diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8ea1f615..f57a21b4 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 # lsp keep state here
 .cache
 # typical build directories
-build
-ccov
+.build*
 # for lsp: manual symlink to chosen build directory
 compile_commands.json
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index b24e139a..3c4d8f9f 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -6,8 +6,7 @@ project(reactor VERSION 0.1)
 enable_language(CXX)
 
 # common XO cmake macros (see proj/xo-cmake)
-include(xo_macros/xo_cxx)
-include(xo_macros/code-coverage)
+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)