[libvirt-users] manually install a machine (no virt-install)

Hi, I'm wondering if there are any guides to connecting a qemu image to libvirt without using any virt-manager tools. I wish to send poweroff / on signals to the machine, and it seems all I need to do so is the libvirt library. I'm working on building an embedded platform where the images are generated in a cross-compiled environment. I'm hoping I can integrate them into libvirt's scope without the use of virt-manager tools like virt-install. As far as I can tell, I need to hand write /etc/libvirt/qemu/myimages.xml and /etc/libvirt/qemu/networks/myimagenetworks.xml. Is this feasible? If the machines are started up at boot time using qemu-system-x86_64, will these libvirt "profiles" provide a domain for libvirt visibility? I am trying to avoid adding virt-manager / python as a dependency to our host image as working with the dependency chain has been hellish so far. Adam