diff --git a/dev/runcpu.sh b/dev/runcpu.sh
old mode 100644
new mode 100755
index 6290fd9..469e51d
--- a/dev/runcpu.sh
+++ b/dev/runcpu.sh
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 
 # all the setup stuff
 export OMP_NUM_THREADS=1
-NANOCHAT_BASE_DIR="$HOME/.cache/nanochat"
+export NANOCHAT_BASE_DIR="$HOME/.cache/nanochat"
 mkdir -p $NANOCHAT_BASE_DIR
 command -v uv &> /dev/null || curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh
 [ -d ".venv" ] || uv venv