diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cc33cc2ca
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+SHELL = /bin/bash
+
+.DEFAULT_GOAL := download-proofs
+
+download-proofs:
+	go run github.com/filecoin-project/go-paramfetch/paramfetch 2048 ./docker-images/proof-parameters.json
+.PHONY: download-proofs
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/lotus-soup/main.go b/lotus-soup/main.go
index 9947ef24f..17e2828b3 100644
--- a/lotus-soup/main.go
+++ b/lotus-soup/main.go
@@ -14,31 +14,9 @@ var cases = map[string]interface{}{
 	"paych-stress":      testkit.WrapTestEnvironment(paych.Stress),
 }
 
-func init() {
-	build.BlockDelaySecs = 2
-	build.PropagationDelaySecs = 4
-
-	_ = logging.SetLogLevel("*", "WARN")
-	_ = logging.SetLogLevel("dht/RtRefreshManager", "ERROR") // noisy
-	_ = logging.SetLogLevel("bitswap", "ERROR")              // noisy
-
-	_ = os.Setenv("BELLMAN_NO_GPU", "1")
-
-	build.InsecurePoStValidation = true
-	build.DisableBuiltinAssets = true
-
-	// MessageConfidence is the amount of tipsets we wait after a message is
-	// mined, e.g. payment channel creation, to be considered committed.
-	build.MessageConfidence = 1
-
-	power.ConsensusMinerMinPower = big.NewInt(2048)
-	miner.SupportedProofTypes = map[abi.RegisteredSealProof]struct{}{
-		abi.RegisteredSealProof_StackedDrg2KiBV1: {},
-	}
-	verifreg.MinVerifiedDealSize = big.NewInt(256)
-
-}
-
 func main() {
+	sanityCheck()
+
 	run.InvokeMap(cases)
 }
+
diff --git a/lotus-soup/sanity.go b/lotus-soup/sanity.go
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..b06a653c5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lotus-soup/sanity.go
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+package main
+
+import (
+	"fmt"
+	"io/ioutil"
+	"os"
+)
+
+func sanityCheck() {
+	enhanceMsg := func(msg string, a ...interface{}) string {
+		return fmt.Sprintf("sanity check: "+msg+"; if running on local:exec, make sure to run `make` from the root of the oni repo", a...)
+	}
+
+	dir := "/var/tmp/filecoin-proof-parameters"
+	stat, err := os.Stat(dir)
+	if os.IsNotExist(err) {
+		panic(enhanceMsg("proofs parameters not available in /var/tmp/filecoin-proof-parameters"))
+	}
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(enhanceMsg("failed to stat /var/tmp/filecoin-proof-parameters: %s", err))
+	}
+
+	if !stat.IsDir() {
+		panic(enhanceMsg("/var/tmp/filecoin-proof-parameters is not a directory; aborting"))
+	}
+
+	files, err := ioutil.ReadDir(dir)
+	if err != nil {
+		panic(enhanceMsg("failed list directory /var/tmp/filecoin-proof-parameters: %s", err))
+	}
+
+	if len(files) == 0 {
+		panic(enhanceMsg("no files in /var/tmp/filecoin-proof-parameters"))
+	}
+}