diff --git a/git-fatlas.sh b/git-fatlas.sh
index 619773d..61b349e 100644
--- a/git-fatlas.sh
+++ b/git-fatlas.sh
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 # the main athena repo and use release 21.2.
 #
 _git-fatlas-init_usage() {
-    echo "usage: $1 [-h] [-r release] [-u URL] [-s SHARED]"
+    echo "usage: $1 [-h] [-v] [-r release] [-u URL] [-s SHARED]"
 }
 function git-fatlas-init() (
 
@@ -22,10 +22,11 @@ function git-fatlas-init() (
     local RELEASE=main
     local URL=${GIT_FATLAS_UPSTREAM}
     local SHARED=""
+    VLOG=/dev/null
 
     # parse options
     local opt
-    while getopts ":hr:u:s:" opt $@; do
+    while getopts ":hvr:u:s:" opt $@; do
         case $opt in
             h) _git-fatlas-init_usage $FUNCNAME;
                cat <<EOF
@@ -40,6 +41,7 @@ default repo: $URL
 
 EOF
                return 1;;
+            v) VLOG=/dev/stdout ;;
             r) RELEASE=${OPTARG} ;;
             u) URL=${OPTARG} ;;
             s) SHARED=${OPTARG} ;;
@@ -69,14 +71,13 @@ EOF
     # set up the sparse checkout, then move to the desired
     # branch. Note that this leaves git in a rather ugly position
     # since there are no packages checked out.
-    git config core.sparsecheckout true
-    touch .git/info/sparse-checkout
-    if [[ ${RELEASE} != main ]]; then
-        git branch ${RELEASE} atlas/${RELEASE}
-    fi
-    git reset --soft ${RELEASE}
-    git symbolic-ref HEAD refs/heads/${RELEASE}
-    git fetch --set-upstream atlas ${RELEASE}
+    git sparse-checkout init --cone
+
+    echo checking out ${RELEASE} > $VLOG
+    git checkout ${RELEASE}
+
+    echo caching package list > $VLOG
+    git-fatlas-remake-package-list > $VLOG
 )
 
 
@@ -136,19 +137,26 @@ function git-fatlas-remake-package-list() {
 # the working tree. There are also tab complete functions defined
 # below.
 #
-function git-fatlas-add() (
-    set -eu
+function git-fatlas-add() {
+
+    local LOG=${TABTEST-/dev/null}
+
+    echo "--- trying to add a package ---" >> $LOG
     local pkg_list=$(git-fatlas-get-package-list)
-    local SP=.git/info/sparse-checkout
-    local STUB
-    local FULLPATH
-    for STUB in ${@:1} ; do
-        egrep "(^|/)${STUB%/}(/|$)" $pkg_list | while read FULLPATH; do
-            echo ${FULLPATH%/}/ | tee -a $SP
-        done
-    done
-    git checkout HEAD
-)
+    echo "matching against $pkg_list" >> $LOG
+    echo "looking for: $1" >> $LOG
+    local reply=( $(fgrep ${1} $pkg_list | egrep "(/|^)$1$") )
+    echo "matches ${reply[*]}" >> $LOG
+
+    if (( ${#reply[*]} > 1 )); then
+        echo "ERROR: too many replies" | tee -a $LOG 2>&1
+        return 1
+    elif (( ${#reply[*]} == 0 )); then
+        echo "ERROR: no matches" | tee -a $LOG 2>&1
+        return 1
+    fi
+    git sparse-checkout add ${reply[*]}
+}
 
 # ____________________________________________________________________
 # Add a new package to the repo
@@ -156,9 +164,8 @@ function git-fatlas-add() (
 # If you already have something in the working tree and want to check
 # it in, you should call this function on it.
 #
-function git-fatlas-new() {
-    local SP=.git/info/sparse-checkout
-    local STUB
+function git-fatlas-new() (
+    pkg_list=$(git-fatlas-get-package-list)
     for STUB in ${@:1} ; do
         if [[ ! -d ${STUB} ]]; then
             echo "${STUB} is not a directory" 2>&1
@@ -170,10 +177,11 @@ contain this
 EOF
             return 1
         fi
-        echo ${STUB%/}/ | tee -a $SP
+        echo ${STUB%/} >> $pkg_list
+        git-fatlas-add ${STUB%/}
         git add ${STUB%/}/
     done
-}
+)
 
 # ____________________________________________________________________
 # Remove package
@@ -181,20 +189,10 @@ EOF
 # This one is a bit tricky in that we have to make sure we don't
 # remove the last package. Git doesn't like that for some reason.
 #
-function git-fatlas-remove() {
-    local SP=.git/info/sparse-checkout
-    local TMP=$(cat $SP | sort -u | egrep -v $1)
-    if [[ ${TMP} == '' ]]; then
-        echo "ERROR: can't remove last package" 1>&2
-        return 1
-    fi
-    local FILE
-    rm $SP
-    for FILE in $TMP; do
-        echo $FILE >> $SP
-    done
-    git checkout HEAD
-}
+function git-fatlas-remove() (
+    local NEW=$(git sparse-checkout list | egrep -v $1 | tr '\n' ' ')
+    git sparse-checkout set $NEW
+)
 
 # ____________________________________________________________________
 # Update copyright statements
@@ -214,27 +212,43 @@ function git-fatlas-copyright-update() {
 # ____________________________________________________________________
 # Tab complete function for the add utility
 #
+# if you set TABTEST and then read it with `tail -f` you will see some
+# logging info
 function _git-fatlas-add() {
 
+    local LOG=${TABTEST-/dev/null}
+
     # build or get package list
+    echo "--- getting package list ---" >> $LOG
+    echo "looking for: $2" >> $LOG
     local pkg_list=$(git-fatlas-get-package-list)
+    echo "got $pkg_list" >> $LOG
 
     # first check for completion from the root up
+    echo "checking matches in package list" >> $LOG
     COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -W "$(cat $pkg_list)" -- $2 ) )
     if [[ ${#COMPREPLY[*]} != 0 ]]; then
+        echo "returning ${#COMPREPLY[*]} matches" >> $LOG
         return 0
     fi
 
     # then check for a unique fgrep match
+    echo "checking with fgrep" >> $LOG
     COMPREPLY=( $(fgrep ${2} $pkg_list ) )
     if [[ ${#COMPREPLY[*]} == 1 ]]; then
+        echo "returning ${#COMPREPLY[*]} matches" >> $LOG
         return 0
     fi
-
-    # then check to see if any part of the package name matches note
-    # that we can't include the full path because that will trigger a
-    # completion to any stub that is shared among all matches.
+    echo "got ${#COMPREPLY[*]} replies, moving on" >> $LOG
+
+    # then check to see if any part of the package name matches
+    #
+    # note that we can't include the full path because that will
+    # trigger a completion to any stub that is shared among all
+    # matches.
+    echo "checking with fgrep, excluding some patterns" >> $LOG
     COMPREPLY=( $(fgrep ${2} $pkg_list | egrep -o "[^/]*$2.*") )
+    echo "returning ${#COMPREPLY[*]} matches" >> $LOG
     return 0
 }
 complete -F _git-fatlas-add git-fatlas-add