diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e90fd723..b0029e6b 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 # clangd (run via lsp) keeps state here
 .cache
 # typical build directory
-build
+.build
 # compile_commands.json: symlink to build directory, should be created manually
 compile_commands.json
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 8506e5b6..52606f5a 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -5,9 +5,7 @@ cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.10)
 project(randomgen VERSION 0.1)
 enable_language(CXX)
 
-include(xo_macros/xo_cxx)
-include(xo_macros/code-coverage)
-#include(cmake/cxx.cmake)
+include(cmake/xo-bootstrap-macros.cmake)
 
 # ----------------------------------------------------------------
 # unit test setup
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)