diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 72d3aed4..cd0fdd30 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
     "build": "./scripts/build-all",
     "prepublishOnly": "echo 'to publish, run yarn build && (cd dist; yarn publish)' && exit 1",
     "format": "prettier --write --cache --cache-strategy metadata . !dist",
-    "prepare": "if ./scripts/utils/check-is-in-git-install.sh; then ./scripts/build; fi",
+    "prepare": "if ./scripts/utils/check-is-in-git-install.sh; then ./scripts/build && ./scripts/utils/git-swap.sh; fi",
     "tsn": "ts-node -r tsconfig-paths/register",
     "lint": "./scripts/lint",
     "fix": "./scripts/format"
diff --git a/scripts/utils/check-is-in-git-install.sh b/scripts/utils/check-is-in-git-install.sh
index 36bcedc2..1354eb43 100755
--- a/scripts/utils/check-is-in-git-install.sh
+++ b/scripts/utils/check-is-in-git-install.sh
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/bin/bash
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
 # Check if you happen to call prepare for a repository that's already in node_modules.
 [ "$(basename "$(dirname "$PWD")")" = 'node_modules' ] ||
 # The name of the containing directory that 'npm` uses, which looks like
diff --git a/scripts/utils/git-swap.sh b/scripts/utils/git-swap.sh
new file mode 100755
index 00000000..79d1888e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/utils/git-swap.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+set -exuo pipefail
+# the package is published to NPM from ./dist
+# we want the final file structure for git installs to match the npm installs, so we
+
+# delete everything except ./dist and ./node_modules
+find . -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 ! -name 'dist' ! -name 'node_modules' -exec rm -rf '{}' +
+
+# move everything from ./dist to .
+mv dist/* .
+
+# delete the now-empty ./dist
+rmdir dist