NixOS Flake Configuration

A modular, reproducible NixOS configuration using flakes with home-manager integration. Supports multiple hosts, desktop environments, and a layered profile system for maximum reusability.

🖥️ Hosts

Host	Description	User	Desktop	Hardware
VNPC-21	ThinkPad P53 workstation	odin	Hyprland	Lenovo ThinkPad P53, NVIDIA GPU
laptop	Portable laptop	none	Hyprland	Generic laptop
station	Desktop build server	none	Hyprland	AMD desktop, NVIDIA GPU

✨ Key Features

🎨 Desktop Environment

• Hyprland (primary) - Modern Wayland compositor with custom animations and keybinds
• BSPWM (alternative) - X11 tiling window manager
• COSMIC (experimental) - System76's new desktop environment
• Waybar - Customized status bar with system monitoring
• Rofi - Application launcher with Nord theming
• SwayNC - Notification daemon for Wayland

💻 Development Tools

• Neovim - Full IDE via nixvim (LSP, completion, formatting, linting)
• Zellij - Terminal multiplexer with persistent sessions
• Zsh - Shell with oh-my-zsh, custom aliases, and completions
• Git - Configured with lazygit integration
• Docker - Container runtime with rootless mode
• Direnv - Automatic environment loading per project
• Language Support - LSPs and formatters for Nix, Python, Go, Rust, TypeScript, and more

🎨 Theming & Styling

• Stylix - Unified theming system across all applications
• Nord - Primary color scheme
• Custom fonts - Nerd Fonts with Japanese and CJK support
• Dynamic wallpapers - Random rotation in Hyprland
• Transparency - Configurable terminal opacity

🔧 System Services

• Tailscale - Mesh VPN networking
• Syncthing - Peer-to-peer file synchronization
• SOPS-nix - Encrypted secrets management
• PipeWire - Modern audio server with PulseAudio compatibility
• Flatpak - Additional application packaging
• Printing - CUPS with Brother printer drivers

🎮 Virtualization & Gaming

• QEMU/KVM - Virtual machines via virt-manager
• VirtualBox - Additional VM support
• Docker - Container orchestration
• Gaming (station) - Heroic launcher, Bottles, Steam via Flatpak

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

# Enable flakes in your NixOS configuration
nix.settings.experimental-features = [ "nix-command" "flakes" ];

Installation

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/Odinyg/nixflake.git
   cd nixflake

2. Build and switch to your host

   # Using justfile (recommended)
   just rebuild
   
   # Or manually
   sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#<hostname>

3. Available just commands

   just rebuild    # Rebuild current host (auto-detects)
   just upgrade    # Update flake inputs + rebuild
   just boot       # Build new boot configuration
   just verbose    # Rebuild with detailed output
   just gc         # Clean generations older than 14 days
   just diff       # View git changes (excludes flake.lock)

📁 Repository Structure

.
├── flake.nix                   # Main flake entry point
├── flake.lock                  # Pinned dependency versions
├── justfile                    # Build automation commands
├── CLAUDE.md                   # AI assistant instructions
│
├── hosts/                      # Host-specific configurations
│   ├── vnpc-21/               # ThinkPad P53 workstation
│   ├── laptop/                # Generic laptop
│   └── station/               # Desktop build server
│
├── profiles/                   # Layered configuration profiles
│   ├── base.nix               # Minimal base system
│   ├── laptop.nix             # Laptop-specific settings (extends base)
│   ├── desktop.nix            # Desktop hardware (extends base)
│   └── workstation.nix        # Full workstation (extends desktop)
│
├── modules/
│   ├── nixos/                 # System-level modules
│   │   ├── hardware/          # GPU, audio, bluetooth, networking
│   │   ├── services/          # System services
│   │   ├── general.nix        # Core system packages
│   │   ├── fonts.nix          # Font configuration
│   │   └── secrets.nix        # SOPS secrets management
│   │
│   └── home-manager/          # User-level modules
│       ├── app/               # GUI applications
│       ├── cli/               # Terminal tools (neovim, zsh, git)
│       ├── desktop/           # Desktop environments
│       │   ├── hyprland/      # Hyprland configuration
│       │   ├── bspwm/         # BSPWM configuration
│       │   └── cosmic/        # COSMIC desktop
│       └── misc/              # Miscellaneous configs
│
└── secrets/                    # Encrypted secrets (SOPS)
    ├── secrets.yaml
    └── general.yaml

🏗️ Architecture

Profile System

Configurations are layered for maximum reusability:

base.nix (core system)
  ├─→ laptop.nix (base + laptop hardware)
  └─→ desktop.nix (base + desktop hardware)
       └─→ workstation.nix (desktop + dev tools)

Each host imports a profile and adds host-specific overrides.

