diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 9e30fb35..9729ae2e 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -43,4 +43,7 @@
 [submodule "vlsi/hammer"]
 	path = vlsi/hammer
 	url = git@github.com:ucb-bar/hammer.git
+[submodule "vlsi/hammer-cad-plugins"]
+	path = vlsi/hammer-cad-plugins
+	url = git@github.com:ucb-bar/hammer-cad-plugins
 
diff --git a/vlsi/Makefile b/vlsi/Makefile
index 193ed0b4..7dc797c6 100644
--- a/vlsi/Makefile
+++ b/vlsi/Makefile
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ SMEMS_COMP   ?= $(tech_dir)/sram-compiler.json
 SMEMS_HAMMER ?= $(build_dir)/$(long_name).mems.hammer.json
 MACROCOMPILER_MODE ?= -l $(SMEMS_COMP) --use-compiler -hir $(SMEMS_HAMMER)
 OBJ_DIR      ?= $(vlsi_dir)/build
-ENV_YML      ?= $(vlsi_dir)/hammer-cad-plugins/bwrc-env.yml
+ENV_YML      ?= $(vlsi_dir)/bwrc-env.yml
 INPUT_CONFS  ?= example.yml $(dir $(tech_dir))/bwrc.yml
 HAMMER_EXEC  ?= ./example-vlsi
 
diff --git a/vlsi/hammer-cad-plugins b/vlsi/hammer-cad-plugins
new file mode 160000
index 00000000..72809f53
--- /dev/null
+++ b/vlsi/hammer-cad-plugins
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Subproject commit 72809f538c4bbe91c103de52e92baad9df6d8f9a