xeus-lix: a native jupyter kernel for the nix language

a friendlier way to run nix code in jupyter, powered by the lix evaluator.

features

• interactive nix: run any nix expression and see what it does, instantly.
• rich display: get pretty, colorized outputs for nix data types.
• repl commands: use the commands you know and love, like :load, :load-flake, :build, :add, and :help.
• shell integration: run shell commands straight from a cell by starting with !.
• code completion: hit tab to complete variables, attributes, and builtins.
• inspection: press shift+tab to get docs for builtins and functions.

installation & usage

development environment

you can hop into a development shell with everything you need to build and test the kernel:

nix develop

building

once you're in the dev shell, you can build the kernel package:

nix build

the package will show up in the ./result symlink.

running

to fire up a jupyterlab session with the xeus-lix kernel ready to go, just run:

nix run

this will pop open jupyterlab in your browser. from there, you can make a new notebook and pick the "nix (lix)" kernel.

you can also start jupyterlab yourself from inside the development shell (nix develop):

jupyter lab

example notebooks

this repo has an example notebook to help you get started:

• notebooks/Intro.ipynb: a general intro to what the kernel can do.

license

this project is licensed under the lgplv2.1 or later.