Recommended Nix template for zig development?

koe · January 16, 2026, 6:49pm

Anyone else use Nix flake-based development environments? I am curious to see how others approach this, maybe I can improve my own setup!

I use it to manage both my zig versions as well as my development environment. I essentially use Mitchell Hashimoto’s overlay and build ZLS from scratch with the specified zig version. Seems to work.

My best go as a Nix novice:

github.com/nielsdekoeijer/zig-flake-template

zig/flake.nix

main

{
  description = "YOUR DESCRIPTION HERE";

  inputs = {
    # grab nixpkgs, I use unstable!
    nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs?ref=nixos-unstable";

    # for 'foreach' system
    utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";

    # grab zig overlay for zig
    zig-flake.url = "github:mitchellh/zig-overlay";

    # put our zig into zls to ensure it matches
    zls-flake = {
      url = "github:zigtools/zls?ref=master";
      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
      inputs.zig-overlay.follows = "zig-flake";
    };
  };

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andrewrk · January 17, 2026, 1:01am

I’ve never used flakes before. I use nix-shell with these two lines:

    hardeningDisable = [ "all" ];
    buildInputs = [ cmake ];