❄️ anuj's dotfiles

A declarative macOS workspace. Nix Flakes + nix-darwin + home-manager. Apple Silicon. Terminal-first. Opinionated. Zero bloat.

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Built for me. Tried not to bloat it; only stuff I actually use daily. Clone it, rip out what you don't need, make it yours.

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🧭 Overview

One darwin-rebuild switch and the machine is mine — Finder tamed, dock stripped, touch-ID-for-sudo on, apps installed, dotfiles symlinked, shell loaded. Wipe the Mac, run the command, come back to an identical machine.

Why Nix over brew install lists and stow symlinks:

• Reproducible. Same flake + same commit = same system. No drift. Roll back with darwin-rebuild --rollback.
• Atomic. A switch either fully applies or doesn't. No half-installed state when the network dies.
• Layered. darwin.nix owns the system, home.nix owns the user, config/ owns program configs. Nothing lives only in a GUI preference pane.

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🚀 Installation & Setup

Only for Apple Silicon. Tested on a fresh M1 MacBook Air. Read it through once before pasting.

0. Match the flake to your machine

These strings are mine, not yours. Change them or the rebuild fails:

File	What	Change to
flake.nix	darwinConfigurations."anuj-macbook"	your hostname
flake.nix	username = "anujpokhriyal"	your short username
modules/git.nix	programs.git.settings.user (Name/Email/Signing Key)	your git identity

Check your current hostname:

scutil --get LocalHostName

Either rename the machine (sudo scutil --set LocalHostName "your-host") or edit flake.nix — your call. Also review darwin.nix for the casks list, dock.persistent-apps, and the loginwindow.LoginwindowText ("Stay Away") — make them yours or remove them. Same for the configs in config/.

1. Prerequisites

xcode-select --install

2. Install Nix (multi-user)

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -L https://nixos.org/nix/install | sh

Restart your terminal, then verify:

nix --version

3. Clone the repo

git clone https://github.com/anujj14/dotfiles.git ~/nix-darwin
cd ~/nix-darwin

4. First switch

nix --extra-experimental-features "nix-command flakes" run nix-darwin -- switch --flake .#anuj-macbook

(replace anuj-macbook with the hostname from step 0)

First run is slow — it's compiling/downloading your whole system. Subsequent runs are seconds. After it finishes:

exec zsh

…and restart the Mac once so the system-level defaults (dock, finder, loginwindow) pick up cleanly.

If macOS prompts about iina or any app from an unidentified developer, approve it in System Settings → Privacy & Security. One-time thing.

⚠️ Note on Existing Configs: If you already have existing dotfiles (like ~/.config/aerospace), this flake will not delete them. Home Manager will safely back them up by appending .bak to the folder name before linking the new configs.

📱 Note on Immich (Dock Icon): The dock configuration expects Immich to be installed as a Safari Web App. After your first switch, open Safari, navigate to your Immich instance, and click File > Add to Dock. If you don't use Immich, remove its path from darwin.nix before building or just remove dock icon later.

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🌙 NightTab Configuration

I use the NightTab extension. If you like it you can grab my layout file here: nighttab-batman.json. Just import it via Settings -> Data -> Restore -> Import from file.

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🔁 Day-to-Day Usage

Apply changes after editing the flake

cd ~/nix-darwin
sudo darwin-rebuild switch --flake .#anuj-macbook

Idempotent — Nix computes the diff and only touches what changed.

Update inputs (bump flake.lock)

nix flake update --flake .
darwin-rebuild switch --flake .#anuj-macbook
git add flake.lock && git commit -m "chore: bump flake inputs"

flake.lock is the reproducibility contract — always commit it. Do this every week or two to pull fresh nixpkgs-unstable.

Roll back a bad switch

darwin-rebuild --rollback
# or pick a specific generation:
darwin-rebuild --list-generations
darwin-rebuild switch --generation <N>

Garbage-collect old generations

nix-collect-garbage --delete-older-than 14d

Quick reference

Task	Command
Apply changes	darwin-rebuild switch --flake .#anuj-macbook
Update all inputs	nix flake update --flake .
Rollback	darwin-rebuild --rollback
List generations	darwin-rebuild --list-generations
Garbage collect	nix-collect-garbage --delete-older-than 14d
Inspect flake	nix flake show

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🧪 Ad-hoc Dev Environments

The whole point of not bloating the main desktop. Drop a `flake.nix` in any project:

{
  inputs.nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable";
  outputs = { nixpkgs, ... }: let
    system = "aarch64-darwin";
    pkgs = nixpkgs.legacyPackages.${system};
  in {
    devShells.${system}.default = pkgs.mkShell {
      packages = with pkgs; [ python311 k3d opentofu kubectl helm ];
    };
  };
}

nix develop        # enter the env

exit               # leave it — nothing installed globally, nothing to uninstall

Isolated packages for just one project? Python, brew, and pip drama — you know it I know it. Nix fixes the whole mess.

