diff --git a/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/dirs.py b/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/dirs.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e895df0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/dirs.py
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+import os
+import sys
+from pathlib import Path
+
+
+def get_clan_flake_toplevel() -> Path:
+    """Returns the path to the toplevel of the clan flake"""
+    initial_path = Path(os.getcwd())
+    path = Path(initial_path)
+    while path.parent == path:
+        project_files = [".clan-flake"]
+        for project_file in project_files:
+            if (path / project_file).exists():
+                return path
+        path = path.parent
+    return initial_path
+
+
+def user_data_dir() -> Path:
+    if sys.platform == "win32":
+        raise NotImplementedError("Windows is not supported")
+    elif sys.platform == "darwin":
+        return Path(os.path.expanduser("~/Library/Application Support/"))
+    else:
+        return Path(os.getenv("XDG_DATA_HOME", os.path.expanduser("~/.local/share")))
diff --git a/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/errors.py b/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/errors.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..32a26df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/errors.py
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+class ClanError(Exception):
+    """Base class for exceptions in this module."""
+
+    pass
diff --git a/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/tty.py b/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/tty.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5d930ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/tty.py
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+import sys
+from typing import IO, Any, Callable
+
+
+def is_interactive() -> bool:
+    """Returns true if the current process is interactive"""
+    return sys.stdin.isatty() and sys.stdout.isatty()
+
+
+def color_text(code: int, file: IO[Any] = sys.stdout) -> Callable[[str], None]:
+    """
+    Print with color if stderr is a tty
+    """
+
+    def wrapper(text: str) -> None:
+        if file.isatty():
+            print(f"\x1b[{code}m{text}\x1b[0m", file=file)
+        else:
+            print(text, file=file)
+
+    return wrapper
+
+
+warn = color_text(91, file=sys.stderr)
+info = color_text(92, file=sys.stderr)
diff --git a/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/zerotier/__init__.py b/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/zerotier/__init__.py
index 48a2488..be00bc6 100644
--- a/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/zerotier/__init__.py
+++ b/pkgs/clan-cli/clan_cli/zerotier/__init__.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ from pathlib import Path
 from tempfile import TemporaryDirectory
 from typing import Any, Iterator, Optional
 
+from ..errors import ClanError
 from ..nix import nix_shell
 
 
@@ -30,11 +31,11 @@ def try_connect_port(port: int) -> bool:
     return result == 0
 
 
-def find_free_port(port_range: range) -> int:
+def find_free_port(port_range: range) -> Optional[int]:
     for port in port_range:
         if try_bind_port(port):
             return port
-    raise Exception("cannot find a free port")
+    return None
 
 
 class ZerotierController:
@@ -86,6 +87,8 @@ class ZerotierController:
 def zerotier_controller() -> Iterator[ZerotierController]:
     # This check could be racy but it's unlikely in practice
     controller_port = find_free_port(range(10000, 65535))
+    if controller_port is None:
+        raise ClanError("cannot find a free port for zerotier controller")
     cmd = nix_shell(["bash", "zerotierone"], ["bash", "-c", "command -v zerotier-one"])
     res = subprocess.run(
         cmd,
@@ -95,10 +98,10 @@ def zerotier_controller() -> Iterator[ZerotierController]:
     )
     zerotier_exe = res.stdout.strip()
     if zerotier_exe is None:
-        raise Exception("cannot find zerotier-one executable")
+        raise ClanError("cannot find zerotier-one executable")
 
     if not zerotier_exe.startswith("/nix/store"):
-        raise Exception(
+        raise ClanError(
             f"zerotier-one executable needs to come from /nix/store: {zerotier_exe}"
         )
 
@@ -136,7 +139,7 @@ def zerotier_controller() -> Iterator[ZerotierController]:
                 while not try_connect_port(controller_port):
                     status = p.poll()
                     if status is not None:
-                        raise Exception(
+                        raise ClanError(
                             f"zerotier-one has been terminated unexpected with {status}"
                         )
                     time.sleep(0.1)
diff --git a/pkgs/clan-cli/tests/__init__.py b/pkgs/clan-cli/tests/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e69de29
diff --git a/pkgs/clan-cli/tests/environment.py b/pkgs/clan-cli/tests/environment.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..24226db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/clan-cli/tests/environment.py
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+import os
+from contextlib import contextmanager
+from typing import Iterator
+
+
+@contextmanager
+def mock_env(**environ: str) -> Iterator[None]:
+    original_environ = dict(os.environ)
+    os.environ.update(environ)
+    try:
+        yield
+    finally:
+        os.environ.clear()
+        os.environ.update(original_environ)
diff --git a/pkgs/clan-cli/tests/test_clan_ssh.py b/pkgs/clan-cli/tests/test_clan_ssh.py
index e864a18..628bc0e 100644
--- a/pkgs/clan-cli/tests/test_clan_ssh.py
+++ b/pkgs/clan-cli/tests/test_clan_ssh.py
@@ -1,7 +1,5 @@
-import os
 import sys
-from contextlib import contextmanager
-from typing import Iterator, Union
+from typing import Union
 
