diff --git a/gpt4all-backend-test/CMakeLists.txt b/gpt4all-backend-test/CMakeLists.txt
index fb3151ed..62f3fc00 100644
--- a/gpt4all-backend-test/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/gpt4all-backend-test/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -4,5 +4,5 @@ project(gpt4all-backend-test VERSION 0.1 LANGUAGES CXX)
 set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/bin")
 include(../common/common.cmake)
 
-add_subdirectory(../gpt4all-backend "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/gpt4all-backend")
+add_subdirectory(../gpt4all-backend gpt4all-backend)
 add_subdirectory(src)
diff --git a/gpt4all-backend-test/src/main.cpp b/gpt4all-backend-test/src/main.cpp
index 641e47b7..66bdbf4a 100644
--- a/gpt4all-backend-test/src/main.cpp
+++ b/gpt4all-backend-test/src/main.cpp
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+#include <QCoro/QCoroTask>
 #include <QLatin1StringView>
 
 import fmt;
@@ -10,5 +11,10 @@ using gpt4all::backend::LLMProvider;
 int main()
 {
     LLMProvider provider(OLLAMA_URL);
-    fmt::print("Server version: {}", provider.getVersion());
+    auto version = QCoro::waitFor(provider.getVersion());
+    if (version) {
+        fmt::print("Server version: {}", *version);
+    } else {
+        fmt::print("Network error: {}", version.unexpected().errorString);
+    }
 }
diff --git a/gpt4all-backend/CMakeLists.txt b/gpt4all-backend/CMakeLists.txt
index 1a1c4a94..46c2398b 100644
--- a/gpt4all-backend/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/gpt4all-backend/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -7,5 +7,5 @@ include(../common/common.cmake)
 find_package(Qt6 6.8 COMPONENTS Concurrent Core Network REQUIRED)
 
 set(FMT_MODULE ON)
-add_subdirectory(../deps "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/common_deps")
+add_subdirectory(../deps common_deps)
 add_subdirectory(src)
diff --git a/gpt4all-backend/src/CMakeLists.txt b/gpt4all-backend/src/CMakeLists.txt
index 6cb36e3b..dcbbb829 100644
--- a/gpt4all-backend/src/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/gpt4all-backend/src/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -9,6 +9,7 @@ if (CMAKE_COMPILER_IS_GNUCXX)
 endif()
 target_sources(${TARGET} PUBLIC
     FILE_SET gpt4all_backend TYPE CXX_MODULES FILES
+    formatters.cppm
     main.cppm
 )
 gpt4all_add_warning_options(${TARGET})
diff --git a/gpt4all-backend/src/formatters.cppm b/gpt4all-backend/src/formatters.cppm
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3887c2ae
--- /dev/null
+++ b/gpt4all-backend/src/formatters.cppm
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+module;
+
+#include <QByteArray>
+#include <QString>
+#include <QStringView>
+#include <QUtf8StringView>
+#include <QVariant>
+
+#include <string_view>
+
+export module gpt4all.backend.formatters;
+import fmt;
+
+
+// fmtlib formatters for QString and QVariant
+
+#define MAKE_FORMATTER(type, conversion)                                         \
+    export template <>                                                           \
+    struct fmt::formatter<type, char> : fmt::formatter<std::string_view, char> { \
+        template <typename FmtContext>                                           \
+        FmtContext::iterator format(const type &value, FmtContext &ctx) const    \
+        {                                                                        \
+            auto valueUtf8 = (conversion);                                       \
+            std::string_view view(valueUtf8.cbegin(), valueUtf8.cend());         \
+            return formatter<std::string_view, char>::format(view, ctx);         \
+        }                                                                        \
+    }
+
+MAKE_FORMATTER(QUtf8StringView, value                    );
+MAKE_FORMATTER(QStringView,     value.toUtf8()           );
+MAKE_FORMATTER(QString,         value.toUtf8()           );
+MAKE_FORMATTER(QVariant,        value.toString().toUtf8());
diff --git a/gpt4all-backend/src/main.cpp b/gpt4all-backend/src/main.cpp
index 280b37df..d6505b94 100644
--- a/gpt4all-backend/src/main.cpp
+++ b/gpt4all-backend/src/main.cpp
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ auto LLMProvider::getVersion() const -> QCoro::Task<DataOrNetErr<QString>>
     QNetworkAccessManager nam;
     std::unique_ptr<QNetworkReply> reply(co_await nam.get(QNetworkRequest(m_baseUrl.resolved(u"/api/version"_s))));
     if (auto err = reply->error())
-        co_return std::unexpected(err);
+        co_return std::unexpected(NetErr{ err, reply->errorString() });
 
     // TODO(jared): parse JSON here instead of just returning the data
     co_return QString::fromUtf8(reply->readAll());
diff --git a/gpt4all-backend/src/main.cppm b/gpt4all-backend/src/main.cppm
index 0af9b04c..a12882a8 100644
--- a/gpt4all-backend/src/main.cppm
+++ b/gpt4all-backend/src/main.cppm
@@ -15,8 +15,13 @@ export module gpt4all.backend.main;
 
 export namespace gpt4all::backend {
 
+struct NetErr {
+    QNetworkReply::NetworkError error;
+    QString                     errorString;
+};
+
 template <typename T>
-using DataOrNetErr = std::expected<T, QNetworkReply::NetworkError>;
+using DataOrNetErr = std::expected<T, NetErr>;
 
 
 class LLMProvider {
diff --git a/gpt4all-chat/CMakeLists.txt b/gpt4all-chat/CMakeLists.txt
index 9e203743..c29a3a97 100644
--- a/gpt4all-chat/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/gpt4all-chat/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -144,8 +144,8 @@ configure_file(
     "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/config.h"
 )
 
