diff --git a/gui.go b/gui.go
index fe44f30..f9803cc 100644
--- a/gui.go
+++ b/gui.go
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ import (
 
 	"go.wit.com/dev/alexflint/arg"
 	"go.wit.com/gui"
+	"go.wit.com/lib/fhelp"
+	"go.wit.com/log"
 )
 
 var argGui ArgsGui
@@ -16,8 +18,7 @@ This struct can be used with the go-arg package. These
 are the generic default command line arguments for the 'GUI' package
 */
 type ArgsGui struct {
-	GuiPluginHack string `arg:"--gui-check-plugin" help:"hack to verify GO plugins load"`
-	GuiVerbose    bool   `arg:"--gui-verbose"      help:"enable all logging"`
+	GuiVerbose bool `arg:"--gui-verbose"      help:"enable all logging"`
 }
 
 /*
@@ -54,6 +55,8 @@ func postMustParse(s string) string {
 			return "true"
 		}
 		return "false"
+	case "DEFAULT":
+		return "gocui"
 	case "FILE":
 		return "someplugin"
 	default:
@@ -62,7 +65,15 @@ func postMustParse(s string) string {
 	return "unknown"
 }
 
-func Gui() *gui.Node {
+var prepGui *GuiPrep
+
+type GuiPrep struct {
+	rootn  *gui.Node
+	hidden bool // don't update the toolkits when it's hidden
+	Auto   func([]string)
+}
+
+func Gui() *GuiPrep {
 	if len(os.Args) > 1 && os.Args[1] == "--gui-check-plugin" {
 		gui.TestPluginAndExitNew(os.Args[2])
 		os.Exit(0)
@@ -70,5 +81,25 @@ func Gui() *gui.Node {
 	arg.Register(&argGui)
 	gui.InitArg()
 
-	return gui.PreInit(postMustParse)
+	prepGui = new(GuiPrep)
+	prepGui.rootn = gui.PreInit(postMustParse)
+
+	return prepGui
+}
+
+func (g *GuiPrep) Start() error {
+	// me.myGui.InitEmbed(resources)
+	if pname, err := g.rootn.Default(); err != nil {
+		if !fhelp.BuildPlugin("gocui") {
+			log.Info("You can't run the forge GUI since the plugins did not build", pname)
+			return nil
+		}
+		if err := g.rootn.LoadToolkitNew("gocui"); err != nil {
+			log.Info("The plugins built, but still failed to load", pname)
+			return err
+		}
+	} else {
+		log.Info("The plugins built and loaded!", pname)
+	}
+	return nil
 }