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importManifest.nix

The pure Nix function that turns glix.toml plus a set of flake inputs into module lists for NixOS and home-manager.

Location: core/lib/importManifest.nix.

Signature​

{ lib }:
{ manifestPath
, inputs ? { }
, defaultUser ? "user"
}:
{
  manifest;          # the raw decoded TOML
  systemModules;     # list of NixOS modules
  homeModules;       # flat list of home-manager modules (legacy)
  homeModulesByUser; # { <user> = [ module ... ]; ... }
}

Outer parameter (lib) is curried at the flake's lib = boundary. Inner parameters come from the caller (the user-packages flake.nix).

Behaviour​

  1. Read and decode the manifest. Reject anything other than schema = 1.
  2. Filter to enabled = true packages.
  3. For each package, derive the user-facing module via the contract:
    • If inputs.<name>.nixosModules.default exists and scope is system, use it.
    • Else if scope is system, wrap inputs.<name>.packages.${pkgs.system}.default into environment.systemPackages.
    • Symmetric for home.
  4. Wrap the resolved module with withGlixConfig: 
    { imports = [ mod ]; _module.args.glixConfig = pkg.config or { }; }
    This is how [packages.<name>.config] reaches the package module.
  5. For home-scope packages, tag the resolved+wrapped module with its target user (Package.user → Settings.primary_user → defaultUser). Group by user into homeModulesByUser.

Why a wrapper module​

Each package module may be a function, an attrset, or even a list. The withGlixConfig wrapper imports the original module and sets one _module.args entry, which works uniformly for all module shapes:

withGlixConfig = cfg: mod: {
  imports = [ mod ];
  _module.args.glixConfig = cfg;
};

A package that doesn't care about glixConfig can ignore it; its module function signature simply doesn't accept the argument, and Nix happily passes it without complaint (because _module.args only requires declared modules to opt in).

Why two outputs (homeModules and homeModulesByUser)​

Older host templates used homeModules as a flat list under a single home-manager user. The M6 multi-user routing (see ADR-010) introduced homeModulesByUser. The flat list is preserved so older user repositories keep evaluating; new ones (post-M6 glix init) consume the attrset variant.

Error handling​

  • Unknown schema: the function throws with a clear message naming the manifest path.
  • Missing flake input: when the manifest mentions a package but the user-packages flake.nix has no matching input (e.g., the user hand-edited the manifest without running glix), the function throws via requireInput with a hint to re-run glix add.
  • Empty manifest: returns empty module lists. Useful for bootstrapping a host that hasn't had any packages added yet.

Testing it​

importManifest is a pure function over disk-resident state, so it's straightforward to evaluate directly:

cd ~/.config/glixos
nix eval --raw .#nixosConfigurations.laptop.config.environment.systemPackages \
  --apply 'builtins.toString'

nix eval --json .#nixosConfigurations.laptop.config.home-manager.users \
  --apply 'lib: builtins.attrNames lib'

The smoke-test pattern used during development is:

nix eval --raw .#nixosConfigurations.<host>.config.home-manager.users.<user>.home.file.\".whatever\".text

…which exercises the full chain (manifest → glixConfig → module).