diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 3e740ab..d3c4833 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -14,15 +14,22 @@ wheel_build_env = build
 # whitelist commands we need
 whitelist_externals = ln
 
+# for environment sanity, things that are in written code being security
+# checked, linted, etc., but are not part of the installed package, should
+# go here, so that all envs may benefit from them
+[base]
+deps =
+    pytest
+
 [testenv:build]
 # require setuptools when building
 deps = setuptools
 
 [testenv:py37]
-# run pytest and coverage
+# run pytest with coverage
 deps =
-    pytest
     pytest-cov
+    {[base]deps}
 commands =
     pytest --cov={envsitepackagesdir}/incorporealcms/ \
            --cov-report=term-missing --cov-branch --cov-fail-under=90
@@ -34,6 +41,7 @@ commands =
 # again it seems the most valuable here to run against the packaged code
 deps =
     bandit
+    {[base]deps}
 commands =
     bandit {envsitepackagesdir}/incorporealcms/ -r
 
@@ -50,6 +58,7 @@ deps =
     flake8-fixme
     flake8-isort
     flake8-logging-format
+    {[base]deps}
 commands =
     flake8
     - flake8 --disable-noqa --select=E,W,F,C,D,A,G,B,I,DUO
@@ -75,9 +84,6 @@ max-line-length = 120
 
 [isort]
 line_length = 120
-# only way I could figure out how to make tests/conftest.py happy and have pytest separate from incorporealcms
-# and if I let them be combined in tox runs, flake8-isort in vim would complain :(
-forced_separate = incorporealcms
 
 [pytest]
 python_files =