diff --git a/.envrc b/.envrc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a900826
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.envrc
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+export OUR_NICK=your
+export OUR_CHANNELS='#bots'
+export OUR_CMDS_DIR=/town/our
diff --git a/our.example.service b/our.example.service
index 0442070..94d0418 100644
--- a/our.example.service
+++ b/our.example.service
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ WorkingDirectory=/home/kindrobot/spacework/our
 ExecStart=/home/kindrobot/spacework/our/our.rb
 Environment="OUR_NICK=your"
 Environment="OUR_CHANNELS=#bots"
-Environment="OUR_CMDS_DIR=/home/kindrobot/spacework/our/cmds/"
+Environment="OUR_CMDS_DIR=/town/our"
 Restart=always
 RestartSec=5
 StartLimitInterval=60s
diff --git a/our.rb b/our.rb
index 0522345..e00fd65 100755
--- a/our.rb
+++ b/our.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env ruby
-require 'socket'
 require 'open3'
+require 'socket'
+require 'timeout'
 
 # configurable environment variables
 nick      = ENV['OUR_NICK']      || 'our'
@@ -94,13 +95,17 @@ i.hook do |msg|
   end
 
   begin
-    # child = IO.popen [cmd, args, msg.prefix, target]
-    # out = child.gets
-    # child.close
-    Open3.popen2e(cmd, args, msg.prefix, target) {|_, stdout, _|
-      out = stdout.gets
+    Open3.popen2e(cmd, args, msg.prefix, target) do |_, stdout, wait_thread|
+      out = nil
+      Timeout::timeout(3) do
+        out = stdout.gets             # only interested in the first line of output
+        stdout.gets until stdout.eof? # make sure process finishes in time allotted
+      end
       i.privmsg target, out if out
-    }
+    rescue Timeout::Error
+      Process.kill("KILL", wait_thread.pid)
+      i.privmsg  target, "[our.rb] command timed out"
+    end
   rescue Exception => e
     i.privmsg  target, "[our.rb] #{e.to_s}"
   end