diff --git a/R/devel-mode.r b/R/devel-mode.r
index 2de60348e..4ab7ce042 100644
--- a/R/devel-mode.r
+++ b/R/devel-mode.r
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@
 dev_mode <- local({
   .prompt <- NULL
   
-  function(on = NULL, path = "~/R-dev") {
+  function(on = NULL, path = getOption("devtools.path")) {
     lib_paths <- .libPaths()
   
     path <- normalizePath(path, winslash = "/", mustWork = FALSE)
diff --git a/R/install-github.r b/R/install-github.r
index e3297adb4..568c8fda9 100644
--- a/R/install-github.r
+++ b/R/install-github.r
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@
 #' \dontrun{
 #' install_github("roxygen")
 #' }
-install_github <- function(repo, username = "hadley", branch = "master", subdir = NULL, ...) {
+install_github <- function(repo, username = getOption("github.user"), branch = "master", subdir = NULL, ...) {
   message("Installing github repo(s) ", 
     paste(repo, branch, sep = "/", collapse = ", "), 
     " from ", 
diff --git a/R/zzz.r b/R/zzz.r
index 5fb21e54f..8b15fa507 100644
--- a/R/zzz.r
+++ b/R/zzz.r
@@ -64,3 +64,17 @@ current_ver <- function() {
   paste(version$major, ".", minor[1], sep = "")
 }
 
+.onLoad <- function(libname, pkgname) {
+  op <- options()
+  op.devtools <- list(
+    devtools.path="~/R-dev",
+    github.user="hadley"
+  )
+  toset <- !(names(op.devtools) %in% names(op))
+  if(any(toset)) options(op.devtools[toset])
+}
+
+on_path <- function(...) {
+  unname(Sys.which(c(...)) != "")
+}
+