diff --git a/.circleci/config.yml b/.circleci/config.yml
index 6c79e63..788c38a 100644
--- a/.circleci/config.yml
+++ b/.circleci/config.yml
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ jobs:
             pwd
             which make
             cookiecutter --config-file .cookiecutter-easydata-test-circleci.yml . -f --no-input
-            
+
       - run:
           name: Create test-env environment and contrive to always use it
           command: |
@@ -48,6 +48,7 @@ jobs:
             cd test-env
             export CONDA_EXE=/opt/conda/bin/conda
             make create_environment
+            python scripts/tests/add-extra-channel-dependency.py
             conda activate test-env
             conda install -c anaconda make
             touch environment.yml
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile
index addf322..15ba76e 100644
--- a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile	
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile	
@@ -75,17 +75,12 @@ test: update_environment
 		$(if $(CI_RUNNING),--ignore=$(TESTS_NO_CI)) \
 		$(MODULE_NAME)
 
-## Run all Unit Tests with coverage
+## Run all Unit and code coverage tests
 test_with_coverage: update_environment
 	$(SET) LOGLEVEL=DEBUG; coverage run -m pytest --pyargs --doctest-modules --doctest-continue-on-failure --verbose \
 		$(if $(CI_RUNNING),--ignore=$(TESTS_NO_CI)) \
 		$(MODULE_NAME)
 
-.PHONY: lint
-## Lint using flake8
-lint:
-	flake8 $(MODULE_NAME)
-
 .phony: help_update_easydata
 help_update_easydata:
 	@$(PYTHON_INTERPRETER) scripts/help-update.py
@@ -105,7 +100,7 @@ debug:
 # Self Documenting Commands                                                     #
 #################################################################################
 
-HELP_VARS := PROJECT_NAME DEBUG_FILE ARCH PLATFORM
+HELP_VARS := PROJECT_NAME DEBUG_FILE ARCH PLATFORM SHELL
 
 .DEFAULT_GOAL := show-help
 .PHONY: show-help
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.envs b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.envs
index 4c65eb7..43396df 100644
--- a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.envs	
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.envs	
@@ -4,28 +4,20 @@
 
 include Makefile.include
 
-$(LOCKFILE): check_installation .make.bootstrap .make.pip-requirements.txt .make.environment-default.yml .make.conda-forge-requirements.txt
+$(LOCKFILE): check_installation .make.bootstrap split_environment_files
 ifeq (conda, $(VIRTUALENV))
-	$(CONDA_EXE) env update -n $(PROJECT_NAME) -f .make.environment-default.yml --prune
-	$(CONDA_EXE) install -n $(PROJECT_NAME) --file .make.conda-forge-requirements.txt --channel defaults --channel conda-forge --strict-channel-priority --yes
+	$(foreach channel, $(shell $(CAT) .make.channel-order.include),\
+	   $(CONDA_EXE) install -n $(PROJECT_NAME) --file .make.$(channel)-environment.txt --channel defaults --channel $(channel) --strict-channel-priority --yes $(CMDSEP))
 	$(CONDA_EXE) run -n $(PROJECT_NAME) --no-capture pip install -r .make.pip-requirements.txt
 	$(CONDA_EXE) env export -n $(PROJECT_NAME) -f $(LOCKFILE)
 else
 	$(error Unsupported Environment `$(VIRTUALENV)`. Use conda)
 endif
 
