diff --git a/piker/service/_actor_runtime.py b/piker/service/_actor_runtime.py
index 1d0c2e69..e713fe43 100644
--- a/piker/service/_actor_runtime.py
+++ b/piker/service/_actor_runtime.py
@@ -100,6 +100,10 @@ async def open_piker_runtime(
             or [_default_reg_addr]
         )
 
+        if ems := tractor_kwargs.get('enable_modules'):
+            # import pdbp; pdbp.set_trace()
+            enable_modules.extend(ems)
+
         async with (
             tractor.open_root_actor(