diff --git a/global/utils.nix b/global/utils.nix
index d89af09..a98b0a5 100644
--- a/global/utils.nix
+++ b/global/utils.nix
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-{ lib, ... }:
+{ lib, pkgs, ... }:
 {
   setupSecrets =
     _config:
@@ -96,4 +96,19 @@
       }
     ];
   };
+
+  # shamelessly stolen from soopyc's gensokyo
+  mkNginxFile =
+    {
+      filename ? "index.html",
+      content,
+      status ? 200,
+    }:
+    {
+      # gets the store path of the directory in which the file is contained
+      # we have to use writeTextDir because we don't want to expose the whole nix store to nginx
+      # and because you can't just return an absolute path to a file
+      alias = builtins.toString (pkgs.writeTextDir filename content) + "/";
+      tryFiles = "${filename} =${builtins.toString status}";
+    };
 }
diff --git a/systems/default.nix b/systems/default.nix
index 92a0646..18937a3 100644
--- a/systems/default.nix
+++ b/systems/default.nix
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
   ...
 }:
 let
-  _utils = import ../global/utils.nix { inherit lib; };
+  mkUtils = import ../global/utils.nix;
 
   toSystem =
     name:
@@ -24,7 +24,10 @@ let
       ];
 
       specialArgs = inputs // {
-        inherit _utils;
+        _utils = mkUtils {
+          inherit lib;
+          pkgs = inputs.nixpkgs.legacyPackages.${system};
+        };
       };
     };
 in