Nix Dotfiles

Open-source Nix projects categorized as Dotfiles

Top 23 Nix Dotfile Projects

  1. Home Manager using Nix

    Manage a user environment using Nix [maintainer=@rycee]

    Project mention: I Think It's Time to Give Nix a Chance | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-05-26

    Just NixOS. When building the VM / live CD I copy my dotfiles into the Nix store and then during first boot-up I copy them into my home dir and set up symlinks.

    The main reason I decided against home-manager was that it makes my simple symlink setup (~/.foo -> ~/.dotfiles/foo) virtually impossible: Symlinks will always point to the read-only Nix store in one way or another. See https://github.com/nix-community/home-manager/issues/3514 or one of the countless other tickets on the topic. Through this episode I also learned that home-manager isn't exactly well-documented, either, and also quite opinionated. (Which, to be fair, is not a bad thing – if it works for you, it probably works great.)

    Finally, not using home-manager was also a risk management decision in that it's probably best to not go all-in on Nix, NixOS, home-manager etc. all at once. Start with the simplest possible config that gets you running, then iterate.

  2. Stream

    Stream - Scalable APIs for Chat, Feeds, Moderation, & Video. Stream helps developers build engaging apps that scale to millions with performant and flexible Chat, Feeds, Moderation, and Video APIs and SDKs powered by a global edge network and enterprise-grade infrastructure.

    Stream logo
  3. nix-darwin

    Manage your macOS using Nix

    Project mention: Show HN: Virby, a vfkit-based Linux builder for Nix-Darwin | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-07-06

    What is the advantage of this over the inbuilt linux-builder in nix-darwin[1]?

    I assume it being vfkit based might make it more performant? Are there any benchmarks comparing them?

    [1] https://github.com/nix-darwin/nix-darwin/blob/master/modules...

  4. nix-starter-configs

    Simple and documented config templates to help you get started with NixOS + home-manager + flakes. All the boilerplate you need!

    Project mention: Arch is a gateway drug to NixOS | news.ycombinator.com | 2024-07-25

    This doesn't mirror my experience at all. I think the biggest challenge facing NixOS is the learning curve. There's a lot thrown at you from the start, and as you start to factor your configuration into separate modules, there's a lot of complexity you have to unpack.

    I've since migrated to a flake-based setup with machine-based variations (for my laptop and desktop), including easily swappable desktop environments. At a whim, I can switch between sway, hyprland, and gnome. This was mostly a result of me exploring/tweaking these without wanting to discard the configs; I always end up coming back to re-explore tiling WMs.

    My experience through all of this has been great. I've even done a full re-install on both machines when the xz vulnerability was discovered and the process was effortless. That includes lanzaboote for SecureBoot, LUKS, and out-of-tree git-based flake builds for custom applications I build from source.

    The one thing I found really helpful when starting with flakes was this repo that includes starter configs to help flatten that initial curve: https://github.com/Misterio77/nix-starter-configs/tree/main

  5. dotfiles

    My personal config files (by Aylur)

  6. nixos-config

    General purpose Nix configuration for macOS / NixOS (with starter templates!) (by dustinlyons)

  7. nixos-and-flakes-book

    :hammer_and_wrench: :heart: Want to know NixOS & Flakes in detail? Looking for a beginner-friendly tutorial? Then you've come to the right place! 想要学习使用 NixOS 与 Flakes 吗?在寻找一份新手友好的教程?那你可来对地方了!

    Project mention: NixOS and Flakes Book: An unofficial book for beginners | news.ycombinator.com | 2025-01-06
  8. dotfiles

    And I say hey, what's going on? (by hlissner)

  9. InfluxDB

    InfluxDB – Built for High-Performance Time Series Workloads. InfluxDB 3 OSS is now GA. Transform, enrich, and act on time series data directly in the database. Automate critical tasks and eliminate the need to move data externally. Download now.

    InfluxDB logo
  10. nix-config

    ❄️ My nix config for both desktops(NixOS+macOS) and homelab servers(NixOS). (by ryan4yin)

  11. nix-config

    Personal nixos and home-manager configurations. (by Misterio77)

  12. dotfiles

    Configuration for NixOS, sway, kitty, helix, zsh and more (by maximbaz)

  13. digga

    A flake utility library to craft shell-, home-, and hosts- environments.

  14. nix-config

    :space_invader: NixOS configuration

  15. dotfiles

    NixOS system config & Home-Manager user config (by fufexan)

  16. crystal

    nix dotfiles for chilly people (by namishh)

  17. nix-config

    My Personal Nix, NixOS and Nix-Darwin System Configuration Flake (by MatthiasBenaets)

  18. system

    Declarative system configurations using nixOS, nix-darwin, and home-manager

  19. yuki

    Snowflake

  20. nixpkgs

    My Nix system configs! (by malob)

  21. nixcfg

    NixOS and Home-Manager configs for my devices. dotfiles, but way better

  22. nixdots

    Dotfiles for NixOS (by redyf)

  23. nix-homelab

    Homelab and dotfiles made with NixOS

  24. nixflakes

    My nixdots, but flaked.

  25. nixcfg

    My nix configuration(s), using flakes. It's my laptop, it's my servers, it's my everything, in code. (by MatthewCroughan)

  26. SaaSHub

    SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives

    SaaSHub logo
NOTE: The open source projects on this list are ordered by number of github stars. The number of mentions indicates repo mentiontions in the last 12 Months or since we started tracking (Dec 2020).

Nix Dotfiles discussion

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Nix Dotfiles related posts

  • Show HN: Virby, a vfkit-based Linux builder for Nix-Darwin

    2 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 6 Jul 2025
  • I like to install NixOS (declaratively)

    8 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 1 Jun 2025
  • My new Nix series!

    8 projects | dev.to | 27 Dec 2024
  • Home Manager using Nix for User Environment

    1 project | dev.to | 13 Dec 2024
  • LnL7/Nix-Darwin: Nix modules for Darwin

    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 11 Oct 2024
  • Upgrading Homebrew and avoiding the failed to verify attestation error

    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 9 Oct 2024
  • Nix Modules for Darwin

    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 2 Aug 2024
  • A note from our sponsor - InfluxDB
    www.influxdata.com | 11 Jul 2025
    InfluxDB 3 OSS is now GA. Transform, enrich, and act on time series data directly in the database. Automate critical tasks and eliminate the need to move data externally. Download now. Learn more →

Index

What are some of the best open-source Dotfile projects in Nix? This list will help you:

# Project Stars
1 Home Manager using Nix 8,282
2 nix-darwin 4,170
3 nix-starter-configs 3,217
4 dotfiles 2,896
5 nixos-config 2,753
6 nixos-and-flakes-book 2,603
7 dotfiles 1,798
8 nix-config 1,468
9 nix-config 1,047
10 dotfiles 1,016
11 digga 1,010
12 nix-config 967
13 dotfiles 960
14 crystal 775
15 nix-config 701
16 system 490
17 yuki 476
18 nixpkgs 438
19 nixcfg 436
20 nixdots 344
21 nix-homelab 328
22 nixflakes 313
23 nixcfg 309

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