diff --git a/build-args-c10s.conf b/build-args-c10s.conf
index f09457c..39705a8 100644
--- a/build-args-c10s.conf
+++ b/build-args-c10s.conf
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 # Variant-specific build arguments.
 # Pass to buildah/podman using `--build-arg-file`.
 
+ID=centos
 NAME=scos
-VERSION="10.0"
+STREAM=c10s
+DESCRIPTION=CentOS Stream CoreOS 10
+VERSION=10.0
+MUTATE_OS_RELEASE=10
 BUILDER_IMG=quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream10
 MANIFEST=manifest-c10s.yaml
+IMAGE_CONFIG=image-c10s.yaml
+BUILD_ARGS=build-args-c10s.conf
 # XXX: see inject_passwd_group() in build-rootfs
 PASSWD_GROUP_DIR=.
-STREAM=c10s
diff --git a/build-args-c9s.conf b/build-args-c9s.conf
index 69c11bf..3bc703f 100644
--- a/build-args-c9s.conf
+++ b/build-args-c9s.conf
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 # Variant-specific build arguments.
 # Pass to buildah/podman using `--build-arg-file`.
 
+ID=centos
 NAME=scos
-VERSION="9.0"
+STREAM=c9s
+DESCRIPTION=CentOS Stream CoreOS 9
+VERSION=9.0
+MUTATE_OS_RELEASE=9
 BUILDER_IMG=quay.io/centos-bootc/centos-bootc:stream9
 MANIFEST=manifest-c9s.yaml
+IMAGE_CONFIG=image-c9s.yaml
+BUILD_ARGS=build-args-c9s.conf
 # XXX: see inject_passwd_group() in build-rootfs
 PASSWD_GROUP_DIR=.
-STREAM=c9s
diff --git a/build-args-rhel-10.1.conf b/build-args-rhel-10.1.conf
index 69884e8..38463d7 100644
--- a/build-args-rhel-10.1.conf
+++ b/build-args-rhel-10.1.conf
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 # Variant-specific build arguments.
 # Pass to buildah/podman using `--build-arg-file`.
 
+ID=rhel
 NAME=rhcos
-VERSION="10.1"
+STREAM=rhel-10.1
+DESCRIPTION=RHEL CoreOS 10.1
+VERSION=10.1
+MUTATE_OS_RELEASE=10.1
 BUILDER_IMG=registry.redhat.io/rhel10/rhel-bootc:10.1
 MANIFEST=manifest-rhel-10.1.yaml
+IMAGE_CONFIG=image-rhel-10.1.yaml
+BUILD_ARGS=build-args-rhel-10.1.conf
 # XXX: see inject_passwd_group() in build-rootfs
 PASSWD_GROUP_DIR=.
-STREAM=rhel-10.1
diff --git a/build-args-rhel-9.8.conf b/build-args-rhel-9.8.conf
index c998252..73882b8 100644
--- a/build-args-rhel-9.8.conf
+++ b/build-args-rhel-9.8.conf
@@ -1,10 +1,15 @@
 # Variant-specific build arguments.
 # Pass to buildah/podman using `--build-arg-file`.
 
+ID=rhel
 NAME=rhcos
-VERSION="9.8"
+STREAM=rhel-9.8
+DESCRIPTION=RHEL CoreOS 9.8
+VERSION=9.8
+MUTATE_OS_RELEASE=9.8
 BUILDER_IMG=registry.stage.redhat.io/rhel9/rhel-bootc:9.8
 MANIFEST=manifest-rhel-9.8.yaml
+IMAGE_CONFIG=image-rhel-9.8.yaml
+BUILD_ARGS=build-args-rhel-9.8.conf
 # XXX: see inject_passwd_group() in build-rootfs
 PASSWD_GROUP_DIR=.
-STREAM=rhel-9.8
diff --git a/common.yaml b/common.yaml
index f0fb2c5..9a569cf 100644
--- a/common.yaml
+++ b/common.yaml
@@ -359,7 +359,3 @@ packages-aarch64:
 packages-s390x:
   # Required genprotimg for IBM Secure Execution
   - s390utils-base
-
-remove-from-packages:
-  - - filesystem
-    - "/usr/share/backgrounds"
diff --git a/manifest-c9s.yaml b/manifest-c9s.yaml
index a9e553a..f852489 100644
--- a/manifest-c9s.yaml
+++ b/manifest-c9s.yaml
@@ -1,13 +1,8 @@
 # Manifest for CentOS Stream CoreOS 9
 
 metadata:
-  license: MIT
-  name: scos
-  summary: CentOS Stream CoreOS 9
-
-variables:
-  id: "centos"
-  osversion: "centos-9"
+  # tell `cosa build` to default to buildah path
+  build_with_buildah: true
 
