diff --git a/MANIFEST b/MANIFEST
index 2479c7c1..f0a193a2 100644
--- a/MANIFEST
+++ b/MANIFEST
@@ -1,25 +1,40 @@
 Build.PL
+examples/Alien-DontPanic/Build.PL
+examples/Alien-DontPanic/inc/dontpanic-1.01.tar.gz
+examples/Alien-DontPanic/lib/Alien/DontPanic.pm
+examples/Alien-DontPanic/MANIFEST
 examples/Alien-GSL/Build.PL
 examples/Alien-GSL/lib/Alien/GSL.pm
 examples/Alien-GSL/MANIFEST
+examples/Ford-Prefect/Build.PL
+examples/Ford-Prefect/lib/Ford/Prefect.pm
+examples/Ford-Prefect/lib/Ford/Prefect.xs
+examples/Ford-Prefect/MANIFEST
 lib/Alien/Base.pm
+lib/Alien/Base/Authoring.pod
 lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild.pm
 lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Cabinet.pm
 lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/File.pm
 lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository.pm
 lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/FTP.pm
 lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/HTTP.pm
-lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/TEST.pm
+lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/Local.pm
+lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/Test.pm
 lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Utils.pm
+lib/Alien/Base/PkgConfig.pm
 MANIFEST			This list of files
 README
 t/cabinet.t
 t/file.t
 t/http.t
 t/interpolate.t
+t/local_repo.t
+t/pkgconfig.t
 t/pkgconfig/gsl.pc
+t/pkgconfig/test.pc
 t/repository.t
 t/utils.t
 t/validation.t
 t/version.t
+t/zz-example.t
 TODO
diff --git a/lib/Alien/Base/Authoring.pod b/lib/Alien/Base/Authoring.pod
index b3df9a45..5ed8ad5a 100644
--- a/lib/Alien/Base/Authoring.pod
+++ b/lib/Alien/Base/Authoring.pod
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ L<Alien::Base::ModuleBuild> provides a base class, utility methods and configura
 
  # file: Alien-MyLibrary/Build.PL
  use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild;
- my $builder = Alien::Base::ModuleBuild->new({...});
+ my $builder = Alien::Base::ModuleBuild->new(...);
  $builder->create_build_script;
 
 This is just like you would do for L<Module::Build>, except that there will be a few additional configuration parameters (see L<Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::API>).
diff --git a/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild.pm b/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild.pm
index 5710d842..c308a25c 100644
--- a/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild.pm
+++ b/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild.pm
@@ -11,10 +11,25 @@ use File::Spec;
 use Carp;
 use Archive::Extract;
 
-use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository;
+use Alien::Base::PkgConfig;
 use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Cabinet;
+use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository;
 
-use Alien::Base::PkgConfig;
+use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::HTTP;
+use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::FTP;
+use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Test;
+use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Local;
+
+# setup protocol specific classes
+# Alien:: author can override these defaults using alien_repository_class property
+our %Repository_Class;
+my %default_repository_class = (
+  default => 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository',
+  http    => 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::HTTP',
+  ftp     => 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::FTP',
+  test    => 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Test',
+  local   => 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Local',
+);
 
 our $VERSION = 0.01;
 $VERSION = eval $VERSION;
@@ -65,8 +80,10 @@ __PACKAGE__->add_property( 'alien_provides_libs' );
 #   |-- [platform]*: hashref of above keys for specific case (overrides defaults)
 #   |
 #   |-- (non-api) connection: holder for Net::FTP-like object (needs cwd, ls, and get methods)
+__PACKAGE__->add_property( 'alien_repository'         => {} );
 __PACKAGE__->add_property( 'alien_repository_default' => {} );
-__PACKAGE__->add_property( 'alien_repository' );
+__PACKAGE__->add_property( 'alien_repository_class'   => {} );
+
 
 ################
 #  ConfigData  #
@@ -86,6 +103,12 @@ sub new {
   my $install_dir = $args{alien_share_dir} || '_install';
   my $cleanup_install_dir = 0;
 
+  # merge default and user-defined repository classes
+  foreach my $protocol (keys %default_repository_class) {
+    next if defined $args{alien_repository_class}{$protocol};
+    $args{alien_repository_class}{$protocol} = $default_repository_class{$protocol};
+  }
+
   # initialize M::B property share_dir 
   if (! defined $args{share_dir}) {
     # no share_dir property
@@ -138,8 +161,9 @@ sub alien_create_repositories {
     }
 