-# extract multi-phase dependencies from environment.yml
-.make.environment-pip.yml: environment.yml .make.bootstrap
-	$(CONDA_EXE) run -n $(PROJECT_NAME) --no-capture $(PYTHON_INTERPRETER) scripts/split_pip.py pip-yaml $(PROJECT_DIR)environment.yml > $@
-
-.make.pip-requirements.txt: environment.yml .make.bootstrap
-	$(CONDA_EXE) run -n $(PROJECT_NAME) --no-capture $(PYTHON_INTERPRETER) scripts/split_pip.py pip $(PROJECT_DIR)environment.yml > $@
-
-.make.conda-forge-requirements.txt: environment.yml .make.bootstrap
-	$(CONDA_EXE) run -n $(PROJECT_NAME) --no-capture $(PYTHON_INTERPRETER) scripts/split_pip.py conda-forge $(PROJECT_DIR)environment.yml > $@
-
-.make.environment-default.yml: environment.yml .make.bootstrap
-	$(CONDA_EXE) run -n $(PROJECT_NAME) --no-capture $(PYTHON_INTERPRETER) scripts/split_pip.py default $(PROJECT_DIR)environment.yml > $@
+.PHONY: split_environment_files
+# extract multi-phase dependencies from environment.yml and create ordering file
+split_environment_files: environment.yml .make.bootstrap
+	$(CONDA_EXE) run -n $(PROJECT_NAME) --no-capture $(PYTHON_INTERPRETER) scripts/split_pip.py $(PROJECT_DIR)environment.yml
 
 .make.bootstrap: scripts/bootstrap.yml
 	$(CONDA_EXE) env update -n $(PROJECT_NAME) -f scripts/bootstrap.yml
@@ -69,6 +61,7 @@ endif
 # Checks that the conda environment is active
 environment_enabled:
 ifeq (conda,$(VIRTUALENV))
+	$(CONDA_EXE) config --env --set channel_priority strict
 ifneq ($(notdir ${CONDA_DEFAULT_ENV}), $(PROJECT_NAME))
 	$(error Run "$(VIRTUALENV) activate $(PROJECT_NAME)" before proceeding...)
 endif
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.include b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.include
index e8486ca..85854ee 100644
--- a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.include	
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.include	
@@ -19,5 +19,4 @@ CAT ?= cat
 SET ?= export
 WHICH ?= which
 DEVNULL ?= /dev/null
-
-$(warning From here on, using SHELL = $(SHELL))
+CMDSEP ?= ;
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.win32 b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.win32
index 92d8800..de046eb 100644
--- a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.win32	
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/Makefile.win32	
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ CAT = type
 SET = set
 WHICH = where
 DEVNULL = nul
+CMDSEP = &
 
 # Some UNIXish packages force the installation of a Bourne-compatible shell, and Make
 # prefers using this when it sees it. We thus force the usage of the good ole Batch
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/environment.yml b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/environment.yml
index 6749871..5982a14 100644
--- a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/environment.yml	
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/environment.yml	
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {% macro pyver() -%}
 {% if cookiecutter.python_version == 'latest' -%}
-  - python=3
+  - python
 {% else -%}
   - python={{ cookiecutter.python_version }}
 {% endif -%}
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/reference/easydata/conda-environments.md b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/reference/easydata/conda-environments.md
index 724d131..60a9a9f 100644
--- a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/reference/easydata/conda-environments.md	
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/reference/easydata/conda-environments.md	
@@ -81,6 +81,7 @@ When adding packages to your python environment, **do not `pip install` or `cond
 Your `environment.yml` file will look something like this:
 ```
 name: {{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}
+dependencies:
   - pip
   - pip:
     - -e .  # conda >= 4.4 only
@@ -106,7 +107,7 @@ name: {{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}
 ```
 To add any package available from conda, add it to the end of the list. If you have a PYPI dependency that's not avaible via conda, add it to the list of pip installable dependencies under `  - pip:`.
 
-You can include any {{ cookiecutter.upstream_location }} python-based project in the `pip` section via `git+https://{{ cookiecutter.upstream_location }}/<my_git_handle>/<package>`.
+You can include any `{{ cookiecutter.upstream_location }}` python-based project in the `pip` section via `git+https://{{ cookiecutter.upstream_location }}/<my_git_handle>/<package>`.
 