 # Include manifests common to all RHEL and CentOS Stream versions
 include:
@@ -18,12 +13,6 @@ repos:
   - c9s-appstream
   - c9s-extras-common
 
-automatic-version-prefix: "9.0.<date:%Y%m%d>"
-# This ensures we're semver-compatible which OpenShift wants
-automatic-version-suffix: "-"
-
-mutate-os-release: "9"
-
 packages:
  - centos-stream-release
  - centos-release-cloud-common
diff --git a/versionary b/versionary
deleted file mode 100755
index 9c74b6a..0000000
--- a/versionary
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,112 +0,0 @@
-#!/usr/bin/python3 -u
-
-'''
-    Implements versioning for RHEL CoreOS and CentOS Stream CoreOS. Initially based
-    on the Fedora CoreOS versionary script.
-'''
-
-import argparse
-import json
-import os
-import re
-import subprocess
-import sys
-import time
-import yaml
-
-from datetime import datetime
-
-
-def main():
-    args = parse_args()
-    if args.workdir is not None:
-        os.chdir(args.workdir)
-    assert os.path.isdir('builds'), 'Missing builds/ dir'
-
-    manifest = get_flattened_manifest()
-
-    # we'll want to move the source of truth for this somewhere else in the future but for now...
-    prefix = manifest['automatic-version-prefix']
-    placeholder = '<date:%Y%m%d>'
-    assert placeholder in prefix
-    dt = datetime.now()
-    xyz = prefix.replace(placeholder, dt.strftime('%Y%m%d'))
-    x, y, z = map(int, xyz.split('.'))
-    n = get_next_iteration(x, y, z, args.last_version)
-    dev = '.dev' if args.dev else ''
-
-    print(f'{xyz}-{n}{dev}')
-
-
-def parse_args():
-    parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
-    parser.add_argument('--workdir', help="path to cosa workdir")
-    parser.add_argument('--last-version', help="override last version (for testing)")
-    parser.add_argument('--dev', action='store_true', help="generate a developer version")
-    return parser.parse_args()
-
-
-def get_next_iteration(x, y, z, last_version_override):
-    try:
-        with open('builds/builds.json') as f:
-            builds = json.load(f)
-    except FileNotFoundError:
-        builds = {'builds': []}
-
-    if last_version_override is not None:
-        last_version = last_version_override
-    else:
-        if len(builds['builds']) == 0:
-            eprint("n: 0 (no previous builds)")
-            return 0
-
-        last_version = builds['builds'][0]['id']
-
-    last_version_tuple = parse_version(last_version)
-
-    if not last_version_tuple:
-        eprint(f"n: 0 (previous version {last_version} does not match scheme)")
-        return 0
-
-    if (x, y, z) != last_version_tuple[:3]:
-        eprint(f"n: 0 (previous version {last_version} x.y.z does not match)")
-        return 0
-
-    n = last_version_tuple[3] + 1
-    eprint(f"n: {n} (incremented from previous version {last_version})")
-    return n
-
-
-def get_flattened_manifest():
-    try:
-        with open('src/config.json') as f:
-            j = json.load(f)
-            variant = j["coreos-assembler.config-variant"]
-            manifest = f'src/config/manifest-{variant}.yaml'
-    except FileNotFoundError:
-        manifest = 'src/config/manifest.yaml'
-    return yaml.safe_load(
-        subprocess.check_output(['rpm-ostree', 'compose', 'tree',
-                                 '--print-only', manifest]))
-
-
-def parse_version(version):
-    # since RHCOS/SCOS follows semver, we could actually instead use a library
-    # for this, but we do actually only expect a particular subset in our case
-    m = re.match(r'^([0-9]+)\.([0-9]+)\.([0-9]{8})-([0-9]+)(\.dev)?$', version)
-    if m is None:
-        return None
-    # sanity-check date
-    try:
-        time.strptime(m.group(3), '%Y%m%d')
-    except ValueError:
-        return None
-    return tuple(map(int, m.groups()[:4]))
-
-
-def eprint(*args):
-    print(*args, file=sys.stderr)
-
-
-if __name__ == "__main__":
-    sys.exit(main())
diff --git a/versionary b/versionary
new file mode 120000
index 0000000..ac7a956
--- /dev/null
+++ b/versionary
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+fedora-coreos-config/versionary
\ No newline at end of file