diff --git a/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/find_sample_process_models b/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/find_sample_process_models
index f78894b78..dd77c5613 100755
--- a/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/find_sample_process_models
+++ b/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/find_sample_process_models
@@ -10,21 +10,18 @@ set -o errtrace -o errexit -o nounset -o pipefail
 if [[ -z "${SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR:-}" ]]; then
   script_dir="$( cd -- "$(dirname "$0")" >/dev/null 2>&1 ; pwd -P )"
 
-  SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR="${script_dir}/../../../sample-process-models"
+  sibling_to_arena_root="${script_dir}/../../../sample-process-models"
+  SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR="$sibling_to_arena_root"
   if [[ ! -d "$SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR" ]]; then
-    SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR="${script_dir}/../../sample-process-models"
+    sibling_to_backend_root="${script_dir}/../../sample-process-models"
+    SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR="$sibling_to_backend_root"
     if [[ ! -d "$SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR" ]]; then
-      >&2 echo "ERROR: Could not find a process model repo. Last tried: ${SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR}. Please set SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR to the absolute path of the git repo where you want to store process models. This could be an empty git repo, or if you want you could clone https://github.com/sartography/sample-process-models.git so that spiff-arena and sample-process-models are in the same directory."
-      exit 1
+      SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR="$sibling_to_arena_root"
+      process_model_clone_url="https://github.com/sartography/sample-process-models.git"
+      >&2 echo "could not find process model dir. cloning ${process_model_clone_url} to ${SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR}"
+      git clone "$process_model_clone_url" "$SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR"
     fi
   fi
-
-  pushd "$SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR" >/dev/null 2>&1
-  if [[ "$(git rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD)" == "main" ]]; then
-    >&2 echo "ERROR: please do not use the main branch of sample-process-models. use dev"
-    exit 1
-  fi
-  popd >/dev/null 2>&1
 fi
 
 realpath "$SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR"
diff --git a/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/run_server_locally b/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/run_server_locally
index 5d5b61e39..e4d5ba8f9 100755
--- a/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/run_server_locally
+++ b/spiffworkflow-backend/bin/run_server_locally
@@ -10,20 +10,23 @@ set -o errtrace -o errexit -o nounset -o pipefail
 port="${SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_PORT:-7000}"
 
 process_model_dir="${1:-}"
+
+if [[ -z "${SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR:-}" ]]; then
+  if [[ -n "${process_model_dir}" ]] && [[ -d "${process_model_dir}" ]]; then
+    SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR="$process_model_dir"
+  else
+    SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR=$(./bin/find_sample_process_models)
+  fi
+  export SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR
+fi
+
 if [[ "$process_model_dir" == "acceptance" ]]; then
   export SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_LOAD_FIXTURE_DATA=true
   export SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_PERMISSIONS_FILE_NAME=acceptance_tests.yml
-  SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR=$(./bin/find_sample_process_models)
 elif [[ "$process_model_dir" == "localopenid" ]]; then
   export SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_OPEN_ID_SERVER_URL="http://localhost:$port/openid"
   export SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_PERMISSIONS_FILE_NAME="example.yml"
-  SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR=$(./bin/find_sample_process_models)
-elif [[ -n "$process_model_dir" ]]; then
-  SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR="$process_model_dir"
-else
-  SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR=$(./bin/find_sample_process_models)
 fi
-export SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_BPMN_SPEC_ABSOLUTE_DIR
 
 if [[ -z "${SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_ENV:-}" ]]; then
   export SPIFFWORKFLOW_BACKEND_ENV=local_development