diff --git a/flake.lock b/flake.lock
index 7f15c41..4785725 100644
--- a/flake.lock
+++ b/flake.lock
@@ -128,6 +128,22 @@
         "type": "github"
       }
     },
+    "nixpkgs-unstable": {
+      "locked": {
+        "lastModified": 1753939845,
+        "narHash": "sha256-K2ViRJfdVGE8tpJejs8Qpvvejks1+A4GQej/lBk5y7I=",
+        "owner": "NixOS",
+        "repo": "nixpkgs",
+        "rev": "94def634a20494ee057c76998843c015909d6311",
+        "type": "github"
+      },
+      "original": {
+        "owner": "NixOS",
+        "ref": "nixos-unstable",
+        "repo": "nixpkgs",
+        "type": "github"
+      }
+    },
     "nixpkgs_2": {
       "locked": {
         "lastModified": 1734119587,
@@ -181,7 +197,8 @@
         "ags": "ags",
         "colmena": "colmena",
         "grub2-themes": "grub2-themes",
-        "nixpkgs": "nixpkgs_4"
+        "nixpkgs": "nixpkgs_4",
+        "nixpkgs-unstable": "nixpkgs-unstable"
       }
     },
     "stable": {
diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
index cb9b457..c7c435b 100644
--- a/flake.nix
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
   inputs = {
     nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-25.05";
+    nixpkgs-unstable.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
 
     #home-manager = {
     #  url = "github:nix-community/home-manager";
@@ -19,6 +20,7 @@
   outputs = {
     self,
     nixpkgs,
+    nixpkgs-unstable,
     grub2-themes,
     colmena,
     ...
@@ -31,6 +33,13 @@
         allowUnfree = false; # sanity check
       };
     };
+
+    pkgs-unstable = import nixpkgs-unstable {
+      inherit system;
+      config = {
+        allowUnfree = true; # TODO: bandaid solution... (for minecraft-server)
+      };
+    };
     # TODO: come back to this its really cool
     # this is just something I'm experimenting with
     # PROJECT_ROOT = builtins.toString ./.;
@@ -71,6 +80,8 @@
     colmenaHive = colmena.lib.makeHive {
       meta = {
         nixpkgs = pkgs;
+        specialArgs = {inherit pkgs-unstable;};
+
         # set nixpkgs per server
         nodeNixpkgs = {
           hyrule = import nixpkgs {