diff --git a/lib/darwin/apps/common.nix b/lib/darwin/apps/common.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..851eaca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/darwin/apps/common.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+{ wget, lib, ... }:
+
+rec {
+  download = { 
+    url, 
+    params ? "",
+    var ? "DOWNLOADED_FILE"
+  }: ''
+    echo "Downloading" ${lib.escapeShellArg url}"..."
+    ${var}=$(mktemp)
+    ${wget}/bin/wget ${lib.escapeShellArg url} ${params} -q --show-progress -O ${"$" + var}
+  '';
+
+  withMountedDmg = path: shell: ''
+    _result=$(hdiutil mount ${path} | tail -n1)
+    DMG_DEVICE=$(echo "$_result" | awk '{print $1}')
+    DMG_MOUNTPOINT=$(echo "$_result" | awk '{print $3}')
+    unset _result
+
+    function _unmount {
+      hdiutil unmount $DMG_DEVICE > /dev/null
+    }
+    trap _unmount ERR exit
+    
+    ${shell}
+
+    _unmount
+    trap - ERR exit
+    unset DMG_DEVICE
+    unset DMG_MOUNTPOINT
+  '';
+
+  installAppFromDmg = { dmg, filename }: withMountedDmg dmg ''
+    if [ ! -d "$DMG_MOUNTPOINT/"${lib.escapeShellArg filename} ]; then
+      echo "Error: file not found:" ${lib.escapeShellArg filename}
+      exit 1
+    fi
+
+    cp -r "$DMG_MOUNTPOINT/"${lib.escapeShellArg filename} /Applications
+  '';
+
+  downloadAndInstallDmgApp = { 
+    url,
+    filename,
+    params ? "",
+  }: ''
+    if [ ! -d "/Applications/"${lib.escapeShellArg (builtins.baseNameOf filename)} ]; then
+      ${download { inherit url params; }}
+      ${installAppFromDmg { dmg = "$DOWNLOADED_FILE"; inherit filename; }}
+      rm -rf $DOWNLOADED_FILE
+    fi
+  '';
+
+  downloadAndInstallDmgPkg = { 
+    url,
+    filename,
+    condition,
+    params ? "",
+  }: ''
+    if [ ${condition} ]; then
+      ${download { inherit url params; }}
+      ${withMountedDmg "$DOWNLOADED_FILE" ''
+        installer -pkg "$DMG_MOUNTPOINT/"${lib.escapeShellArg filename} -target /
+      ''}
+      rm -rf $DOWNLOADED_FILE
+    fi
+  '';
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lib/darwin/apps/default.nix b/lib/darwin/apps/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..277dd42
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/darwin/apps/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+{ callPackage, ... }:
+
+# i want to be able to declaratively *provision* gui apps on macos,
+# but have them manage themselves later on, not managed by nix-darwin,
+# since most of them are auto-updating and managing them entirely through
+# nix is a bit of a pain.
+#
+# homebrew sucks and i don't want to give it *any* recognition, so guess
+# i'll just handle dmg's myself :D
+
+{
+  provisionApps = apps: {
+    home.activation.provisionApps = ''
+      set -eau
+      ${builtins.concatStringsSep "\n" apps}
+    '';
+  };
+} // (callPackage ./productivity.nix {})
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lib/darwin/apps/productivity.nix b/lib/darwin/apps/productivity.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bff2420
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/darwin/apps/productivity.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+{ callPackage, ... }: 
+
+let 
+  common = callPackage ./common.nix {};
+in with common; {
+  raycast = downloadAndInstallDmgApp {
+    url = "https://releases.raycast.com/download";
+    filename = "Raycast.app";
+  };
+  
+  karabiner = downloadAndInstallDmgPkg {
+    url = "https://github.com/pqrs-org/Karabiner-Elements/releases/download/v14.13.0/Karabiner-Elements-14.13.0.dmg";
+    filename = "Karabiner-Elements.pkg";
+    condition = "! -d /Applications/Karabiner-Elements.app";
+  };
+
+  alacritty = downloadAndInstallDmgApp {
+    url = "https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/releases/download/v0.13.2/Alacritty-v0.13.2.dmg";
+    filename = "Alacritty.app";
+  };
+}
\ No newline at end of file