 In particular, if you're working off of a fork or a work in progress branch of a repo in {{ cookiecutter.upstream_location }} (say, your personal version of <package>), you can change `git+https://{{ cookiecutter.upstream_location }}/<my_git_handle>/<package>` to
 
@@ -117,6 +118,43 @@ Once you're done your edits, run `make update_environment` and voila, you're upd
 
 To share your updated environment, check in your `environment.yml` file. (More on this in [Sharing your Work](sharing-your-work.md))
 
+#### Adding packages from other conda channels
+Say we want to add a package only available from the `conda-forge` conda channel and not the default conda channel. (The conda channel is what follows `-c` when using `conda install -c my-channel my-package`. Suppose we want to use `make` on windows. Then we need to use `conda-forge` since the default conda channel only has linux and macOS installations of `make`. To normally conda install this, we would use `conda install -c conda-forge make`. **We won't do that here**.
+
+Instead, we add a `channel-order` section that starts with `defaults` and lists the other channels we want to use in the order we want to install from them (note that this is a custom EasyData section to the `environment.yml`). Then we add our package in the dependency list in the form `channel-name::package-name`, for example, `conda-forge::make`.
+
+In this case an updated `environment.yml` file looks like this:
+```
+name: {{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}
+channel-order:
+  - defaults
+  - conda-forge
+dependencies:
+  - pip
+  - pip:
+    - -e .  # conda >= 4.4 only
+    - python-dotenv>=0.5.1
+    - nbval
+    - nbdime
+    - umap-learn
+    - gdown
+  - setuptools
+  - wheel
+  - git>=2.5  # for git worktree template updating
+  - sphinx
+  - bokeh
+  - click
+  - colorcet
+  - coverage
+  - coveralls
+  - datashader
+  - holoviews
+  - matplotlib
+  - jupyter
+  - conda-forge::make
+...
+```
+
 
 #### Lock files
 Now, we'll admit that this workflow isn't perfectly reproducible in the sense that conda still has to resolve versions from the `environment.yml`. To make it more reproducible, running either `make create_environment` or `make update_environment` will generate an `environment.{$ARCH}.lock.yml` (e.g. `environment.i386.lock.yml`). This file keeps a record of the exact environment that is currently installed in your conda environment `{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}`. If you ever need to reproduce an environment exactly, you can install from the `.lock.yml` file. (Note: These are architecture dependent).
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/scripts/bootstrap.yml b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/scripts/bootstrap.yml
index c52f026..d0e5cc0 100644
--- a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/scripts/bootstrap.yml	
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/scripts/bootstrap.yml	
@@ -1,5 +1,13 @@
+{% macro pyver() -%}
+{% if cookiecutter.python_version == 'latest' -%}
+  - python
+{% else -%}
+  - python={{ cookiecutter.python_version }}
+{% endif -%}
+{% endmacro -%}
+name: {{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}
 channels:
-    - defaults
+   - defaults
 dependencies:
-    - python=3.7
-    - pyyaml
+   - pyyaml
+{{ pyver()|indent(3, true) }}
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/scripts/split_pip.py b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/scripts/split_pip.py
index ecdc987..62d059c 100644
--- a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/scripts/split_pip.py	
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/scripts/split_pip.py	
@@ -2,13 +2,19 @@
 import json
 import sys
 import yaml
+from collections import defaultdict
 
-ACCEPTABLE_FORMATS = ["default", "pip", "pip-yaml", "conda-forge"]
 
-def env_split(conda_env, kind="default"):
-    """Given a conda_environment dict, split into pip/nonpip versions
+def env_split(conda_env, channel_order):
+    """Given a conda_environment dict, and a channel order, split into versions for each channel.
+
+    Returns:
+
+    conda_env: (list)
+       remaining setup bits of the environment.yml file
+    channel_dict: (dict)
+       dict containing the list of dependencies by channel name
 
-    conda_env: dict
         Python object corresponding to environment.yml"""
     # Cheater way to make deep Copies
     json_copy = json.dumps(conda_env)
@@ -17,49 +23,63 @@ def env_split(conda_env, kind="default"):
 
     pipdeps = None
     deplist = conda_env.pop('dependencies')
-    conda_forge_list = []
+    channel_dict = defaultdict(list)
 
     for k, dep in enumerate(deplist[:]):  # Note: copy list, as we mutate it
         if isinstance(dep, dict):  # nested yaml
             if dep.get('pip', None):
-                pipdeps = ["pip", deplist.pop(k)]
+                channel_dict['pip'] = deplist.pop(k)
         else:
-            prefix = 'conda-forge::'
-            if dep.startswith(prefix):
-                conda_forge_list.append(dep[len(prefix):])
+            prefix_check = dep.split('::')
+            if len(prefix_check) > 1:
+                channel = prefix_check[0]
+                if not channel in channel_order:
+                    raise Exception(f'the channel {channel} required for {dep} is not specified in a channel-order section of the environment file')
+                channel_dict[f'{channel}'].append(prefix_check[1])
                 deplist.remove(dep)
 
