Quickstart

Snowfall Lib is a library that makes it easy to manage your Nix flake by imposing an opinionated file structure.

Create a flake if you don’t have one already

Snowfall Lib generates your Nix flake outputs for you. If you don’t already have a Nix flake, you can create one using the following command.

# Create a flake in the current directory.
nix flake init

Add Snowfall Lib to your flake

To start using Snowfall Lib, import the library in your Nix flake by adding it to your flake’s inputs.

{
    inputs = {
        nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-23.05";

        # The name "snowfall-lib" is required due to how Snowfall Lib processes your
        # flake's inputs.
        snowfall-lib = {
            url = "github:snowfallorg/lib";
            inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
        };
    };

    # We will handle this in the next section.
    outputs = inputs: {};
}

Create your flake outputs

{
    inputs = {
        nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-23.05";

        snowfall-lib = {
            url = "github:snowfallorg/lib";
            inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
        };
    };

    outputs = inputs:
        inputs.snowfall-lib.mkFlake {
            # You must provide our flake inputs to Snowfall Lib.
            inherit inputs;

            # The `src` must be the root of the flake. See configuration
            # in the next section for information on how you can move your
            # Nix files to a separate directory.
            src = ./.;
        };
}

Configure Snowfall Lib

Snowfall Lib offers some customization options. The following example details a few popular settings. For a full list see Snowfall Lib Reference.

{
    inputs = {
        nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-23.05";

        snowfall-lib = {
            url = "github:snowfallorg/lib";
            inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
        };
    };

    outputs = inputs:
        inputs.snowfall-lib.mkFlake {
            inherit inputs;
            src = ./.;

            # Configure Snowfall Lib, all of these settings are optional.
            snowfall = {
                # Tell Snowfall Lib to look in the `./nix/` directory for your
                # Nix files.
                root = ./nix;

                # Choose a namespace to use for your flake's packages, library,
                # and overlays.
                namespace = "my-namespace";

                # Add flake metadata that can be processed by tools like Snowfall Frost.
                meta = {
                    # A slug to use in documentation when displaying things like file paths.
                    name = "my-awesome-flake";

                    # A title to show for your flake, typically the name.
                    title = "My Awesome Flake";
                };
            };
        };
}

Now that Snowfall Lib is set up in your Flake, you can begin adding Nix files! From here, you can follow one of the other guides for Snowfall Lib like creating packages, creating overlays, or creating modules. You can also look at the reference documentation for Snowfall Lib for more technical information.