# Zero to Nix

> Your guide to learning Nix and flakes

Zero to Nix is a flake-centric resource for learning Nix created by [Determinate Systems](https://determinate.systems/llms.txt). It takes you on a [learning journey](#start-pages) from installing Nix to exploring Nix development environments to building Nix packages and more. It also offers a series of [concept pages](#concept-pages) covering some of the trickier corners of Nix.

## Start pages

These pages take you on a Nix journey from installing Nix through
accomplishing meaningful tasks with Nix:

- [Get Nix running on your system](https://zero-to-nix.com//start/install)
- [Run a program with Nix](https://zero-to-nix.com//start/nix-run)
- [Explore Nix development environments](https://zero-to-nix.com//start/nix-develop)
- [Build a package using Nix](https://zero-to-nix.com//start/nix-build)
- [Search for Nix packages](https://zero-to-nix.com//start/nix-search)
- [Turn your project into a flake](https://zero-to-nix.com//start/init-flake)
- [Uninstall Nix (if necessary)](https://zero-to-nix.com//start/uninstall)
- [Learn more](https://zero-to-nix.com//start/learn-more)

## Concept pages

These pages provide a more theoretical take on some of the
trickier corners of Nix:

- [Caching](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/caching)
- [Channels](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/channels)
- [Closures](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/closures)
- [Declarative programming](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/declarative)
- [Ecosystem](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/ecosystem)
- [Development environments](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/dev-env)
- [Derivations](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/derivations)
- [Nix flakes](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/flakes)
- [Hermeticity](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/hermeticity)
- [FlakeHub](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/flakehub)
- [The Determinate Nix Installer](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/nix-installer)
- [The Nix store](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/nix-store)
- [Incremental builds](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/incremental-builds)
- [The Nix language](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/nix-language)
- [Nix](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/nix)
- [Package management](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/package-management)
- [Nixpkgs](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/nixpkgs)
- [NixOS](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/nixos)
- [Pinning dependencies](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/pinning)
- [Packages](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/packages)
- [Provenance](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/provenance)
- [Reproducibility](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/reproducibility)
- [Realisation](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/realisation)
- [Sandboxing](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/sandboxing)
- [System specificity](https://zero-to-nix.com//concepts/system-specificity)

## Other formats

For additional LLM-oriented manifests, see also:

- [`llms-small.txt`](https://zero-to-nix.com/llms-small.txt) (compact structure-only version)
- [`llms-full.txt`](https://zero-to-nix.com/llms-full.txt) (complete content in one file)

## Other Determinate Systems projects

These other projects under the Determinate Systems umbrella have their own LLM-oriented manifests:

- [FlakeHub](https://flakehub.com/llms.txt) (FlakeHub is a platform for publishing and discovering Nix flakes and Nix artifacts, featuring semantic versioning, private flakes with federated, JWT-based authentication, flake discovery via search, labels, and other means, and next-generation Nix binary caching with FlakeHub Cache.)
- [Determinate documentation](https://docs.determinate.systems/llms.txt) (Determinate is Nix for teams: Stop wrestling with binary caches, reinventing deploy scripts, and figuring out access controls. Confidently adopt and scale Nix across teams of any size.)
- [Determinate Systems website](https://determinate.systems/llms.txt) (Our goal for Determinate is to enable fearless innovation by bringing Nix to teams, providing a complete Nix-based workflow from installation through collaboration and CI to deployment.)