Nix Cheat Sheet

Nix cheat sheet with real commands and snippets for setup, core workflows, debugging, and production-safe automation patterns. If you are working across tools, pair this with the jq Cheat Sheet and Node.js Cheat Sheet.

Setup and Installation

Goal: Verify installation and CLI metadata

# Resolve command path from current shell
command -v nix

# Print installed version to confirm runtime
nix --version

# Read top-level help before using subcommands
nix --help

Goal: Install or upgrade the tool on a workstation

# Install package with Homebrew on macOS
brew install nix

# Upgrade to the latest available package
brew upgrade nix

# Re-check version after upgrade
nix --version

Goal: Run day-to-day commands

# Inspect Nix version
nix --version

# Temporarily open shell with package
nix shell nixpkgs#jq

# Install package to user profile
nix profile install nixpkgs#ripgrep

# Update flake lock file
nix flake update

Core Workflows

Goal: Capture command help for quick offline lookup

# Create docs folder for generated command references
mkdir -p docs/cli

# Write help output to a timestamped file
nix --help > docs/cli/nix-help.txt

# Search help output for a keyword
rg "config|auth|deploy" docs/cli/nix-help.txt

Goal: Wrap repetitive commands in a script

# Create scripts directory for local automation
mkdir -p scripts

# Write repeatable health-check script
cat > scripts/check-nix.sh <<'SH'
#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
nix --version
nix --help >/dev/null
SH

# Make script executable and run it
chmod +x scripts/check-nix.sh && ./scripts/check-nix.sh

Configuration and Environment

Goal: Pin environment variables for predictable runs

# Define environment profile for local commands
export NIX_PROFILE=dev

# Persist profile in local shell configuration
echo 'export NIX_PROFILE=dev' >> ~/.zshrc

# Reload shell profile changes
source ~/.zshrc

Automation and CI

Goal: Add tool checks to CI pipeline

# Run lint/test/build in strict mode
set -euo pipefail

# Verify CLI exists before invoking workflow
command -v nix

# Exit quickly if command is unavailable
nix --version

Debugging and Troubleshooting

Goal: Collect diagnostics when commands fail

# Capture command output and exit code
nix --help > /tmp/nix-debug.log 2>&1; echo $?

# Inspect captured diagnostics
tail -n 80 /tmp/nix-debug.log

# Check current shell PATH entries
echo $PATH | tr ':' '\n'

Common Gotchas

• Pin Nix versions in CI so local and pipeline behavior match.
• Check tool authentication context before running write or deploy commands.
• Prefer non-interactive flags in scripts to avoid stalled jobs.
• Capture stderr logs in CI artifacts for faster incident triage.
• Keep secrets in environment variables, not committed scripts.

Related Sheets

• jq Cheat Sheet — daily jq commands and production-ready examples.
• Node.js Cheat Sheet — daily Node.js commands and production-ready examples.
• npm Cheat Sheet — daily npm commands and production-ready examples.