diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f52f1311..53a9c92f 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # lsp keeps state here
 .cache
 # typical build directory
-build
+.build*
 # lsp: symlink to file in build directory (established manually)
 compile_commands.json
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index aec8d379..773425bb 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -6,8 +6,7 @@ project(xo_pyreactor VERSION 1.0)
 enable_language(CXX)
 
 # common XO cmake macros (see github.com:Rconybea/xo-cmake)
-include(xo_macros/xo_cxx)
-include(xo_macros/code-coverage)
+include(cmake/xo-bootstrap-macros.cmake)
 
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------
 # unit test setup
diff --git a/EXAMPLES b/EXAMPLES
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4b67a31a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/EXAMPLES
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+* see ../process_py/README
+
+>>> import reactor_py
+>>> p=reactor_py.make_realization_printer()
+>>> p
+<reactor_py.SinkToConsole object at 0x1011853f0>
+>>> 
+
+>>> import inspect
+>>> inspect.getmro(reactor_py.SinkToConsole)
+
+>>> dir(reactor_py)
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index f618c641..bda29b5f 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -25,6 +25,17 @@ $ make install
 ```
 (also see .github/workflows/main.yml)
 
+## Examples
+
+Assumes `xo-pyreactor` installed to `~/local2/lib`
+```
+PYTHONPATH=~/local2/lib:$PYTHONPATH python
+>>> import xo_pyreactor
+>>> dir(xo_pyreactor)
+['AbstractEventProcessor', 'AbstractEventStore', 'AbstractSink', 'AbstractSource', 'CallbackId', 'Reactor', 'ReactorSource', '__doc__', '__file__', '__loader__', '__name__', '__package__', '__spec__', 'time2str']
+>>>
+```
+
 ## Development
 
 ### build for unit test coverage
diff --git a/cmake/xo-bootstrap-macros.cmake b/cmake/xo-bootstrap-macros.cmake
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..16644435
--- /dev/null
+++ b/cmake/xo-bootstrap-macros.cmake
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+if (("${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH}" STREQUAL "") OR ("${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH}" STREQUAL "prefix"))
+    # default to typical install location for xo-project-macros
+    set(CMAKE_MODULE_PATH ${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}/share/cmake)
+endif()
+
+message("-- CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX}")
+message("-- CMAKE_MODULE_PATH=${CMAKE_MODULE_PATH}")
+
+# needs to have been installed somewhere on CMAKE_MODULE_PATH,
+# (e.g. from xo-cmake with the same value for CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX)
+#
+include(xo_macros/xo-project-macros)