quickshell

Caution

This project is largely AI-generated and may contain bugs or unexpected behavior. Use at your own risk and review the code before relying on it.

Generate standalone, multi-arch shell scripts that fetch packages from binary caches - no Nix evaluation at runtime.

Why?

nix develop and nix shell are slow because they evaluate Nix expressions every time. This is painful for:

• CI/CD pipelines
• Onboarding teammates unfamiliar with Nix
• Quick shell access without waiting

How it works

1. You define packages in a flake
2. Run nix build .#dev && cp result/bin/dev dev.sh to generate a bash script
3. The script fetches pre-built packages from binary caches and sets up your shell
4. Commit the script - anyone with Nix can use it instantly

The generated script works on all architectures: aarch64-darwin, x86_64-darwin, aarch64-linux, x86_64-linux.

Usage

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable";
    quickshell.url = "github:buurro/quickshell";
  };

  outputs = { nixpkgs, quickshell, ... }: {
    packages = quickshell.lib.mkPackages nixpkgs {
      dev = pkgs: with pkgs; [
        nodejs
        python3
        jq
      ];
    };
  };
}

Then:

nix run .#dev                                # Enter shell directly
nix shell .#dev                              # Use packages directly via nix
nix build .#dev && cp result/bin/dev dev.sh  # Save script to file
chmod +x dev.sh

./dev.sh                 # Use the generated script (fast, no nix eval!)

Multiple shells

packages = quickshell.lib.mkPackages nixpkgs {
  dev = pkgs: with pkgs; [ nodejs python3 ];
  frontend = pkgs: with pkgs; [ nodejs pnpm ];
};

Options

For simple cases, each shell is just a function pkgs -> [ packages ].

For advanced options, use an attrset:

packages = quickshell.lib.mkPackages nixpkgs {
  dev = {
    packages = pkgs: with pkgs; [ nodejs python3 ];
    caches = [ "s3://my-bucket" "https://cache.nixos.org" ];
    systems = [ "x86_64-linux" "aarch64-linux" ];  # linux only
    nixpkgs = other-nixpkgs;  # override nixpkgs for this shell
  };
};

Option	Required	Default	Description
packages	yes	-	Function: pkgs -> [ packages ]
caches	no	["https://cache.nixos.org"]	Binary caches to fetch from
systems	no	all 4 systems	Which architectures to support
nixpkgs	no	inherited from mkPackages	Override nixpkgs for this shell
comment	no	""	Comment added to generated script

Custom packages / private caches

For packages not in cache.nixos.org, push them to your own cache:

nix build .#dev
nix copy --to s3://my-bucket .#dev

Then add your cache:

packages = quickshell.lib.mkPackages nixpkgs {
  dev = {
    packages = pkgs: [ pkgs.my-custom-package ];
    caches = [
      "https://cache.nixos.org"
      "s3://my-bucket"
    ];
  };
};