diff --git a/.envrc b/.envrc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1d953f4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.envrc
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+use nix
diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/backend_build-deploy-prod.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/backend_build-deploy-prod.yaml
index 3dfb55a..daaae56 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/backend_build-deploy-prod.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/backend_build-deploy-prod.yaml
@@ -3,6 +3,9 @@ on:
     tags:
       - v*
 
+permissions:
+  pull-requests: write
+
 name: Build and deploy the backend to production
 
 jobs:
@@ -10,15 +13,7 @@ jobs:
     name: Build and push image
     uses: ./.gitea/workflows/workflow_build-image.yaml
     with:
-      tag: stable
+      # sets the tag to the git tag that triggered the workflow - the deployment (configured in a separate repository) will use this tag and be deployed to production by argocd
+      tag: ${{ github.ref_name }}
     secrets:
       PACKAGE_REGISTRY_ACCESS: ${{ secrets.PACKAGE_REGISTRY_ACCESS }}
-  
-  deploy-prod:
-    name: Deploy to production
-    uses: ./.gitea/workflows/workflow_deploy-container.yaml
-    with:
-      overlay: prod
-    secrets:
-      KUBE_CONFIG: ${{ secrets.KUBE_CONFIG }}
-    needs: build-and-push
diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/backend_build-deploy-stg.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/backend_build-deploy-stg.yaml
index 3d67c44..6bfaa7d 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/backend_build-deploy-stg.yaml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/backend_build-deploy-stg.yaml
@@ -12,15 +12,32 @@ jobs:
     name: Build and push image
     uses: ./.gitea/workflows/workflow_build-image.yaml
     with:
-      tag: unstable
+      # sets a unique tag for each commit in the PR - this gets deployed to a separate application instance using argocd
+      tag: sha${{ github.sha }}
     secrets:
       PACKAGE_REGISTRY_ACCESS: ${{ secrets.PACKAGE_REGISTRY_ACCESS }}
-  
-  deploy-prod:
-    name: Deploy to staging
-    uses: ./.gitea/workflows/workflow_deploy-container.yaml
-    with:
-      overlay: stg
-    secrets:
-      KUBE_CONFIG: ${{ secrets.KUBE_CONFIG }}
-    needs: build-and-push
+
+  notify:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    name: Add a comment to the PR to notify about the deployment
+    steps:
+      - name: Download gitea client
+        run: |
+          curl -sSL -o tea https://dl.gitea.com/tea/0.11.0/tea-0.11.0-linux-amd64
+          chmod +x tea
+
+      - name: Login
+        run: |
+          ./tea login add --url git.kluster.moll.re --name bot --token ${{ secrets.GITEA_TOKEN }}
+          ./tea login default
+      - name: Post comment
+        run: |
+          ./tea comment --repo anydev/anyway --login bot ${{ github.event.number }} """
+          The backend has been deployed to staging with url https://pr-${{ github.event.number }}.anyway-stg.anydev.info. Check the deployment status in ArgoCD:
+
+          [![App Status](https://argocd.kluster.moll.re/api/badge?name=anydev-anyway-backend-stg-pr-${{ github.event.number }}&revision=true&showAppName=true)](https://argocd.kluster.moll.re/applications/anydev-anyway-backend-stg-pr-${{ github.event.number }})
+          """
+        env:
+          GITEA_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITEA_TOKEN }}
+          GITEA_BASE_URL: ${{ secrets.GITEA_BASE_URL }}
+          GITEA_REPO: ${{ secrets.GITEA_REPO }}
diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/workflow_deploy-container.yaml b/.gitea/workflows/workflow_deploy-container.yaml
deleted file mode 100644
index b4f9527..0000000
--- a/.gitea/workflows/workflow_deploy-container.yaml
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,35 +0,0 @@
-on:
-  workflow_call:
-    inputs:
-      overlay:
-        required: true
-        type: string
-    secrets:
-      KUBE_CONFIG:
-        required: true
-
-
-name: Deploy the newly built container
-
-
-jobs:
-  deploy:
-    name: Deploy
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
-    steps:
-
-    - uses: https://gitea.com/actions/checkout@v4
-      with:
-        submodules: true
-
-    - name: setup kubectl
-      uses: https://github.com/azure/setup-kubectl@v4
-
-    - name: Set kubeconfig
-      run: |
-        echo "${{ secrets.KUBE_CONFIG }}" > kubeconfig
-
-    - name: Deploy to k8s
-      run: |
-        kubectl apply -k backend/deployment/overlays/${{ inputs.overlay }} --kubeconfig=kubeconfig
-        kubectl -n anyway-backend rollout restart deployment/anyway-backend-${{ inputs.overlay }} --kubeconfig=kubeconfig
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index e934adf..8f140c8 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1 +1,2 @@
 cache/
+.direnv/
diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
deleted file mode 100644
index c08c402..0000000
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-[submodule "backend/deployment"]
-	path = backend/deployment
-	url = https://git.kluster.moll.re/anydev/anyway-backend-deployment
diff --git a/.vscode/launch.json b/.vscode/launch.json
index 4454643..dc2c672 100644
--- a/.vscode/launch.json
+++ b/.vscode/launch.json
@@ -9,9 +9,7 @@
             "name": "Backend - debug",
             "type": "debugpy",
             "request": "launch",
-            "env": {
-                "DEBUG": "true"
-            },
+            "envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/backend/debug.env",
             "jinja": true,
             "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/backend",
             "module": "fastapi",
@@ -25,9 +23,7 @@
             "type": "debugpy",
             "request": "launch",
             "program": "src/tester.py",
-            "env": {
-                "DEBUG": "true"
-            },
+            "envFile": "${workspaceFolder}/backend/debug.env",
             "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}/backend"
         },
         // frontend - flutter app
diff --git a/.vscode/settings.json b/.vscode/settings.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e982907
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.vscode/settings.json
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+{
+    "nixEnvSelector.nixFile": "${workspaceFolder}/default.nix"
+}
diff --git a/backend/.gitignore b/backend/.gitignore
index ac02d06..f98f017 100644
--- a/backend/.gitignore
+++ b/backend/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,6 @@
+# all .env files
+*.env
+
 # osm-cache
 cache_XML/
 
@@ -165,4 +168,4 @@ cython_debug/
 #  be found at https://github.com/github/gitignore/blob/main/Global/JetBrains.gitignore
 #  and can be added to the global gitignore or merged into this file.  For a more nuclear
 #  option (not recommended) you can uncomment the following to ignore the entire idea folder.
-#.idea/
\ No newline at end of file
+#.idea/
diff --git a/backend/deployment b/backend/deployment
deleted file mode 160000
index 904f16b..0000000
--- a/backend/deployment
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit 904f16bfc0624b6ab8569e0a70050aaa3bd64b3f
diff --git a/default.nix b/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b183363
--- /dev/null
+++ b/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,17 @@
+{ pkgs ? import <nixpkgs> { config.android_sdk.accept_license = true; config.allowUnfree = true; } }:
+
+pkgs.mkShell {
+    buildInputs = [
+        pkgs.flutter
+        #pkgs.android-tools  # for adb
+        #pkgs.openjdk        # required for Android builds
+    ];
+
+    # Set up Android SDK paths if needed
+    shellHook = ''
+        export ANDROID_SDK_ROOT=${pkgs.androidsdk}/libexec/android-sdk
+        export PATH=$PATH:${pkgs.androidsdk}/libexec/android-sdk/platform-tools
+        echo "Flutter dev environment ready. 'adb' and 'flutter' are available."
+    '';
+}
+