diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index ee906b1f..333c1a72 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ Heighliner container images are useful for anyone who's responsible for infrastr
 
 Heighliner images are minimally constructed from scratch images, packaging only the chain binary and a useful reduced set of busybox utilities.
 
-This repository has a CI/CD pipeline to automatically build images when new git tags are detected on the chain repos in [chains.yaml](./chains.yaml). These images are hosted as packages in the Github Container Registry (ghcr) [here](https://github.com/orgs/strangelove-ventures/packages?repo_name=heighliner)
+This repository has a CI/CD pipeline to automatically build images when new git tags are detected on the chain repos in [chains/](chains). These images are hosted as packages in the Github Container Registry (ghcr) [here](https://github.com/orgs/strangelove-ventures/packages?repo_name=heighliner)
 
 
 
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ This repository has a CI/CD pipeline to automatically build images when new git
 
 ## Add a New Chain
 
-To add a chain to the heighliner built-in configuration and have your chain images available on our repository's [ghcr](https://github.com/orgs/strangelove-ventures/packages?repo_name=heighliner), submit a PR adding it to [chains.yaml](./chains.yaml) so it will be included in the automatic builds.
+To add a chain to the heighliner built-in configuration and have your chain images available on our repository's [ghcr](https://github.com/orgs/strangelove-ventures/packages?repo_name=heighliner), submit a PR adding it to the [chains directory](chains) so it will be included in the automatic builds.
 
 For further instructions see: [addChain.md](./addChain.md)
 
@@ -115,7 +115,7 @@ export GH_USER=github_username GH_PAT=github_personal_access_token
 heighliner build -r ghcr.io/strangelove-ventures/heighliner -n 3
 ```
 
-heighliner will fetch the last 3 release tags from github for all chains in [chains.yaml](./chains.yaml), build docker images, and push them.
+heighliner will fetch the last 3 release tags from github for all chains in [chains.yaml](chains/01_chains.yaml), build docker images, and push them.
 
 
 
diff --git a/chains.yaml b/chains/01_chains.yaml
similarity index 100%
rename from chains.yaml
rename to chains/01_chains.yaml
diff --git a/chains/README.md b/chains/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8cc6300c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/chains/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+# Chain definition
+add your chain  file in here, as well as the standard one
diff --git a/cmd/build.go b/cmd/build.go
index 6719cfa2..4ef8f20b 100644
--- a/cmd/build.go
+++ b/cmd/build.go
@@ -2,7 +2,9 @@ package cmd
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"io/fs"
 	"os"
+	"path"
 	"path/filepath"
 
 	"github.com/spf13/cobra"
@@ -70,19 +72,48 @@ const (
 )
 
 func loadChainsYaml(configFile string) error {
-	if _, err := os.Stat(configFile); err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("error checking for file: %s: %w", configFile, err)
-	}
-	bz, err := os.ReadFile(configFile)
+	fi, err := os.Stat(configFile)
 	if err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("error reading file: %s: %w", configFile, err)
+		return fmt.Errorf("error checking for file: %s: %w", configFile, err)
 	}
-	var newChains []builder.ChainNodeConfig
-	err = yaml.Unmarshal(bz, &newChains)
-	if err != nil {
-		return fmt.Errorf("error unmarshalling yaml from file: %s: %w", configFile, err)
+	switch mode := fi.Mode(); {
+	case mode.IsDir():
+		{
+			dir := os.DirFS(configFile)
+			configFiles, err := fs.Glob(dir, "*.yaml")
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("error checking for yaml files in : %s: %w", configFile, err)
+			}
+			var combinedChains []builder.ChainNodeConfig
+			for _, v := range configFiles {
+				bz, err := os.ReadFile(path.Join(configFile, v))
+				if err != nil {
+					return fmt.Errorf("error reading file: %s - %s: %w", configFile, v, err)
+				}
+				var newChains []builder.ChainNodeConfig
+				err = yaml.Unmarshal(bz, &newChains)
+				if err != nil {
+					return fmt.Errorf("error unmarshalling yaml from file: %s- %s: %w", configFile, v, err)
+				}
+				combinedChains = append(combinedChains, newChains...)
+			}
+			chains = combinedChains
+		}
+	case mode.IsRegular():
+		{
+			bz, err := os.ReadFile(configFile)
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("error reading file: %s: %w", configFile, err)
+			}
+			var newChains []builder.ChainNodeConfig
+			err = yaml.Unmarshal(bz, &newChains)
+			if err != nil {
+				return fmt.Errorf("error unmarshalling yaml from file: %s: %w", configFile, err)
+			}
+			chains = newChains
+		}
 	}
-	chains = newChains
+
 	return nil
 }
 
@@ -104,7 +135,7 @@ it will be built and pushed`,
 				// try to load a local chains.yaml, but do not panic for any error, will fall back to embedded chains.
 				cwd, err := os.Getwd()
 				if err == nil {
-					chainsYamlSearchPath := filepath.Join(cwd, "chains.yaml")
+					chainsYamlSearchPath := filepath.Join(cwd, "chains/")
 					if err := loadChainsYaml(chainsYamlSearchPath); err != nil {
 						fmt.Printf("No config found at %s, using embedded chains. pass -f to configure chains.yaml path.\n", chainsYamlSearchPath)
 					} else {
diff --git a/cmd/list.go b/cmd/list.go
index 5faee881..b7afbe2e 100644
--- a/cmd/list.go
+++ b/cmd/list.go
@@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ func loadLocalChainsYaml() error {
 	if err != nil {
 		return err
 	}
-	chainsYamlSearchPath := filepath.Join(cwd, "chains.yaml")
+	chainsYamlSearchPath := filepath.Join(cwd, "chains/")
 	err = loadChainsYaml(chainsYamlSearchPath)
 	if err != nil {
 		fmt.Printf("No config found at %s, using embedded chains. pass -f to configure chains.yaml path.\n", chainsYamlSearchPath)
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index dc723189..b694b60b 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@ import (
 	"github.com/strangelove-ventures/heighliner/cmd"
 )
 
-//go:embed chains.yaml
+//go:embed chains/01_chains.yaml
 var chainsYaml []byte
 
 func main() {