Hey, you. You're finally awake. You were trying to configure your OS declaratively, right? Walked right into that NixOS ambush, same as us, and those dotfiles over there.

Good news, traveler! These dotfiles now work on both NixOS and macOS. One config to rule them all, and in the darkness bind them.

# Quick taste of what you're in for:
nix run nix-darwin -- switch --flake ~/.config/dotfiles  # macOS
nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#hostname                   # NixOS

---

Shell:	zsh + a bunch of Nix magic
DM:	lightdm + lightdm-mini-greeter
WM:	bspwm + polybar (Linux) / Aerospace (macOS)
Editor:	Doom Emacs (and nvim when Emacs is napping)
Terminal:	st (Linux) / Ghostty (macOS)
Launcher:	rofi (Linux) / Raycast (macOS)
Browser:	firefox / Zen Browser / Orion (I collect browsers)
GTK Theme:	Ant Dracula

---

Quick start

NixOS? I used to be an adventurer like you...

1. Acquire NixOS 24.11 (or close enough).
2. Boot into the installer.
3. Do your partitions and mount your root to /mnt (or don't, I'm not your supervisor)
4. git clone https://github.com/emiller88/dotfiles /etc/nixos
5. Install NixOS: nixos-install --root /mnt --flake /etc/nixos#XYZ, where XYZ is your hostname. Use #generic for a simple, universal config.
6. OPTIONAL: Create a sub-directory in hosts/ for your device. See host/kuro as an example.
7. Reboot!

macOS? Let me guess, someone stole your sweetroll.

1. Install Nix using the Determinate Systems installer (it's like the official installer, but actually works):

   curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install

   Why this installer? It handles macOS quirks, enables flakes by default, and won't leave you troubleshooting for hours.
2. git clone https://github.com/emiller88/dotfiles ~/.config/dotfiles
3. cd ~/.config/dotfiles
4. ./bin/hey re (or if hey isn't in your PATH yet: nix run .#darwinConfigurations.HOSTNAME.system.build.darwin-rebuild -- switch --flake .)
   • Use MacTraitor-Pro or Seqeratop for HOSTNAME, or check flake.nix for available configs
5. Grab a coffee while Nix downloads the internet
6. sudo ./result/sw/bin/darwin-rebuild --flake .#HOSTNAME switch when prompted

Management

And I say, bin/hey. What's going on?

Command	Description
hey rebuild	Rebuild this flake (shortcut: hey re)
hey upgrade	Update flake lockfile and switch to it (shortcut: hey up)
hey rollback	Roll back to previous system generation
hey gc	Runs nix-collect-garbage -d. Use sudo to clean system profile
hey push REMOTE	Deploy these dotfiles to REMOTE (over ssh)
hey check	Run tests and checks for this flake
hey show	Show flake outputs of this repo

Frequently asked questions

• How do I change the default username?

  1. Set USER the first time you run nixos-install: USER=myusername nixos-install --root /mnt --flake #XYZ
  2. Or change "emiller" in modules/options.nix (was "hlissner" in the before times).
  3. For macOS: just make sure your username matches what's in the flake

• How do I "set up my partitions"?

  My main host has a README you can use as a reference. I set up an EFI+GPT system and partitions with parted and zfs.

  macOS users: You can skip this part and feel smug about it.

• Why is my build failing with homebrew errors?

  That's just homebrew being homebrew. The build succeeded, you just need to run the activation with sudo. Check the message at the end of hey re.

• How 2 flakes?

  It wouldn't be the NixOS experience if I gave you all the answers in one, convenient place. But basically: everything is a flake now, resistance is futile.

Usage as a flake

Add dotfiles to your flake.nix:

{
  inputs.dotfiles.url = "https://flakehub.com/f/Emiller88/dotfiles/*.tar.gz";

  outputs = { self, dotfiles }: {
    # Use in your outputs
  };
}