     $repo->{platform} = 'src' unless defined $repo->{platform};
+    my $protocol = $repo->{protocol} || 'default';
 
-    push @repos, Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository->new( $repo );
+    push @repos, $self->alien_repository_class($protocol)->new( $repo );
   }
 
   # check validation, including c compiler for src type
diff --git a/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository.pm b/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository.pm
index a46d6d7d..7c63d2e7 100644
--- a/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository.pm
+++ b/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository.pm
@@ -10,37 +10,11 @@ use Module::Loaded qw/is_loaded/;
 use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::File;
 use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Utils qw/pattern_has_capture_groups/;
 
-use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::HTTP;
-use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::FTP;
-use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::TEST;
-use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::LOCAL;
-
-# setup protocol specific classes
-# Alien:: author can override these defaults using package variable
-our %Repository_Class;
-my %default_repository_class = (
-  HTTP  => 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::HTTP',
-  FTP   => 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::FTP',
-  TEST  => 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::TEST',
-  LOCAL => 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::LOCAL',
-);
-foreach my $type (keys %default_repository_class) {
-  $Repository_Class{$type} ||= $default_repository_class{$type};
-}
-
 sub new {
   my $class = shift;
-  my ($self) = @_;
-
-  my $protocol = $self->{protocol} = uc $self->{protocol};
-  croak "Unsupported protocol: $protocol" 
-    unless exists $Repository_Class{$protocol}; 
+  my (%self) = ref $_[0] ? %{ shift() } : @_;
 
-  my $obj = bless $self, $Repository_Class{$protocol};
-
-  if ($obj->can('init')) {
-    $obj->init;
-  }
+  my $obj = bless \%self, $class;
 
   return $obj;
 }
diff --git a/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/LOCAL.pm b/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/Local.pm
similarity index 85%
rename from lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/LOCAL.pm
rename to lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/Local.pm
index 7bdef64d..64167b23 100644
--- a/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/LOCAL.pm
+++ b/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/Local.pm
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-package Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::LOCAL;
+package Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Local;
 
 use strict;
 use warnings;
@@ -10,8 +10,10 @@ use File::Spec;
 
 use parent 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository';
 
-sub init {
-  my $self = shift;
+sub new {
+  my $class = shift;
+
+  my $self = $class->SUPER::new(@_);
 
   # make location absolute
   local $CWD = $self->location;
diff --git a/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/TEST.pm b/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/Test.pm
similarity index 96%
rename from lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/TEST.pm
rename to lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/Test.pm
index 5e77564a..e7538bc0 100644
--- a/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/TEST.pm
+++ b/lib/Alien/Base/ModuleBuild/Repository/Test.pm
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-package Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::TEST;
+package Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Test;
 
 use strict;
 use warnings;
diff --git a/t/local_repo.t b/t/local_repo.t
index f5d15c9d..4b8887e0 100644
--- a/t/local_repo.t
+++ b/t/local_repo.t
@@ -7,10 +7,9 @@ use File::Basename qw/fileparse/;
 use File::Temp;
 use File::chdir;
 
-use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::LOCAL;
+use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Local;
 
-my $repo = bless { location => 't' }, 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::LOCAL';
-$repo->init; # this hack fixes the internal representation of location, usually called by Repository->new
+my $repo = Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Local->new({ location => 't' });
 
 my @files = $repo->list_files;
 my $this_file = fileparse __FILE__;
diff --git a/t/repository.t b/t/repository.t
index 62e046f9..7b5ef730 100644
--- a/t/repository.t
+++ b/t/repository.t
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ use strict;
 use warnings;
 
 use Test::More;
-use_ok( 'Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository' );
+use Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Test;
 
 my $default = { 
   protocol => 'test',
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ my $default = {
 };
 
 {
-  my $repo = Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository->new($default);
+  my $repo = Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Test->new($default);
 
   my @filenames = $repo->list_files;
 
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ my $default = {
 {
   my $pattern = qr/^gsl-[\d\.]+\.tar\.gz$/;
   local $default->{pattern} = $pattern;
-  my $repo = Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository->new($default);
+  my $repo = Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Test->new($default);
 
   my @filenames = grep { $_ =~ $pattern } $repo->list_files;
 
@@ -38,7 +38,7 @@ my $default = {
 {
   my $pattern = qr/^gsl-([\d\.]+)\.tar\.gz$/;
   local $default->{pattern} = $pattern;
-  my $repo = Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository->new($default);
+  my $repo = Alien::Base::ModuleBuild::Repository::Test->new($default);
 
   my @filenames = grep { $_ =~ $pattern } $repo->list_files;