diff --git a/bitbake/bin/toaster b/bitbake/bin/toaster
index d56d525960..ff3123cd4a 100755
--- a/bitbake/bin/toaster
+++ b/bitbake/bin/toaster
@@ -162,7 +162,30 @@ RUNNING=0
 NOTOASTERUI=0
 WEBSERVER=1
 TOASTER_BRBE=""
-WEB_PORT="8000"
+if [ "$WEB_PORT" == "" ]; then
+    WEB_PORT="8000"
+fi
+# this is the configuraton file we are using for toaster
+# note default is assuming yocto. Override this if you are
+# running in a pure OE environment and use the toasterconf.json
+# in meta/conf/toasterconf.json
+# note: for future there are a number of relative path assumptions
+# in the local layers that currently prevent using an arbitrary
+# toasterconf.json
+if [ "$TOASTER_CONF" == "" ]; then
+    BIN_DIR=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")
+    export TOASTER_CONF="$BIN_DIR/../../meta-yocto/conf/toasterconf.json"
+fi
+# this defines the dir toaster will use for
+# 1) clones of layers (in _toaster_clones )
+# 2) the build dir (in build)
+# 3) the sqlite db if that is being used.
+# 4) pid's we need to clean up on exit/shutdown
+# note: for future. in order to make this an arbitrary directory, we need to
+# make sure that the toaster.sqlite file doesn't default to `pwd` like it currently does.
+export TOASTER_DIR=`pwd`
+
+
 NOBROWSER=0
 
 for param in $*; do