Getting started with Nix (and flakes)

If you want to work with Nix in the modern age, you're going to need to do slightly more then the website suggests; we need to enable a few extra options to get the most convenient experience

So, let's go through it.

1. Download Nix

This is pretty straightforward; just follow the relevant section for your OS from the Nix website: Download Nix.

2. Enable flakes and other features in nix.conf

You can create/edit ~/.config/nix/nix.conf and add the following line:

nix.conf

experimental-features = nix-command flakes recursive-nix ca-derivations

This enables flakes, the nix command, and a few other features that are handy.

3. Test it

You can check that the nix-command feature is working by trying to run any program on nixpkgs; for example, jq:

nix run nixpkgs#jq -- --help

You can test that the flakes feature is active by loading a development shell for a simple JavaScript project, from our templates:

nix develop github:InvariantClub/nix-js-simple
> node

4. optional — Use direnv

While this is not strictly necessary; it's something I use all the time, and has wildly improved and simplified my Nix life.

direnv is a program that reads .envrc files and follows instructions there-in. You will notice in all our nix templates we provide .envrc with the simple statement:

use flake

This means that whenever you cd into the directory, the nix develop shell will be loaded automatically. This is extremely convenient!

Steps:

1. Install direnv
2. Install nix-direnv

5.Start hacking!

You're all set! You've now got a perfect Nix setup for exploring and extending one of our templates!