Getting started with Determinate

Determinate is an all-in-one Nix toolchain that includes:

• Determinate Systems’ validated Nix, configured to be used with FlakeHub and FlakeHub Cache.
• Determinate Nixd, a daemon that makes your experience of installing and using Nix dramatically more smooth.

You can install it in a variety of platform-specific ways.

Platform support

Determinate is supported on these platforms:

Installing Determinate

This table shows you how you should install Determinate Nix depending on your situation:

Using Determinate Nix Installer

If you use…

• macOS (not nix-darwin) or
• Linux (not NixOS)

…you can install Determinate using the Determinate Nix Installer with the --determinate flag:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | \
  sh -s -- install --determinate

Using the determinate flake

If you use nix-darwin or NixOS you can install Determinate using the determinate flake. To add the flake as a flake input:

{
  inputs.determinate.url = "https://flakehub.com/f/DeterminateSystems/determinate/0.1";
}

NixOS

If you’re a NixOS user, you can quickly set up Determinate Nix using the nixosModules.default module output from the determinate flake. Here’s an example NixOS configuration:

{
  inputs.determinate.url = "https://flakehub.com/f/DeterminateSystems/determinate/0.1";
  inputs.nixpkgs.url = "https://flakehub.com/f/NixOS/nixpkgs/0.2405.0";
 
  outputs = { determinate, nixpkgs, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.my-workstation = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      system = "x86_64-linux";
      modules = [
        # Load the Determinate module
        determinate.nixosModules.default
      ];
    };
  };
}

nix-darwin

If you’re a nix-darwin user on macOS, you can quickly set up Determinate using the darwinModules.default module output from the [determinate flake]. Here’s an example nix-darwin configuration:

{
  inputs.determinate.url = "https://flakehub.com/f/DeterminateSystems/determinate/0.1";
  inputs.nix-darwin.url = "github:LnL7/nix-darwin";
 
  outputs = { determinate, nix-darwin, ... }: {
    darwinConfigurations.my-workstation-aarch64-darwin = nix-darwin.lib.darwinSystem {
      system = "aarch64-darwin";
      modules = [
        # Load the Determinate module
        determinate.darwinModules.default
      ];
    };
  };
}

Determinate.pkg

You can install Determinate on macOS using [Determinate Systems]’ provided .pkg file. You can download and run it by clicking here.

Download and run the latest Determinate package from install.determinate.systems.

The Determinate package is fully signed and notarized. Re-running the installer is safe and upgrades Determinate in place.

Log in to FlakeHub

To log in to FlakeHub using Determinate Nixd:

determinate-nixd login

Once logged in, you can use private flakes and FlakeHub Cache.

You can now download private flakes and artifacts from your private binary cache.