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A minimal-but-real NixOS 26.05 desktop flake for GNOME: GDM login, a trimmed default app set, PipeWire audio, and a home-manager config that applies clean dconf settings and two Shell extensions (AppIndicator, Dash to Dock) declaratively. https://devai.io/templates/nixos-gnome
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Pinned 2026 toolchains (Go 1.26, Rust 1.98/edition 2024, Python 3.14 + uv, Node 24,
Zig 0.16, NixOS 26.05), postgres 18 / mongo 8, lockfiles built from, non-root
runtimes, .dockerignore, per-project LICENSE, READMEs with the git.devai.io clone
line, checkout@v7 CI. Security fixes in the legacy Rust APIs (any-password login,
self-assigned admin, hard-coded JWT secret), JWT alg/exp/sub enforcement across the
blog series, safe markdown links in the frontends, and many smaller bugs — every
project was built, run and exercised end to end.

Adds scripts/publish.sh + a CI publish job that splits every folder into its own
repo at git.devai.io/templates/<folder>.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
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README.md

nixos-gnome

A minimal-but-real NixOS 26.05 desktop flake for GNOME: GDM login, a trimmed default app set, PipeWire audio, and a home-manager config that applies clean dconf settings and two Shell extensions (AppIndicator, Dash to Dock) declaratively.

Run

On a UEFI machine (or VM) running NixOS — the minimal ISO install is enough:

sudo nix-shell -p git --run 'git clone https://git.devai.io/templates/nixos-gnome.git /etc/nixos-gnome'
cd /etc/nixos-gnome
# 1. Replace the stub hardware config with the one for THIS machine
sudo nixos-generate-config --show-hardware-config | sudo tee hosts/desktop/hardware-configuration.nix >/dev/null
# 2. Rename the user and host (below), then build and switch
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#desktop

Reboot into GDM and log in as user with the initial password changeme — run passwd right away. nixos-rebuild turns flakes on for its own run; the config enables them permanently.

How it works

hosts/desktop/hardware-configuration.nix is a stub: it only exists so the flake evaluates out of the box and will not boot real hardware. Step 1 above replaces it with the file generated for your disks and CPU — the one file that is yours, not the template's.

The placeholders are user and desktop. Rename them in three places:

  • flake.nix — home-manager.users.user and (if you like) the nixosConfigurations.desktop attribute name
  • hosts/desktop/configuration.nix — users.users.user and networking.hostName
  • home/user.nix — home.username, home.homeDirectory, git identity

Notes:

  • Extensions: the package (gnomeExtensions.<name>) makes an extension available, the enabled-extensions dconf key turns it on. Both live in home/user.nix; find more at search.nixos.org.
  • Discover dconf keys for more settings with dconf watch / while changing things in the GNOME Settings app.
  • flake.lock pins nixpkgs and home-manager; nix flake update moves both to the latest 26.05 commits. For the next release, change nixos-26.05 and release-26.05 in flake.nix together.
  • system.stateVersion / home.stateVersion mark the release you first installed; leave them alone when upgrading.

Layout

flake.nix                              nixpkgs nixos-26.05 + home-manager release-26.05
flake.lock                             the exact commits of both
hosts/desktop/configuration.nix        boot, network, GDM + GNOME, excluded apps, audio, user
hosts/desktop/hardware-configuration.nix   STUB — replace via nixos-generate-config
home/user.nix                          dconf settings + declarative Shell extensions

Deploy

sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#desktop is the deploy: run it after every change. Push to your own GitHub repo and the shipped workflow (.github/workflows/ci.yml) evaluates the whole system on every push and pull request — nix flake check plus the system derivation, nothing is built — inside the official nixos/nix image.

Part of devai.io — the NixOS desktop series: nixos-hyprland, nixos-gnome, nixos-plasma.