Composing Using Imports

You can compose environments either locally or by referencing inputs.

Imagine you're building a typical web application with separate frontend and backend components that live in separate folders. You've also written a custom Redis integration in devenv/devenv.nix, stored in a remote https://github.com/mycompany/redis.devenv repository.

devenv.yaml

inputs:
  nixpkgs:
    url: github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixpkgs-unstable
  redis:
    url: github:mycompany/redis.devenv
imports:
- ./frontend
- ./backend
- redis/devenv

If you enter the frontend directory, the environment will activate based on what's in the frontend/devenv.nix file.

If you enter the top-level project, the environment is combined with what's defined in backend/devenv.nix and frontend/devenv.nix. For example, devenv up will start both the frontend and backend processes.

Note

While composing devenv.nix is a key feature, composing devenv.yaml hasn't been implemented yet.

See devenv.yaml reference for all supported imports.