# Layering environments and containerization
**URL:** https://discourse.flox.dev/t/layering-environments-and-containerization/877
**Category:** Feature Requests
**Created:** [March 31, 2024, 8:24am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/layering-environments-and-containerization/877 "2024-03-31T08:24:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@fst](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/fst)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2024, 8:24am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/layering-environments-and-containerization/877/1 "2024-03-31T08:24:13Z")
Hello!
Let me first state the I’m _extremely_ new to Flox so apologies if these features already exist or the issues are already addressed elsewhere. I didn’t find answers in the official documentation and I’m a newbie to everything Nix.
So far Flox is a great tool and I can see myself using it extensively in the future.
I love the idea of working with layered environments but I have two issues with them:
- I would like to be able to “link” layered envs:
Say I have a _pygen_ env and a _projectX_ env that I always plan to run “within” _pygen_, I would like a way to specify that _projectX_ always needs _pygen_, so when I activate _projectX_, flox automatically activates _pygen_ (ideally this should be transitive, too).
- What happens when I containerize _projectX_ that “depends” on _pygen_?
I suspect that only the packages inside _projectX_ get picked up, as there is no explicit dependency to _pygen_ but I may very well be mistaken.
- Another, different, possibility would be the ability to merge environments:
I do my work with the layered envs activating them by hand without any explicit dependency between them, but when i need to containerize my product, there is a Flox command that allows me to merge environments into one I can containerize.
Again, apologies if all this already exists/can be done and I simply haven’t found how yet.
have a nice day,
Francesco
---
### Author:  [@ghudgins](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/ghudgins)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2024, 3:14pm UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/layering-environments-and-containerization/877/2 "2024-04-01T15:14:15Z")
We currently don’t have a way of composing environments from other environments but this is something that we have on our plan. I logged an issue to collect feedback on this and to share the designs once they are available
>
>
> \### Motivation
>
> \*\*When\*\* I have a base environment defined in FloxHub or elsew…here on my machine
> \*\*And\*\* I want to guarantee that a project environment is based on the base environment
> \*\*I need\*\* to be able to define environments my project environments are based on
> \*\*So I can\*\* build similar projects with re-usable environments (instead of repeating myself)
>
> This is a larger feature. Will use this issue as a catch-all for feedback
>
> \_Needs design\_
---
### Author:  [@fst](https://discourse.flox.dev/u/fst)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 8:58am UTC](https://discourse.flox.dev/t/layering-environments-and-containerization/877/3 "2024-04-02T08:58:10Z")
Thank you! I’ll be following the discussion and development of the issue with interest.
ciao, Francesco