nix-windows-config

Windows counterpart to nix-darwin-config. A hybrid setup: the dev environment is reproduced exactly via Nix inside WSL2, while the desktop layer runs natively on Windows.

• WSL2 Ubuntu + home-manager — shell, CLI tools, editor, dev env, ported 1:1 from the Darwin modules and filtered to drop macOS-only dependencies.
• Windows host — Alacritty (terminal), GlazeWM (tiling WM with built-in hotkeys), GUI apps via winget/scoop.

graph TB
    subgraph W["Windows host"]
        BS["bootstrap.ps1"] --> WG["winget.json<br/>GUI apps"]
        BS --> SC["scoop-packages.txt<br/>fonts, glazewm"]
        BS --> AL["alacritty.toml<br/>→ %APPDATA%\alacritty"]
        BS --> GW["glazewm/config.yaml<br/>→ ~/.glzr/glazewm"]
        BS --> LNK["Startup shortcut"]
    end
    subgraph L["WSL2 Ubuntu"]
        WB["wsl-bootstrap.sh"] --> NIX["Determinate Nix<br/>+ systemd daemon unit"]
        NIX --> FL["flake.nix #wsl"]
        FL --> HM["modules/home.nix"]
        HM --> FN["shell/functions/*<br/>autoloaded"]
        FL --> PK["packages.nix"]
    end
    BS -.->|"wsl --install"| WB

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Quick start

Two commands, one per side. Both are idempotent, so re-running is safe.

1. Windows (elevated PowerShell):

cd C:\Users\blare\nix-windows-config\windows
Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process Bypass -Force
.\bootstrap.ps1

Installs winget/scoop apps and fonts, deploys the Alacritty and GlazeWM configs, registers GlazeWM autostart, and installs WSL2 + Ubuntu if absent.

2. WSL (inside Ubuntu, after creating your user):

bash /mnt/c/Users/blare/nix-windows-config/windows/wsl-bootstrap.sh

Installs Determinate Nix, registers the nix-daemon systemd unit, clones this repo to ~/nix-windows-config, activates the home-manager generation, and runs the smoke test.

See windows/WSL2.md for prerequisites and troubleshooting.

Verify

Both sides ship a smoke test that exits non-zero on failure.

powershell -NoProfile -File windows\smoketest-windows.ps1   # Windows side

just smoke      # WSL side (or: zsh windows/smoketest.zsh)

The Windows test checks the GlazeWM process, config drift against the repo copy, autostart shortcut, absence of the old komorebi/whkd, Alacritty and its config, the alt+enter binding target, and the winget/scoop inventory. The WSL test checks binaries, autoloaded functions, aliases, git config, and Helix LSPs.

On Windows, where nix is unavailable, two checks run without a build:

powershell -NoProfile -File tools\check-nix-syntax.ps1   # structure + line endings
powershell -NoProfile -File tools\check-readme.ps1       # docs match reality

The first validates Nix files structurally (brace/string balance), enforces the autoload contract, and checks line endings in both directions. The second verifies that every path, just recipe, and keybinding named in this README actually exists.

Layout

Path	Purpose
flake.nix	home-manager flake: homeConfigurations.wsl, devShells, formatter, checks
flake.lock	Pinned inputs. Committed, so builds are reproducible
packages.nix	Linux-filtered package set
treefmt.nix	nix fmt config (nixfmt + taplo)
Justfile	switch / build / check / gc / smoke recipes
modules/home.nix	zsh, starship, helix, git, gh, delta, btop, atuin, …
modules/shell/functions/	Autoloaded zsh function bodies, one file per function
tools/check-nix-syntax.ps1	Windows-runnable structural + line-ending check
tools/check-readme.ps1	Verifies this README still matches the repo
windows/bootstrap.ps1	Windows installer (winget + scoop + configs + WSL2)
windows/wsl-bootstrap.sh	WSL installer (Nix + daemon + clone + switch + smoke)
windows/winget.json	GUI app manifest
windows/scoop-packages.txt	Fonts, glazewm, Windows-native fallbacks
windows/glazewm/config.yaml	Tiling WM + hotkeys → ~/.glzr/glazewm/
windows/alacritty/alacritty.toml	Terminal config → %APPDATA%\alacritty\
windows/smoketest-windows.ps1	Windows-side verification
windows/smoketest.zsh	WSL-side verification
windows/WSL2.md	WSL setup detail and troubleshooting
windows/NOTES.md	What was dropped from the macOS config, and why

