diff --git a/default.nix b/default.nix
index 71330e4340..f620865d28 100644
--- a/default.nix
+++ b/default.nix
@@ -7,4 +7,4 @@
     }
   )
   { src = ./.; }
-).defaultNix
\ No newline at end of file
+).defaultNix
diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
index 9fe1922f28..71a2f09e20 100644
--- a/flake.nix
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@
         rocBuild = import ./nix { inherit pkgs; };
 
         compile-deps = rocBuild.compile-deps;
-        inherit (compile-deps) zigPkg llvmPkgs llvmVersion 
-            llvmMajorMinorStr glibcPath libGccSPath darwinInputs;
+        inherit (compile-deps) zigPkg llvmPkgs llvmVersion
+          llvmMajorMinorStr glibcPath libGccSPath darwinInputs;
 
         # DevInputs are not necessary to build roc as a user 
         linuxDevInputs = with pkgs;
@@ -155,6 +155,12 @@
         formatter = pkgs.nixpkgs-fmt;
 
         # You can build this package (the roc CLI) with the `nix build` command.
-        packages.default = rocBuild.roc-cli;
+        packages = {
+          default = rocBuild.roc-cli;
+
+          cli = rocBuild.roc-cli;
+
+          lang-server = rocBuild.roc-lang-server;
+        };
       });
 }
diff --git a/nix/roc-cli.nix b/nix/builder.nix
similarity index 100%
rename from nix/roc-cli.nix
rename to nix/builder.nix
diff --git a/nix/default.nix b/nix/default.nix
index 15dd93e25a..75a8c036b8 100644
--- a/nix/default.nix
+++ b/nix/default.nix
@@ -5,12 +5,20 @@ let
     cargo = rustVersion;
     rustc = rustVersion;
   };
-  compile-deps = pkgs.callPackage ./compile-deps.nix { };
+
+  # this will allow our callPackage to reference our own packages defined below
+  # mainly helps with passing compile-deps and rustPlatform to builder automatically
+  callPackage = pkgs.lib.callPackageWith (pkgs // packages);
+
+  packages = {
+    inherit rustPlatform;
+    compile-deps = callPackage ./compile-deps.nix { };
+    rust-shell =
+      (rustVersion.override { extensions = [ "rust-src" "rust-analyzer" ]; });
+
+    roc-cli = callPackage ./builder.nix { }; # TODO: this builds the language server as `roc_ls`
+    roc-lang-server = callPackage ./builder.nix { subPackage = "lang_srv"; };
+  };
+
 in
-{
-  inherit rustPlatform compile-deps;
-  rust-shell =
-    (rustVersion.override { extensions = [ "rust-src" "rust-analyzer" ]; });
-  roc-cli = pkgs.callPackage ./roc-cli.nix { inherit compile-deps rustPlatform; };
-  roc-lang-server = {};
-}
+packages