One-off tools with nix shell

Don't even want a project flake for a single command? nix shell drops you into a shell with a package available, then forgets about it the moment you leave:

nix shell nixpkgs#ffmpeg

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 output.gif

exit               # ffmpeg is gone from PATH, nothing was "installed"

Or skip the subshell entirely and run it as one line:

nix shell nixpkgs#ffmpeg -c ffmpeg -i input.mp4 output.gif

No brew install ffmpeg you'll forget about six months later, no version conflicts with some other tool that also wants ffmpeg. The package is pulled from the Nix store and cached — so the next nix shell nixpkgs#ffmpeg is instant — but it never touches your PATH outside that shell or this flake. Run nix-collect-garbage --delete-older-than 14d occasionally to reclaim disk space from packages you've stopped using.

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⚙️ What's Inside

System (darwin.nix)

• nix-homebrew for declarative casks/taps. Rosetta off. Auto-migrate from legacy brew.
• Touch ID for sudo (security.pam.services.sudo_local.touchIdAuth).
• Finder: list view, pathbar + statusbar, all extensions + hidden files visible, desktop icons killed, search scoped to current folder, new windows open at $HOME.
• Key repeat cranked (InitialKeyRepeat 15, KeyRepeat 2), press-and-hold disabled, trackpad scaling 2.0, tap-to-click, three-finger drag. No auto-capitalization, no spell-correct.
• Dock: autohide, tile 57, magnify to 67, scale minimize, minimize-to-application, recents off.
• Screenshots → ~/Pictures/Screenshots as .jpg. Siri off, Time Machine nagging off, no .DS_Store on network/USB volumes.
• Loginwindow text: "Stay Away".

Desktop Apps (Casks & Nix)

App	Why it's here
Ghostty	Default look is so good I barely configure it.
AeroSpace	Tiling WM in native Swift. No SIP disable like yabai
JankyBorders	Via native darwin.nix. Borders for active and inactive windows.
Zed	Opens instantly, real vim bindings, written in Rust. I live in nvim; Zed is for when I actually need to code.
Zen	Arc browser that still gets updates. Firefox-based. f chrome.
Helium	Ungoogled, de-bloated Chromium for the few times Chromium is unavoidable. Sips RAM.
OrbStack	The Docker Desktop replacement on Apple Silicon. Sips CPU/RAM. Podman on macOS isn't there yet.
Tailscale	Mac as exit-node for my phones, reaching the homelab from anywhere.
IINA	Best video player on macOS.
LocalSend	Open-source AirDrop.
Shottr	Miles better than default screenshots. Quick copy, edit, done.
Signal / WhatsApp / Telegram	Privacy + have to use what people use :(
AppCleaner	Because macOS still doesn't know how to uninstall an app.
Impactor	IPA sideloader for iPhone/iPad. FU to Apple for not letting me install what I want on devices I own.
Iris	Quick webcam check(HandMirror alt).
Ice	macOS menu bar customizations. Sketchybar is way more pretty but can't match default for utility.

Userland (home.nix)

CLI packages (from nixpkgs-unstable):

Tool	Why
neovim	The best editor. I keep it mostly default — no heavy modding. Configured using modules.
tmux	Terminal multiplexer. You know what it does.
starship	So I don't have to configure oh-my-zsh and its bloat. Starship defaults are already the best.
zoxide	cd with memory. z proj jumps to ~/code/projects after one visit.
fzf	For the searches macOS Spotlight can't do. --height 40% --border.
btop	Activity Monitor is painfully slow. btop is faster — though it's inaccurate sometimes.
yazi	File explorer in the terminal. For when I don't want to leave the shell.
fastfetch	Updated neofetch. For those cool screenshots.
tree	Visual ls for viewing file/directory structure.
pass	Unix password manager. (not fully migrated yet, but trying).
android-tools	adb into my Android TV and phones.
cmatrix	The Matrix screensaver. Pure flex for the screenshot.

Shell: Zsh — macOS default. home-manager manages: autosuggestions, syntax highlighting, completion. Starship prompt. Zoxide for z. fzf integrated with zsh.

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🫡 Acknowledgements

• nix-darwin — declarative macOS.
• nix-community/home-manager — declarative home.
• zhaofengli/nix-homebrew — declarative Homebrew.
• nikitabobko/AeroSpace — for making this awesome window manager for macOS.
• FelixKratz/JankyBorders — He does a lot of macOS ricing work. Creator of Sketchybar & JankyBorders. Check him out.
• Everyone shipping the open-source apps above.

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_{Built for me. Shared so you can build for you.}