Templates & Patterns

NixFleet ships flake templates for common fleet structures. Initialize a new project with:

nix flake init -t github:arcanesys/nixfleet

Available templates

standalone

Minimal setup for a single machine. No flake-parts, no import-tree. Just nixfleet + one mkHost call:

{
  inputs = {
    nixfleet.url = "github:arcanesys/nixfleet";
    nixpkgs.follows = "nixfleet/nixpkgs";
  };

  outputs = {nixfleet, ...}: {
    nixosConfigurations.myhost = nixfleet.lib.mkHost {
      hostName = "myhost";
      platform = "x86_64-linux";
      hostSpec = {
        userName = "alice";
        timeZone = "US/Eastern";
        locale = "en_US.UTF-8";
        sshAuthorizedKeys = [
          "ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAA..."
        ];
      };
      modules = [
        ./hardware-configuration.nix
        ./disk-config.nix
      ];
    };
  };
}

fleet

Multi-host fleet using flake-parts for structure. Imports NixFleet’s flakeModules for apps, tests, formatter, and ISO generation.

batch

Generate many identical hosts from a template. Useful for edge devices, kiosks, or lab machines where the only difference between hosts is the hostname and network config.

The follows chain

Every template uses this pattern:

inputs = {
  nixfleet.url = "github:arcanesys/nixfleet";
  nixpkgs.follows = "nixfleet/nixpkgs";
};

The follows directive means your fleet uses the same nixpkgs revision that NixFleet was tested against. This is important because:

• Consistency - framework modules, core config, and your fleet code all evaluate against the same package set
• No diamond dependency - without follows, you would have two separate nixpkgs evaluations (NixFleet’s and yours), doubling memory usage and causing subtle version mismatches
• Tested combination - NixFleet’s CI validates against its pinned nixpkgs

NixFleet’s own follows chain

NixFleet pins and follows these inputs internally:

nixpkgs           (nixos-unstable)
darwin            follows nixpkgs
home-manager      follows nixpkgs
disko             follows nixpkgs
impermanence      follows nixpkgs
lanzaboote        follows nixpkgs
microvm           follows nixpkgs
nixos-anywhere    follows nixpkgs, flake-parts, disko, treefmt-nix
treefmt-nix       follows nixpkgs

All major inputs share a single nixpkgs, ensuring consistent package versions throughout the dependency tree.

When to follow vs pin independently

Disko templates

NixFleet also provides reusable disk layout templates, separate from flake templates:

Use them in your mkHost modules list:

modules = [
  nixfleet.diskoTemplates.btrfs-impermanence
  ./hardware-configuration.nix
];