NixOS & nix-darwin Configurations

A single Nix flake covering my NixOS hosts and macOS hosts.

The repo follows the dendritic pattern.

Showcase

GNOME

macOS

Layout

.
├── flake.nix         # Inputs; imports everything in modules/
├── Makefile          # Common rebuild, update, and check commands
└── modules/
    ├── base.nix      # Composes features into nixos.base, darwin.base, homeManager.base
    ├── configurations/ # Instantiates hosts and generates system checks
    ├── flake-parts.nix # Module integration, supported systems, and formatter
    ├── profile/      # Identity and shared appearance settings
    ├── hosts/        # Hosts definitions
    ├── nixos/        # NixOS-only system features
    ├── darwin/       # macOS-only system features
    ├── desktop/      # GNOME desktop and its integration (gnome, gtk, qt, xdg)
    ├── programs/     # Program-oriented modules, mostly for Home Manager
    │   └── scripts/bin/ # Scripts packaged into a Home Manager derivation
    └── *.nix         # Repository-level features for one or more module classes

Conventions

• Files under modules/nixos/, modules/darwin/, or modules/programs/ typically declare modules of a single class (nixos.*, darwin.*, homeManager.*). Vertical program features such as Zsh, Podman, and Brave may declare modules for more than one class.
• Files at the root of modules/, and files under modules/desktop/, may span more than one class. For example, fonts.nix declares generic.fonts for both NixOS and Darwin, and users.nix declares generic.primaryUser, nixos.users, and darwin.users. Single-class modules may also live there (e.g. desktop/gtk.nix).
• modules/base.nix collects default workstation features into nixos.base, darwin.base, and homeManager.base. Opt-in features are composed by their owning host or parent feature instead.
• Hosts in modules/hosts/ import nixos.base or darwin.base together with any opt-in extras such as nixos.gnome, nixos.gaming, or darwin.aerospace.
• Files and directories prefixed with _ (for example _hardware.nix) are skipped by import-tree and imported explicitly where needed.

How to use this repo for yourself

1. Fork and clone

Fork this repository and clone the fork.

2. Replace personal settings

modules/profile/preferences.nix declares the personal settings shared across all hosts: name, email, Git signing key ID, icon theme, terminal font, locale, and timezone.

Note

profile is an untyped option, so edit the values in place and keep the existing attribute names and nesting. A misspelled attribute is not reported against this file — it surfaces later as a missing-attribute error in whichever module consumes it (for example desktop/gtk.nix or programs/alacritty.nix).

Replace the asset files with your own:

• modules/profile/wallpaper-light.png
• modules/profile/wallpaper-dark.png
• modules/profile/wallpaper-mac.heic

The PNGs are used by GNOME; the HEIC contains the matching light/dark variants and is selected manually in macOS.

modules/users.nix declares the primaryUser option and configures the corresponding NixOS or Darwin user. The platform bases in modules/base.nix import Home Manager and default the primary user's home.stateVersion to "26.05" with lib.mkDefault, allowing per-host overrides.

3. Trim or replace hosts

Remove hosts under modules/hosts/ that do not apply. energy/ and xps/ are NixOS examples; work-mac.nix is a macOS example.

4. Add a host

For NixOS:

mkdir -p modules/hosts/laptop
sudo nixos-generate-config --show-hardware-config > modules/hosts/laptop/_hardware.nix

modules/hosts/laptop/default.nix:

{ config, ... }:
let
  inherit (config.flake.modules) nixos;
in
{
  configurations.nixos.laptop.module = {
    imports = [
      ./_hardware.nix
      nixos.base
      nixos.gnome
    ];

    primaryUser = "your-user";
    system.stateVersion = "26.05";
  };
}

Important

Substitute the placeholders before building:

• laptop in configurations.nixos.laptop.module: the machine's hostname and the flake output name used by the Makefile; using the same name for the directory is only a convention
• your-user: the managed account name on NixOS; on macOS it must match the existing login short name
• the feature list (nixos.gnome, …) — adjust to taste

For macOS:

copy modules/hosts/work-mac.nix and substitute the same placeholders. The shape mirrors the NixOS example, with three differences: the attribute key is configurations.darwin."<hostname>".module, the base is darwin.base (plus macOS-only extras like darwin.aerospace), and there is no _hardware.nix.

New host files are picked up by import-tree without further registration (but don't forget git add . new files).

5. Build

make nixos-rebuild     # NixOS
make darwin-rebuild    # macOS
make fmt               # format the repository
make flake-check       # validate the flake

make help lists all targets. The Makefile defaults to .#$(hostname -s), so flake outputs named after the machine's short hostname are selected automatically. Complete NixOS and Darwin system checks must be built on their matching platforms.

Adding modules

• A new Home-Manager program lives in modules/programs/<name>.nix and declares flake.modules.homeManager.<name>. Register default workstation programs in homeManager.base; import opt-in programs from their owning feature.
• A new NixOS-only or Darwin-only system feature lives in modules/nixos/<name>.nix or modules/darwin/<name>.nix and declares flake.modules.{nixos,darwin}.<name>. Register defaults in the matching base and import opt-in features from hosts.
• A feature spanning more than one class may live beside its primary concern or under modules/desktop/ for desktop features. Register each default class module independently; parent features may compose subordinate modules directly.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.