 import pytest
 import pytest_subprocess.fake_process
@@ -9,6 +7,8 @@ from pytest_subprocess import utils
 
 import clan_cli.ssh
 
+from .environment import mock_env
+
 
 def test_no_args(
     capsys: pytest.CaptureFixture, monkeypatch: pytest.MonkeyPatch
@@ -20,17 +20,6 @@ def test_no_args(
     assert captured.err.startswith("usage:")
 
 
-@contextmanager
-def mock_env(**environ: str) -> Iterator[None]:
-    original_environ = dict(os.environ)
-    os.environ.update(environ)
-    try:
-        yield
-    finally:
-        os.environ.clear()
-        os.environ.update(original_environ)
-
-
 # using fp fixture from pytest-subprocess
 def test_ssh_no_pass(fp: pytest_subprocess.fake_process.FakeProcess) -> None:
     with mock_env(CLAN_FLAKE="/mocked-flake"):
diff --git a/templates/new-clan/.clan-flake b/templates/new-clan/.clan-flake
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..406fcfe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/templates/new-clan/.clan-flake
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# DO NOT DELETE
+# This file is used by the clan cli to discover a clan flake
diff --git a/templates/new-clan/clan-flake-module.nix b/templates/new-clan/clan-flake-module.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cffd20a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/templates/new-clan/clan-flake-module.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+# AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED by clan
+{ ... }: {
+  imports =
+    let
+      relPaths = builtins.fromJSON (builtins.readFile ./imports.json);
+      paths = map (path: ./. + path) relPaths;
+    in
+    paths;
+}
diff --git a/templates/new-clan/default.nix b/templates/new-clan/default.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 4691d64..0000000
--- a/templates/new-clan/default.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,16 +0,0 @@
-# This file provides backward compatibility to nix < 2.4 clients
-let
-  flake =
-    import
-      (
-        let
-          lock = builtins.fromJSON (builtins.readFile ./flake.lock);
-        in
-        fetchTarball {
-          url = "https://github.com/edolstra/flake-compat/archive/${lock.nodes.flake-compat.locked.rev}.tar.gz";
-          sha256 = lock.nodes.flake-compat.locked.narHash;
-        }
-      )
-      { src = ./.; };
-in
-flake.defaultNix
diff --git a/templates/new-clan/flake.nix b/templates/new-clan/flake.nix
index c710aae..ca463ed 100644
--- a/templates/new-clan/flake.nix
+++ b/templates/new-clan/flake.nix
@@ -1,25 +1,15 @@
 {
-  description = "";
+  description = "<Put your description here>";
 
   inputs = {
+    clan-core.url = "git+https://git.clan.lol/clan/clan-core";
     flake-parts.url = "github:hercules-ci/flake-parts";
-    flake-compat = {
-      url = "github:edolstra/flake-compat";
-      flake = false;
-    };
-    nixpkgs.url = "nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
   };
 
   outputs = inputs @ { flake-parts, ... }:
     flake-parts.lib.mkFlake { inherit inputs; } {
-
-      systems = builtins.fromJSON (builtins.readFile ./systems.json);
-
-      imports =
-        let
-          relPaths = builtins.fromJSON (builtins.readFile ./imports.json);
-          paths = map (path: ./. + path) relPaths;
-        in
-        paths;
+      imports = [
+        ./clan-flake-module.nix
+      ];
     };
 }
diff --git a/templates/new-clan/shell.nix b/templates/new-clan/shell.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 804c2a4..0000000
--- a/templates/new-clan/shell.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,2 +0,0 @@
-(import ./default.nix).devShells.${builtins.currentSystem}.default
-  or (throw "dev-shell not defined. Cannot find flake attribute devShell.${builtins.currentSystem}.default")