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Nix: Getting started with Nix

Replit supports all programming languages through our integration with Nix. Our tutorial Building with Nix on Replit will give you a good understanding of Nix, the different configuration files and options available for your Nix repl, and some ideas for what can be built on Replit by leveraging the power of Nix.

To get started with Nix on Replit, you can fork one of the existing templates:

Once you have forked the template, there are 2 config files that you can use to customize the environment:

  • replit.nix - Configures the Nix environment
  • .replit - Configures the run command

To edit these files and customize the environment, ensure that the repl's config files are showing:

Show configuration

The first file we'll look at is replit.nix. This is the base Nix file that configures the Nix environment and tells our repl what packages to install. It should look something like this:

{ pkgs }: {
    deps = [
        pkgs.zig
        pkgs.cowsay
    ];
}

The deps array specifies which Nix packages you would like to be available in your environment. You can search for Nix packages here: https://search.nixos.org/packages

Replit supports replacing the replit.nix file with shell.nix or default.nix, with the order of priority being: replit.nix -> shell.nix -> default.nix.

The shell.nix file allows for greater customization of the shell environment than the replit.nix file.

The default.nix file will use nix-env to construct an environment where the derivation in default.nix is built and added to the shell.

Now let's take a look at the .replit file. This file defines what command will get executed when we click the "Run" button, and what custom environment variables will be available to our repl. The run command in this file should look something like the example below. You can use any binary made available by your replit.nix file in this run command.

run = "cowsay Welcome to nix on Replit!"

Once both these files are configured and you add files for your language, you can run your repl with the "Run" button.

Both the console and the shell will pick up changes made to your replit.nix file. However, once you open the shell tab, the environment will not update until you run exit. This will close out the existing shell process and start a new one that includes any changes that you made to your replit.nix file.

Replit supports configuring nixpkgs through files under ~/$REPL_SLUG/.config/nixpkgs. The most common use of this is for config.nix files to enable ALLOW_UNFREE in order to use unfree packages, but any file created there that Nix can read will be processed.

Learn more about Nix

If you'd like to learn more about Nix, here are some great resources: