nixmac

Welcome to nixmac

An AI coding agent for nix-darwin configuration on macOS

nixmac is an AI-powered desktop app for managing your nix-darwin configuration on macOS. Tell it what you want in plain English, and it edits your Nix configuration files for you.

Under the hood, nixmac uses standard nix-darwin — the same flake structure, the same modules, the same darwin-rebuild workflow. nixmac adds an AI layer on top that understands your intent and makes the right edits.

What does nixmac do?

nixmac sits between you and your nix-darwin configuration:

  1. You describe what you want — "install ripgrep and configure zsh with syntax highlighting"
  2. nixmac's AI agent edits your Nix files — it reads your ~/.darwin/ config, understands the structure, and makes targeted edits to the right modules
  3. You build, apply, and save — nixmac shows you the changes. Build & Test activates them, Commit records them in git, and Undo All returns to the previous committed state.

You can also edit your nix-darwin config directly — nixmac doesn't lock you in. Your configuration is standard Nix that works with darwin-rebuild independently of nixmac.

Who is it for?

  • Developers new to Nix who want to manage their Mac declaratively without learning Nix syntax from scratch
  • Existing nix-darwin users who want a faster way to make configuration changes
  • Teams who want to standardize Mac setups across machines

What nixmac is not

  • nixmac is not a replacement for nix-darwin — it uses nix-darwin under the hood
  • nixmac does not hide the Nix layer — your config is plain .nix files you can read, edit, and version-control
  • nixmac does not require you to use the AI — you can always edit your config manually and run darwin-rebuild switch yourself

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