-add_subdirectory(../deps "${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/common_deps")
 add_subdirectory(deps)
+add_subdirectory(../gpt4all-backend gpt4all-backend)
 add_subdirectory(../gpt4all-backend-old llmodel)
 
 if (GPT4ALL_TEST)
@@ -458,7 +458,7 @@ else()
     target_link_libraries(chat PRIVATE pdfium)
 endif()
 target_link_libraries(chat
-    PRIVATE llmodel nlohmann_json::nlohmann_json SingleApplication fmt::fmt duckx::duckx QXlsx)
+    PRIVATE gpt4all-backend llmodel nlohmann_json::nlohmann_json SingleApplication fmt::fmt duckx::duckx QXlsx)
 target_include_directories(chat PRIVATE ${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/deps/minja/include)
 
 if (APPLE)
diff --git a/gpt4all-chat/src/chatapi.cpp b/gpt4all-chat/src/chatapi.cpp
index 363aa5a0..c793df1b 100644
--- a/gpt4all-chat/src/chatapi.cpp
+++ b/gpt4all-chat/src/chatapi.cpp
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
 #include <utility>
 
 import fmt;
+import gpt4all.backend.formatters;
 
 using namespace Qt::Literals::StringLiterals;
 
diff --git a/gpt4all-chat/src/chatmodel.h b/gpt4all-chat/src/chatmodel.h
index 4eed504b..de478a73 100644
--- a/gpt4all-chat/src/chatmodel.h
+++ b/gpt4all-chat/src/chatmodel.h
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 #include "database.h"
 #include "tool.h"
 #include "toolcallparser.h"
-#include "utils.h" // IWYU pragma: keep
 #include "xlsxtomd.h"
 
 #include <QAbstractListModel>
@@ -41,6 +40,7 @@
 #include <vector>
 
 import fmt;
+import gpt4all.backend.formatters;
 
 using namespace Qt::Literals::StringLiterals;
 namespace ranges = std::ranges;
diff --git a/gpt4all-chat/src/database.cpp b/gpt4all-chat/src/database.cpp
index 199753ff..da79360e 100644
--- a/gpt4all-chat/src/database.cpp
+++ b/gpt4all-chat/src/database.cpp
@@ -1,7 +1,6 @@
 #include "database.h"
 
 #include "mysettings.h"
-#include "utils.h" // IWYU pragma: keep
 
 #include <duckx/duckx.hpp>
 #include <usearch/index.hpp>
@@ -42,6 +41,7 @@
 #endif
 
 import fmt;
+import gpt4all.backend.formatters;
 
 using namespace Qt::Literals::StringLiterals;
 namespace ranges = std::ranges;
diff --git a/gpt4all-chat/src/jinja_helpers.cpp b/gpt4all-chat/src/jinja_helpers.cpp
index 1a91014a..c3033d78 100644
--- a/gpt4all-chat/src/jinja_helpers.cpp
+++ b/gpt4all-chat/src/jinja_helpers.cpp
@@ -7,8 +7,6 @@
 #include <string>
 #include <utility>
 
-import fmt;
-
 namespace views  = std::views;
 using json = nlohmann::ordered_json;
 
diff --git a/gpt4all-chat/src/server.cpp b/gpt4all-chat/src/server.cpp
index 74015e06..ae823c1b 100644
--- a/gpt4all-chat/src/server.cpp
+++ b/gpt4all-chat/src/server.cpp
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@
 #include "chatmodel.h"
 #include "modellist.h"
 #include "mysettings.h"
-#include "utils.h" // IWYU pragma: keep
 
 #include <gpt4all-backend/llmodel.h>
 
@@ -49,6 +48,7 @@
 #include <vector>
 
 import fmt;
+import gpt4all.backend.formatters;
 
 using namespace std::string_literals;
 using namespace Qt::Literals::StringLiterals;
diff --git a/gpt4all-chat/src/utils.h b/gpt4all-chat/src/utils.h
index 72d1e253..5c21574f 100644
--- a/gpt4all-chat/src/utils.h
+++ b/gpt4all-chat/src/utils.h
@@ -1,42 +1,15 @@
 #pragma once
 
-#include <QByteArray>
 #include <QJsonValue>
 #include <QLatin1StringView> // IWYU pragma: keep
-#include <QString>
-#include <QStringView>
-#include <QUtf8StringView>
-#include <QVariant>
 
 #include <initializer_list>
-#include <string_view>
 #include <utility> // IWYU pragma: keep
 
-import fmt;
-
 // IWYU pragma: no_forward_declare QJsonValue
 class QJsonObject;
 
 
-// fmtlib formatters for QString and QVariant
-
-#define MAKE_FORMATTER(type, conversion)                                        \
-    template <>                                                                 \
-    struct fmt::formatter<type, char>: fmt::formatter<std::string_view, char> { \
-        template <typename FmtContext>                                          \
-        FmtContext::iterator format(const type &value, FmtContext &ctx) const   \
-        {                                                                       \
-            auto valueUtf8 = (conversion);                                      \
-            std::string_view view(valueUtf8.cbegin(), valueUtf8.cend());        \
-            return formatter<std::string_view, char>::format(view, ctx);        \
-        }                                                                       \
-    }
-
-MAKE_FORMATTER(QUtf8StringView, value                    );
-MAKE_FORMATTER(QStringView,     value.toUtf8()           );
-MAKE_FORMATTER(QString,         value.toUtf8()           );
-MAKE_FORMATTER(QVariant,        value.toString().toUtf8());
-
 // alternative to QJsonObject's initializer_list constructor that accepts Latin-1 strings
 QJsonObject makeJsonObject(std::initializer_list<std::pair<QLatin1StringView, QJsonValue>> args);