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Nix modules for darwin,/etc/nixos/configuration.nix for macOS.

This project aims to bring the convenience of a declarative system approach to macOS.nix-darwin is built up aroundNixpkgs, quite similar toNixOS.

The only prerequisite is a Nix implementation; both Nix and Lix are supported.

As the official Nix installer does not include an automated uninstaller, and manual uninstallation on macOS is a complex process, we recommend using theLix installer, which supports both flake-based and channel-based setups.

The installer you use doesn't affect which Nix interpreter your system will use later on. nix-darwin manages the Nix installation by default and will default to upstream Nix. If you wish to use Lix instead of Nix, setnix.package = pkgs.lix in your configuration.

Despite being an experimental feature in Nix currently, nix-darwin recommends that beginners use flakes to manage their nix-darwin configurations.

sudo mkdir -p /etc/nix-darwinsudo chown$(id -nu):$(id -ng) /etc/nix-darwincd /etc/nix-darwin# To use Nixpkgs unstable:nix flake init -t nix-darwin/master# To use Nixpkgs 25.05:nix flake init -t nix-darwin/nix-darwin-25.05sed -i''"s/simple/$(scutil --get LocalHostName)/" flake.nix

{description="John's darwin system";inputs={# Use `github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-25.05-darwin` to use Nixpkgs 25.05.nixpkgs.url="github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable";# Use `github:nix-darwin/nix-darwin/nix-darwin-25.05` to use Nixpkgs 25.05.nix-darwin.url="github:nix-darwin/nix-darwin/master";nix-darwin.inputs.nixpkgs.follows="nixpkgs";};outputs=inputs@{self,nix-darwin,nixpkgs}:{darwinConfigurations."Johns-MacBook"=nix-darwin.lib.darwinSystem{modules=[./configuration.nix];};};}

# To use Nixpkgs unstable:sudo nix run nix-darwin/master#darwin-rebuild -- switch# To use Nixpkgs 25.05:sudo nix run nix-darwin/nix-darwin-25.05#darwin-rebuild -- switch

sudo darwin-rebuild switch

# in flake.nixnix-darwin.lib.darwinSystem{modules=[./configuration.nix];specialArgs={inheritinputs;};}

# in configuration.nix{pkgs,lib,inputs}:# inputs.self, inputs.nix-darwin, and inputs.nixpkgs can be accessed here

# If you use Nixpkgs unstable (the default):sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-darwin/nix-darwin/archive/master.tar.gz darwin# If you use Nixpkgs 25.05:sudo nix-channel --add https://github.com/nix-darwin/nix-darwin/archive/nix-darwin-25.05.tar.gz darwinsudo nix-channel --update

nix-build'<darwin>' -A darwin-rebuildsudo ./result/bin/darwin-rebuild switch -I darwin-config=/etc/nix-darwin/configuration.nix

sudo darwin-rebuild switch

sudo nix-channel --update

The reference documentation is available:

• Online:nix-darwin reference
• Locally in your browser via thedarwin-help command
• As a manual page viaman 5 configuration.nix

To run the latest version of the uninstaller, you can run the following command:

sudo nix --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes" run nix-darwin#darwin-uninstaller

If that command doesn't work for you, you can try the locally installed uninstaller:

sudo darwin-uninstaller

There are basic tests that run sanity checks for some of the modules,you can run them like this:

# run all testsnix-build release.nix -A tests# or just a subsetnix-build release.nix -A tests.environment-path

Let's make Nix on macOS awesome!

Don't hesitate to contribute modules or open an issue.

To build your configuration with local changes you can run this. Thisflag can also be used to override darwin-config or nixpkgs, for moreinformation on the-I flag look at the nix-buildmanpage.

sudo darwin-rebuild switch -I darwin=.

If you're adding a module, please add yourself tometa.maintainers, for example

meta.maintainers=[lib.maintainers.aliceor"alice"];options.services.alicebot=# ...

Theor operator takes care of graceful degradation whenlib from Nixpkgsgoes out of sync.

Feel free to contact us on Matrix if you have questions:

• User support:#macos:nixos.org
• Development discussion:#nix-darwin-dev:nixos.org