diff --git a/config.go b/config.go
index ceee616..23e0435 100644
--- a/config.go
+++ b/config.go
@@ -40,6 +40,11 @@ func (m *Repos) ConfigSave() error {
 }
 
 func (m *Repos) ConfigLoad() error {
+	if os.Getenv("FORGE_HOME") == "" {
+		homeDir, _ := os.UserHomeDir()
+		fullpath := filepath.Join(homeDir, ".config/forge")
+		os.Setenv("FORGE_HOME", fullpath)
+	}
 	var data []byte
 	var err error
 	if m == nil {
@@ -50,7 +55,6 @@ func (m *Repos) ConfigLoad() error {
 		// something went wrong loading the file
 		return err
 	}
-
 	if data != nil {
 		// this means the forge.pb file exists and was read
 		if len(data) == 0 {
@@ -61,6 +65,7 @@ func (m *Repos) ConfigLoad() error {
 			log.Warn("broken forge.pb config file")
 			return err
 		}
+		log.Info("config load found", len(m.Repos), "repos")
 		return nil
 	}
 
@@ -80,6 +85,27 @@ func (m *Repos) ConfigLoad() error {
 			log.Warn("broken forge.text config file")
 			return err
 		}
+		log.Info("config load found", len(m.Repos), "repos")
+		return nil
+	}
+
+	// forge.text doesn't exist. try forge.json
+	// this lets the user hand edit the config
+	if data, err = loadFile("forge.json"); err != nil {
+		// something went wrong loading the file
+		return err
+	}
+
+	if data != nil {
+		// this means the forge.text file exists and was read
+		if len(data) == 0 {
+			// todo: error out if the file is empty?
+		}
+		if err = m.UnmarshalJSON(data); err != nil {
+			log.Warn("broken forge.json config file")
+			return err
+		}
+		log.Info("config load found", len(m.Repos), "repos")
 		return nil
 	}
 
diff --git a/forgeConfig/Makefile b/forgeConfig/Makefile
index 9c34ac1..8c6325d 100644
--- a/forgeConfig/Makefile
+++ b/forgeConfig/Makefile
@@ -1,8 +1,18 @@
+VERSION = $(shell git describe --tags)
+BUILDTIME = $(shell date +%Y.%m.%d)
+
 build:
-	GO111MODULE=off go build
+	GO111MODULE=off go build \
+		-ldflags "-X main.VERSION=${VERSION} -X main.BUILDTIME=${BUILDTIME} -X gui.GUIVERSION=${VERSION}"
 	./forgeConfig
 	FORGE_HOME=/tmp/forge ./forgeConfig
 
+list:
+	./forgeConfig --list
+
+add:
+	./forgeConfig --add --name 'foo' --gopath 'go.wit.com/apps/foo'
+
 goimports:
 	goimports -w *.go
 
diff --git a/forgeConfig/argv.go b/forgeConfig/argv.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..44aff23
--- /dev/null
+++ b/forgeConfig/argv.go
@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"os"
+
+	"github.com/alexflint/go-arg"
+)
+
+var argv args
+
+type args struct {
+	ConfigDir string `arg:"env:FORGE_HOME"                    help:"defaults to ~/.config/forge/"`
+	List      bool   `arg:"--list"         default:"false"    help:"list repos in your config"`
+	Add       bool   `arg:"--add"          default:"false"    help:"add a new repo"`
+	Name      string `arg:"--name"                            help:"name of the repo"`
+	GoPath    string `arg:"--gopath"                          help:"gopath of the repo"`
+}
+
+func (a args) Description() string {
+	return `
+         forgeConfig -- add entries to your config files
+
+This is just example protobuf code to test forgepb is working
+but it could be used to automagically create a config file too.
+
+If you need to change your config file, just edit the forge.text or forge.json
+files then remove the forge.pb and ConfigLoad() will attempt to load those files instead
+`
+}
+
+func (args) Version() string {
+	return "virtigo " + VERSION
+}
+
+func init() {
+	var pp *arg.Parser
+	pp = arg.MustParse(&argv)
+
+	if pp == nil {
+		pp.WriteHelp(os.Stdout)
+		os.Exit(0)
+	}
+}
diff --git a/forgeConfig/main.go b/forgeConfig/main.go
index 058412d..cdd70cf 100644
--- a/forgeConfig/main.go
+++ b/forgeConfig/main.go
@@ -8,6 +8,9 @@ import (
 	"go.wit.com/log"
 )
 
+// sent via ldflags
+var VERSION string
+
 func main() {
 	var repos *forgepb.Repos
 	repos = new(forgepb.Repos)
@@ -15,6 +18,30 @@ func main() {
 		log.Warn("forgepb.ConfigLoad() failed", err)
 		os.Exit(-1)
 	}
+	if argv.List {
+		log.Info(forgepb.RepoHeader())
+		loop := repos.SortByName() // get the list of droplets
+		for loop.Scan() {
+			r := loop.Repo()
+			log.Info("repo:", r.Name, r.Gopath)
+		}
+		os.Exit(0)
+	}
+	if argv.Add {
+		log.Info("going to add a new repo", argv.Name, argv.GoPath)
+		new1 := new(forgepb.Repo)
+		new1.Name = argv.Name
+		new1.Gopath = argv.GoPath
+		if repos.Append(new1) {
+			log.Info("added", new1.Name, "ok")
+		} else {
+			log.Info("added", new1.Name, "failed")
+			os.Exit(-1)
+		}
+		repos.ConfigSave()
+		os.Exit(0)
+	}
+
 	testAddRepos(repos)
 	repos.ConfigSave()
 }
diff --git a/human.go b/human.go
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..479c6d6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/human.go
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+package forgepb
+
+// mostly just functions related to making STDOUT
+// more readable by us humans
+
+// also function shortcuts the do fixed limited formatting (it's like COBOL)
+// so reporting tables of the status of what droplets and hypervisors
+// are in text columns and rows that can be easily read in a terminal
+
+func RepoHeader() string {
+	return "Name          Path"
+}