{
  inputs,
  lib,
  system,
  specialArgs,
  user ? "rayandrew",
  ...
}:
let
  # provide an optional { pkgs } 2nd argument to override the pkgs
  mkNixosConfiguration =
    host:
    {
      pkgs ? (
        import inputs.nixpkgs {
          inherit system;
          config.allowUnfree = true;
        }
      ),
    }:
    lib.nixosSystem {
      inherit pkgs;

      specialArgs = specialArgs // {
        inherit host user;
      };

      modules = [
        inputs.disko.nixosModules.default
        ./${host}
        ./${host}/hardware.nix
        ../nixos
        {
          home-manager = {
            useGlobalPkgs = true;
            useUserPackages = true;

            extraSpecialArgs = specialArgs // {
              inherit host user;
            };

            users.${user} = {
              imports = [
                inputs.nix-index-database.hmModules.nix-index
                # ./${host}/home.nix
                ../home
              ];
            };
          };
        }
        # alias for home-manager
        (lib.mkAliasOptionModule [ "hm" ] [
          "home-manager"
          "users"
          user
        ])
        inputs.home-manager.nixosModules.home-manager
        inputs.impermanence.nixosModules.impermanence
      ];
    };
in
{
  pickwick = mkNixosConfiguration "pickwick" { };
}