Dan bd49ea001a Add documentation for adding dev tools

Covers four methods: system-wide, per-user nix profile,
per-project devShell, and external flakes.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-01-03 11:00:15 -08:00

2.2 KiB

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Adding Dev Tools

How to add development tools to the ops-jrz1 server.

Options

1. System-wide (all users)

Best for: common tools everyone needs (git, vim, htop, curl)

# configuration.nix
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
  tldr
  bat
  fd
];

Then deploy:

nix flake check
nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#ops-jrz1 --target-host root@ops-jrz1

2. Per-user (nix profile)

Best for: personal preferences (editor configs, shell tools)

# User runs on server:
nix profile install nixpkgs#tldr
nix profile install nixpkgs#bat

# List installed:
nix profile list

# Update all:
nix profile upgrade '.*'

# Remove:
nix profile remove tldr

Survives reboots, user-managed, not in git.

3. Per-project (flake devShell)

Best for: project-specific dependencies

# flake.nix in project directory
{
  inputs.nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";

  outputs = { nixpkgs, ... }:
  let
    pkgs = nixpkgs.legacyPackages.x86_64-linux;
  in {
    devShells.x86_64-linux.default = pkgs.mkShell {
      packages = with pkgs; [
        python3
        uv
        ruff
      ];
    };
  };
}

Then:

nix develop        # Enter shell
# or with direnv:
echo "use flake" > .envrc
direnv allow

4. External flake (not in nixpkgs)

For tools packaged as flakes (like opencode, beads):

# flake.nix inputs
inputs.sometool.url = "github:org/sometool";

# Pass to NixOS
specialArgs = {
  sometool = inputs.sometool.packages.x86_64-linux.default;
};

# configuration.nix
environment.systemPackages = [ sometool ];

Finding Packages

# Search nixpkgs
nix search nixpkgs tldr

# Check if package exists
nix eval nixpkgs#tldr.meta.description

Recommendations

Tool Type	Method
Core utils (git, curl, vim)	System-wide
Build tools (go, rust, node)	System-wide
Personal prefs (tldr, bat, eza)	Per-user
Project deps (linters, formatters)	Per-project
AI tools with auth (claude, gemini)	Per-user

Updating

# Update flake inputs (external tools)
nix flake update
nixos-rebuild switch ...

# Update user profile
nix profile upgrade '.*'

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