Daily use

From inside WSL, in the repo:

just switch        # build, show diff, confirm, activate
just switch-fast   # build and activate
just dry-run       # build and diff without activating
just check         # fmt-check + lint + deadnix + flake check
just smoke         # re-run the smoke test
just update        # update flake inputs, then switch
just gc            # collect garbage older than 14 days
just               # list everything

Window manager

GlazeWM tiles and owns its hotkeys, so there is no separate hotkey daemon.

Binding	Action
Alt+H/J/K/L	Focus left/down/up/right
Alt+Shift+H/J/K/L	Move window
Alt+1..9	Switch workspace
Alt+Shift+1..9	Move window to workspace
Alt+R	Resize mode (then hjkl, escape to exit)
Alt+V	Toggle tiling direction
Alt+F / Alt+M	Fullscreen / minimize
Alt+Shift+Space	Toggle floating
Alt+Enter	Launch Alacritty
Alt+Shift+Q	Close window
Alt+Shift+R	Reload config
Alt+Shift+E	Exit GlazeWM

Alt+Space is deliberately left free for PowerToys Run; cycle-focus lives on Alt+G.

The config is tracked at windows/glazewm/config.yaml and deployed to ~/.glzr/glazewm/config.yaml. After editing the live file, press Alt+Shift+R to reload, then copy it back into the repo. The smoke test compares the two and fails on drift.

Shell functions

Function bodies live one-per-file in modules/shell/functions/ and are lazily autoloaded from ~/.config/zsh/functions, mirroring the Darwin config. To add one:

1. Create modules/shell/functions/<name> containing the body only, with no function name() { ... } wrapper. That is the autoload convention.
2. Add <name> to the autoload -Uz list in modules/home.nix.

tools/check-nix-syntax.ps1 fails if the two ever disagree in either direction.

Gotchas

These are all real failures hit while building this repo, each now guarded by a test.

• ~/.gitconfig shadows the managed git config. Git reads it before ~/.config/git/config, so if it exists, every home-manager git setting is inert. git config --global creates it. Fix: rm ~/.gitconfig.
• Home Manager cannot change your login shell. It configures zsh and writes ~/.zshenv, but /etc/passwd still says /bin/bash, so none of it loads. wsl-bootstrap.sh runs chsh (adding zsh to /etc/shells first, which chsh requires).
• CRLF breaks WSL scripts. zsh reads the trailing \r as part of the last token. .gitattributes pins *.sh/*.zsh/*.nix/function bodies to LF and *.ps1 to CRLF; the checker verifies both.
• UTF-8 corrupts silently when scripting edits from PowerShell. Reading a file as Latin-1 and writing it back as UTF-8 mangles every multi-byte character, and the diff looks plausible. check-nix-syntax.ps1 scans for the signature; wsl-bootstrap.sh is deliberately ASCII-only.
• The Nix daemon may not start on WSL. The installer can finish leaving cannot connect to socket. wsl-bootstrap.sh registers a systemd unit with Type=simple, because determinate-nixd never sends an sd_notify readiness signal and Type=notify therefore hangs until it times out.
• wsl --list --quiet exits 0 with empty output when WSL is installed but has no distributions, so checking only the exit code wrongly reports success.

Relationship to nix-darwin-config

The WSL side is a port of the Darwin config. When pulling improvements across, note that upstream splits packages into packages/*.nix and shell config into modules/shell.nix, whereas this repo keeps a single packages.nix and a single modules/home.nix because the Windows port needs a smaller subset.

macOS-only functions (ocvis, tor-toggle, llm) are deliberately not ported. See windows/NOTES.md for the full list of dropped applications and their Windows replacements.

Fidelity

Capability	macOS	Windows port	Fidelity
Shell, CLI tools, editor, Python/git workflow	nix-darwin	WSL2 + Nix	100%
Terminal	WezTerm	Alacritty (ported theme + keys)	90%
Tiling WM	AeroSpace	GlazeWM	90%
GUI apps	brew cask	winget / scoop	80%
System defaults, Touch ID, launchd	native	partial / manual	~40%