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Top 23 Nix Dotfile Projects
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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.
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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...
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nix-starter-configs
Simple and documented config templates to help you get started with NixOS + home-manager + flakes. All the boilerplate you need!
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
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nixos-config
General purpose Nix configuration for macOS / NixOS (with starter templates!) (by dustinlyons)
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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 -
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InfluxDB
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nix-config
❄️ My nix config for both desktops(NixOS+macOS) and homelab servers(NixOS). (by ryan4yin)
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nixcfg
My nix configuration(s), using flakes. It's my laptop, it's my servers, it's my everything, in code. (by MatthewCroughan)
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SaaSHub
SaaSHub - Software Alternatives and Reviews. SaaSHub helps you find the best software and product alternatives
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
Nix Dotfiles related posts
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Show HN: Virby, a vfkit-based Linux builder for Nix-Darwin
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I like to install NixOS (declaratively)
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My new Nix series!
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Home Manager using Nix for User Environment
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LnL7/Nix-Darwin: Nix modules for Darwin
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Upgrading Homebrew and avoiding the failed to verify attestation error
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Nix Modules for Darwin
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A note from our sponsor - InfluxDB
www.influxdata.com | 11 Jul 2025
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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