Quickstart

Start your first machine

Installation

nix run github:plmercereau/nicos -- init

flake.nix

{
  inputs = {
    nicos.url = "github:plmercereau/nicos";
  };

  outputs = {nicos, ...}:
    nicos.lib.configure {
      projectRoot = ./.;
      adminKeys = ["ssh-ed25519 ..."];
      nixos = {
        enable = true;
        path = "./hosts-nixos";
      };
    }
    {
      # Your additional flake outputs go here
    };
}

1. Prerequisites

   Nix

   Make sure you installed Nix before using Nicos. Please have a look at the official installation instructions.

   Enable Flake support

   In your NixOS configuration, add the following line:

   nix.extraOptions = ''
     experimental-features = nix-command flakes
   '';
   

   Recommended: direnv and nix-direnv

   You can add the following lines in your home-manager configuration:

   programs.direnv.enable = true;
   programs.direnv.nix-direnv.enable = true;
   
2. Installation

   nix run github:plmercereau/nicos -- init
   

   It will guide you in the configuration of your project. For now, you can only enable the NixOS feature and skip the other ones.

3. Prepare a Hetzner Cloud instance

   Add your current user’s SSH public key on Hetzner Cloud to this machine. See Hetzner Cloud documentation for more information.

4. Create a machine configuration

   nix run github:plmercereau/nicos -- create my-machine
   
5. Install the machine

   Now that the machine configuration is ready, you can install it on your Hetzner Cloud server:

   nix run github:plmercereau/nicos -- create \
     my-machine [machine-ip]
   

   It will install and configure the machine using nixos-anywhere, kexec, and cloud-init.