diff --git a/xos/tosca/destroy.py b/xos/tosca/destroy.py
index d7f8300..6fa9101 100644
--- a/xos/tosca/destroy.py
+++ b/xos/tosca/destroy.py
@@ -7,9 +7,6 @@
 parentdir = os.path.dirname(currentdir)
 sys.path.append(parentdir)
 
-# a bit of a hack for developing -- run m4 to generate xos.yaml from xos.m4
-os.system("m4 %s/custom_types/xos.m4 > %s/custom_types/xos.yaml" % (currentdir, currentdir))
-
 os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "xos.settings")
 import django
 django.setup()
diff --git a/xos/tosca/makedocs.py b/xos/tosca/makedocs.py
index 6a9e959..2db6db8 100644
--- a/xos/tosca/makedocs.py
+++ b/xos/tosca/makedocs.py
@@ -10,9 +10,6 @@
 parentdir = os.path.dirname(currentdir)
 sys.path.append(parentdir)
 
-# a bit of a hack for developing -- run m4 to generate xos.yaml from xos.m4
-os.system("m4 %s/custom_types/xos.m4 > %s/custom_types/xos.yaml" % (currentdir, currentdir))
-
 """
 {'derived_from': 'tosca.nodes.Root', 'capabilities': {'scalable': {'type': 'tosca.capabilities.Scalable'},
 'service': {'type': 'tosca.capabilities.xos.Service'}}, 'properties': {'icon_url': {'required': False,
diff --git a/xos/tosca/run.py b/xos/tosca/run.py
index 58dc22b..0ba2df9 100644
--- a/xos/tosca/run.py
+++ b/xos/tosca/run.py
@@ -7,9 +7,6 @@
 parentdir = os.path.dirname(currentdir)
 sys.path.append(parentdir)
 
-# a bit of a hack for developing -- run m4 to generate xos.yaml from xos.m4
-os.system("m4 %s/custom_types/xos.m4 > %s/custom_types/xos.yaml" % (currentdir, currentdir))
-
 os.environ.setdefault("DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE", "xos.settings")
 import django
 django.setup()