My dotfiles (managed by nix on macOS)

I store my dotfiles in the ~/.config directory, and manage them with nix on macOS.

Prerequisites

Tested on macOS Sequoia 15, nix-installer v0.27 and nix v2.24.9

Run xcode-select --install on a fresh macOS install.

Install nix with the nix-installer: https://github.com/DeterminateSystems/nix-installer

Clone this repo to ~/.config

Get Started

• ⚠️ Look through codebase to change relevant user detail (pc name, username, email, etc.)!
• Run make from the root directory to install all packages and setup the system

Daily Operations

• Make changes (add apps, edit configs, etc.)
• (Optional) Run nix flake update
• Run make from the root directory

What's Included?

• alacritty
• homebrew with bundle and cask
  • pnpm with zshrc overwrite
• nodejs with fnm
• neovim with astronvim
• nix-darwin, home-manager
• python with miniconda
• rust
• zellij
• zsh with starship
• etc...

Useful Links

• nix documentation: https://nix.dev/manual/nix/
• Search nix packages: https://search.nixos.org/packages
• nix-darwin documentation: https://daiderd.com/nix-darwin/manual/index.html
• home-manager documentation: https://nix-community.github.io/home-manager/
• home-manager option search: https://home-manager-options.extranix.com

FAQs

You may have to run git add . in repo root first for changes to be picked up.

Doesn't homebrew, nix-darwin, and home-manager conflict?

Most times, I follow this order:

1. see if home-manager programs supports it
2. install through home-manager packages
3. use homebrew (brew is useful for complex GUI apps like Firefox)

Existing /etc/nix/nix.conf file

The nix-installer will write a /etc/nix/nix.conf file first, and nix-darwin might complain.

In that case, run sudo mv /etc/nix/nix.conf /etc/nix/nix.conf.before-nix-darwin

What about secrets and SSH?

I use 1password to manage SSH and secrets, see https://developer.1password.com/docs/ssh/

How to upgrade nix?

Run sudo -i nix upgrade-nix

How to clean up nix?

Run nix-collect-garbage -d

Inspirations

• https://github.com/mitchellh/nixos-config
• https://github.com/dustinlyons/nixos-config