-    conda_env['dependencies'] = deplist
-    pip_env['dependencies'] = pipdeps
-    return conda_env, pip_env, conda_forge_list
+    channel_dict['defaults'] = deplist
+    conda_env.pop('channel-order', None)
+    return conda_env, channel_dict
+
+def get_channel_order(conda_env):
+    """
+    Given a conda_environment dict, get the channels from the channel order.
+    """
+    channel_order = conda_env.get('channel-order')
+
+    if channel_order is None:
+        channel_order = ['defaults']
+    if not 'defaults' in channel_order:
+        channel_order.insert(0, 'defaults')
+    channel_order.append('pip')
+    return channel_order
 
 def usage():
     print(f"""
-Usage:    split_pip.py [{"|".join(ACCEPTABLE_FORMATS)}] path/to/environment.yml
+Usage:    split_pip.py path/to/environment.yml
     """)
 if __name__ == '__main__':
-    if len(sys.argv) != 3:
-        usage()
-        exit(1)
-
-    kind = sys.argv[1]
-    if kind not in ACCEPTABLE_FORMATS:
+    if len(sys.argv) != 2:
         usage()
         exit(1)
 
-    with open(sys.argv[2], 'r') as yamlfile:
+    with open(sys.argv[1], 'r') as yamlfile:
         conda_env = yaml.safe_load(yamlfile)
 
-    cenv, penv, forgelist = env_split(conda_env)
-    if kind == "pip-yaml":
-        _ = yaml.dump(penv, sys.stdout, allow_unicode=True, default_flow_style=False)
-    elif kind == "pip":
-        print("\n".join(penv["dependencies"].pop(-1)["pip"]))
-    elif kind == "pip-yaml":
-        _ = yaml.dump(penv, sys.stdout, allow_unicode=True, default_flow_style=False)
-    elif kind == "default":
-        _ = yaml.dump(cenv, sys.stdout, allow_unicode=True, default_flow_style=False)
-    elif kind == "conda-forge":
-        print("\n".join(forgelist))
-    else:
-        raise Exception(f"Invalid Kind: {kind}")
+    #check for acceptable formats
+    channel_order = get_channel_order(conda_env)
+    with open('.make.channel-order.include', 'w') as f:
+        f. write(' '.join(channel_order[:-1])) #exclude pip as a channel here
+
+    cenv, channel_dict = env_split(conda_env, channel_order)
+
+    for kind in channel_order:
+        if kind == "pip":
+            filename = '.make.pip-requirements.txt'
+            with open(filename, 'w') as f:
+                f.write("\n".join(channel_dict['pip']['pip']))
+        else:
+            filename = f'.make.{kind}-environment.txt'
+            with open(filename, 'w') as f:
+                f.write("\n".join(channel_dict[kind]))
diff --git a/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/scripts/tests/add-extra-channel-dependency.py b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/scripts/tests/add-extra-channel-dependency.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8c41a6b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/{{ cookiecutter.repo_name }}/scripts/tests/add-extra-channel-dependency.py	
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+import sys
+import yaml
+
+
+if __name__ == "__main__":
+    channel_order = ['defaults', 'pytorch']
+    dependency_new = "pytorch::cpuonly"
+
+    with open("environment.yml", "rt", encoding="utf-8") as file_env:
+        env = yaml.safe_load(file_env)
+    env["dependencies"].append(dependency_new)
+    env["channel-order"] = channel_order
+    with open("environment.yml", "wt", encoding="utf-8") as file_env:
+        yaml.safe_dump(env, file_env)