NixOS

Nix Flakes is a Nix configuration and packaging mechanism that uses a `flake.nix` file in an application repository to define the application as a Nix package. The resulting package can be imported as a dependency by another flake, such as a VPS configuration. It operates within the Nix ecosystem, whose package manager is designed for declarative, reproducible system configurations and isolated package builds.

NixOS VPS is a starter NixOS configuration repository for deploying and managing an x86_64 VPS, originally targeting the Hostinger NixOS template. It uses a Nix flake and `just` recipes to bootstrap encrypted SOPS/age secrets, build the system locally or on a separate Linux builder, transfer the resulting closure over SSH, and activate it on the server. The configuration creates an administrative account, manages SSH access, and supports deploying Docker or Podman containers and systemd services through NixOS modules. Optional modules provide Tailscale access and locally managed Cloudflare Tunnel publishing. Secrets remain encrypted in the Git-backed repository and are decrypted on the VPS; the repository also documents multi-server configurations, macOS and ARM build setups, trusted-build considerations, and service deployment. It is distributed as source code under the repository's GitHub project; the configuration must be adapted when used with a provider or VPS template other than the documented Hostinger setup.

trynix is a browser-based environment for running packages from the historical Nixpkgs archive. It resolves a package and version through the nixpkgs-multiverse index, fetches its signed runtime closure from cache.nixos.org, and runs it in an x86_64 Linux virtual machine powered by QEMU compiled to WebAssembly. The browser decompresses the package archives into an in-memory filesystem shared with the guest over virtio-9p; the guest resumes from a migration snapshot rather than booting from scratch, then exposes the selected packages through shell commands. Environment state is encoded in the URL, including package selections, store paths, and additional binary caches. A GitHub Action can comment on pull requests with links that launch the store paths produced by a build, allowing reviewers to run branch builds in a browser. The project is MIT-licensed and can also be run locally with Nix.

Devbox is a command-line tool for creating isolated, reproducible development shells. A project's `devbox.json` declares its required operating-system-level packages; Devbox uses Nix to make those tools available through commands such as `devbox shell` and `devbox run`, without installing them into the underlying machine or causing version conflicts between projects. The same environment definition can also be used for a devcontainer, Dockerfile, or remote development environment. Devbox was originally developed by Jetify.

nix-graph is an interactive terminal user-interface viewer for Nix dependency graphs, written in pure Go with no dependencies beyond Nix at runtime. It runs `nix path-info` and renders a target's store-path closure as an expandable tree. The viewer supports sorting, filtering, NAR size, closure size, and added-size columns, and can inspect store paths, profiles, the current system, and derivation build-time graphs. Its reverse view flips the tree at a selected node to show which packages depend on it. It can be run directly with `nix run`, installed in a Nix profile or flake, or invoked as `nix-graph [path]`; the default path is `/run/current-system`.