Quickstart

Get nix-wire working in your flake in under five minutes.

---

1. Add nix-wire as a flake input

Add nix-wire and its dependencies to your flake.nix:

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable";
    flake-parts.url = "github:hercules-ci/flake-parts";
    home-manager.url = "github:nix-community/home-manager";
    home-manager.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    nix-darwin.url = "github:LnL7/nix-darwin";
    nix-darwin.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    nix-wire.url = "github:semi710/nix-wire";
  };
}

Dependencies

• flake-parts is required - nix-wire is built on it.
• home-manager is required if home = true (the default).
• nix-darwin is required if you have hosts/darwin/ entries.

2. Wire your outputs

Replace your outputs with a single call to mkFlake:

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable";
    flake-parts.url = "github:hercules-ci/flake-parts";
    home-manager.url = "github:nix-community/home-manager";
    home-manager.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    nix-darwin.url = "github:LnL7/nix-darwin";
    nix-darwin.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
    nix-wire.url = "github:semi710/nix-wire";
  };

  outputs = inputs: inputs.nix-wire.mkFlake { inherit inputs; };
}

3. Create your directory structure

.
├── flake.nix
├── hosts/
│   └── nixos/
│       └── myhost.nix        # → nixosConfigurations.myhost
├── packages/
│   └── mypkg.nix             # → packages.x86_64-linux.mypkg
└── modules/
    └── nixos/
        └── mymodule.nix      # → nixosModules.mymodule

4. Write a host config

# hosts/nixos/myhost.nix
{ pkgs, ... }:
{
  nixpkgs.hostPlatform = "x86_64-linux";
  system.stateVersion = "24.05";

  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ vim git ];
}

5. Build it

# Build the NixOS configuration
nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#myhost

# Build a package
nix build .#mypkg

# Enter a devshell (if you have devshells/default.nix)
nix develop

---

What you get automatically

With just the mkFlake call above, nix-wire provides:

• nixosConfigurations - from hosts/nixos/
• darwinConfigurations - from hosts/darwin/
• packages - from packages/ (via callPackage)
• devShells - from devshells/
• nixosModules, darwinModules, homeModules, flakeModules - from modules/
• overlays - from overlays/
• templates - from templates/
• legacyPackages.homeConfigurations - standalone Home Manager from hosts/home/
• ISO images - from hosts/iso/ as per-system packages

Every host automatically gets:

• Home Manager integration (if home = true)
• User discovery from users/ subdirectory
• allowUnfree, experimental-features, max-jobs defaults
• inputs and flake (alias for inputs.self) in special args

---

Adding per-user Home Manager configs

Create a users/ directory inside any host:

hosts/nixos/myhost/
├── default.nix          # System config
└── users/
    └── alice.nix        # Home config for "alice"

# hosts/nixos/myhost/users/alice.nix
{ flake, ... }:
{
  home.stateVersion = "25.11";
  imports = [
    flake.homeModules.shell    # If you have a shell module
  ];

  programs.git = {
    enable = true;
    userName = "Alice";
  };
}

nix-wire automatically:

1. Creates users.users.alice with home = "/home/alice"
2. Wires home-manager.users.alice to import alice.nix
3. Passes inputs and flake to the home config

---

Customizing mkFlake

All directory names and behavior are configurable:

outputs = inputs: inputs.nix-wire.mkFlake {
  inherit inputs;
  # Override directory names
  packages = "pkgs";           # default: "packages"
  devShells = "shells";        # default: "devShells"
  hosts = "machines";          # default: "hosts"

  # Disable Home Manager integration
  home = false;

  # Limit supported systems
  systems = [ "x86_64-linux" "aarch64-linux" ];

  # Add flake-parts modules
  imports = [ ./my-flake-module.nix ];
};

See the API reference for all parameters.

---

Using autoImport in module files

nix-wire also exports autoImport and autoImportExcept for use outside the main wiring - e.g., in a module file that wants to import its siblings:

# modules/nixos/default.nix
{ inputs, ... }:
{
  imports = inputs.nix-wire.lib.autoImport ./.;
}

Or with exclusions:

{ inputs, ... }:
{
  imports = inputs.nix-wire.lib.autoImportExcept ./. [ "default.nix" "special.nix" ];
}

These are pure builtins functions that work in any evaluation context.