;
+      FORCE_HTTPS_URLS = false;
+    };
+    # I feel like this should have an `enable` option and be configured via `services.nginx` rather than mirroring those options in services.pixelfed.nginx
+    # TODO: If that indeed makes sense, upstream it.
+    nginx = {};
+  };
+  virtualisation.memorySize = 2048;
+  virtualisation.forwardPorts = [
+    {
+      from = "host";
+      host.port = 8000;
+      guest.port = 80;
+    }
+  ];
+}
diff --git a/pixelfed.nix b/pixelfed.nix
index 9a64071..2636117 100644
--- a/pixelfed.nix
+++ b/pixelfed.nix
@@ -5,7 +5,6 @@ let
   };
 in
 { config, lib, pkgs, ... }: {
-
   services.garage = {
     ensureBuckets = {
       pixelfed = {
@@ -45,31 +44,4 @@ in
     AWS_ENDPOINT = "http://s3.garage.localhost:3900";
     AWS_USE_PATH_STYLE_ENDPOINT = false;
   };
-
-  virtualisation.vmVariant = {
-    networking.firewall.allowedTCPPorts = [ 80 ];
-    services.pixelfed = {
-      enable = true;
-      domain = "pixelfed.localhost";
-      # TODO: secrets management!
-      secretFile = pkgs.writeText "secrets.env" ''
-        APP_KEY=adKK9EcY8Hcj3PLU7rzG9rJ6KKTOtYfA
-      '';
-      settings = {
-        OPEN_REGISTRATION = true;
-        FORCE_HTTPS_URLS = false;
-      };
-      # I feel like this should have an `enable` option and be configured via `services.nginx` rather than mirroring those options here
-      # TODO: If that indeed makes sense, upstream it.
-      nginx = {};
-    };
-    virtualisation.memorySize = 2048;
-    virtualisation.forwardPorts = [
-      {
-        from = "host";
-        host.port = 8000;
-        guest.port = 80;
-      }
-    ];
-  };
 }
diff --git a/tests/mastodon-garage.nix b/tests/mastodon-garage.nix
index ce04e91..f99d572 100644
--- a/tests/mastodon-garage.nix
+++ b/tests/mastodon-garage.nix
@@ -37,9 +37,9 @@ rebuildableTest {
   name = "test-mastodon-garage";
 
   nodes = {
-    server = {config, ...}: {
+    server = { config, ... }: {
       virtualisation.memorySize = lib.mkVMOverride 4096;
-      imports = [ self.nixosModules.garage self.nixosModules.mastodon ];
+      imports = with self.nixosModules; [ garage mastodon mastodon-vm ];
       # TODO: pair down
       environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
         python3
diff --git a/tests/rebuildableTest.nix b/tests/rebuildableTest.nix
index e734634..9513ca2 100644
--- a/tests/rebuildableTest.nix
+++ b/tests/rebuildableTest.nix
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@ let
       settings = {
         PermitRootLogin = "yes";
         PermitEmptyPasswords = "yes";
-        UsePAM = "no";
+        UsePAM = false;
       };
     };