dotfiles

Nix-managed macOS setup: nix-darwin (system) + home-manager (user) + nixvim (nvim), one flake at the repo root.

Bootstrap (new machine)

1. Install Xcode Command Line Tools and the Determinate nix installer:

   curl https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install
   

2. Enroll Touch ID, install 1Password and sign in with CLI integration enabled.
3. Clone this repo anywhere, then set the user variable in flake.nix to the local account name.
4. Register the flake for default discovery, so bare sudo darwin-rebuild switch resolves it (darwin-rebuild looks for /etc/nix-darwin/flake.nix and uses the machine hostname as the configuration attribute):

   sudo mkdir -p /etc/nix-darwin
   sudo ln -s ~/dotfiles/flake.nix /etc/nix-darwin/flake.nix
   

5. Activate everything - one time only:

   nix run "github:LnL7/nix-darwin/nix-darwin-26.05#darwin-rebuild" -- switch --flake ~/dotfiles#stardusty
   

6. Set up rtk for Claude Code - installs the PreToolUse hook that routes Bash calls through the token-saving proxy, then restart Claude Code:

   rtk init -g
   

The bootstrap command follows the nix-darwin release branch and never needs updating; the system it activates is fully pinned by flake.lock.

Everyday

sudo darwin-rebuild switch

applies system + home-manager changes; no flake flag needed (it is discovered via /etc/nix-darwin/flake.nix, and the configuration is named after the machine hostname). To bump versions, run nix flake update in the repo root first.

The whole repo is flake source, so edits to tracked files (.nix configs and root dotfiles alike) are picked up from the working tree on the next switch. Untracked files are invisible to nix until git added; commit new dotfiles before deploying them.

Format with nix fmt -- flake.nix nix/*.nix (nixfmt; nix 2.25 forwards only the given file args to the formatter, so the paths must be explicit).

What lives where

• flake.nix - inputs (nixpkgs, home-manager, nixvim, nix-darwin) and the "stardusty" configuration (named after the machine hostname)
• nix/home.nix - packages, zsh, git, bat, fzf, launchd agents, dotfile links
• nix/nvim.nix - the entire nvim configuration (nixvim)
• nix/aerospace.nix - AeroSpace config (TOML-serialized settings + module-managed launchd agent)
• nix/tmux.nix - tmux config with the Catppuccin Frappe theme (declarative plugins via home-manager)
• nix/wezterm.nix - WezTerm config (lua via programs.wezterm)
• nix/darwin.nix - system config: Touch ID sudo, weekly store maintenance
• nix/opensuperwhisper.nix - OpenSuperWhisper.app package
• nix/mole.nix - mole CLI package (tw93/mole, source-built; bump the version + hashes to update)

Note: the nix daemon and /etc/nix/nix.conf are managed by the Determinate installer, not nix-darwin; store gc/optimise run as plain launchd daemons (Sundays 02:30 / 03:00).