Module Pattern

All optional features use the enable pattern:

# In host configuration
moduleName.enable = true;

This makes it easy to mix and match features per host.

⚙️ Configuration

Adding a New Host

1. Generate hardware configuration

   nixos-generate-config --show-hardware-config > hosts/newhost/hardware-configuration.nix

2. Create host configuration

   # hosts/newhost/default.nix
   { config, pkgs, lib, inputs, ... }: {
     imports = [
       ./hardware-configuration.nix
       ../../profiles/laptop.nix  # Choose appropriate profile
     ];
   
     # Networking
     networking.hostName = "newhost";
   
     # User configuration
     users.users.myuser = {
       isNormalUser = true;
       extraGroups = [ "networkmanager" "wheel" ];
       shell = pkgs.zsh;
     };
   
     # Enable desired features
     hyprland.enable = true;
     neovim.enable = true;
   
     system.stateVersion = "25.05";
   }

3. Add to flake.nix

   nixosConfigurations.newhost = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
     specialArgs = { inherit inputs; };
     modules = commonModules ++ [
       ./hosts/newhost
       { user = "myuser"; }
       {
         nixpkgs.config.allowUnfree = true;
         home-manager = {
           useGlobalPkgs = true;
           useUserPackages = true;
           extraSpecialArgs = { inherit inputs; };
           users.myuser = mkHomeConfig {
             username = "myuser";
             stateVersion = "25.05";
           };
         };
       }
     ];
   };

4. Build and test

   nix flake check
   sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#newhost

Enabling/Disabling Features

Most modules use boolean enable options:

# Desktop environments
hyprland.enable = true;
bspwm.enable = false;

# Applications
discord.enable = true;
firefox.enable = false;

# System features
secrets.enable = true;
gaming.enable = true;

Customizing Per Host

Host-specific overrides go in hosts/<hostname>/default.nix:

# Override terminal opacity
styling.opacity.terminal = 0.85;

# Enable specific services
init-net.enable = true;
hosted-services.n8n.enable = true;

# Add extra packages
users.users.odin.packages = with pkgs; [
  custom-package
];

🔐 Secrets Management

This configuration uses SOPS-nix for encrypted secrets:

# Initialize age key for new host
mkdir -p ~/.config/sops/age
age-keygen -o ~/.config/sops/age/keys.txt

# Edit secrets
sops secrets/secrets.yaml

Secrets are automatically decrypted at boot and placed in /run/secrets/.

🎨 Theming

Theming is managed by Stylix with the Nord color scheme. To customize:

# In host configuration
stylix = {
  base16Scheme = "${pkgs.base16-schemes}/share/themes/nord.yaml";
  image = ./wallpaper.png;

  fonts = {
    monospace = {
      package = pkgs.nerdfonts;
      name = "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font";
    };
  };
};

🛠️ Troubleshooting

Common Issues

Build fails with syntax error

nix flake check  # Validate flake syntax

Need to rollback to previous generation

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --rollback

Checking system logs

journalctl -xe              # System logs
journalctl -u SERVICE       # Specific service

Hyprland issues

# Check Hyprland logs
cat ~/.local/share/hyprland/hyprland.log

# Restart Hyprland
hyprctl reload

Home Manager issues

# Rebuild just home-manager
home-manager switch --flake .#<user>@<host>

Cleaning Up

# Remove old generations
sudo nix-collect-garbage -d

# Remove old boot entries
sudo /run/current-system/bin/switch-to-configuration boot

# Optimize nix store
nix-store --optimize

📚 Resources

• NixOS Manual
• Home Manager Manual
• Nix Flakes Wiki
• Hyprland Wiki
• Stylix Documentation