[Feature]: Provide official Nix flake packages for stable and nightly releases

[SINGH-RAJVEER]

Request

Please provide a flake in this repository that exposes installable T3 Code desktop packages for NixOS users:

Output under packages.${system}	Version
default	Alias of stable
t3code	Alias of stable
stable	Latest published stable release
nightly	Latest published nightly release

Matching apps outputs would also make nix run work for each channel.

I want to add github:pingdotgg/t3code directly to my system's flake inputs, choose a release channel, and get the newest published version when I update that input and rebuild.

Current situation

There is currently no root flake.nix on main. For a declarative desktop installation through a flake, one existing option is Sawrz/t3code-nix, linked in #347.

For example, a user can add this input to their existing system flake:

inputs.t3code-nix.url = "github:Sawrz/t3code-nix";

Then, in a NixOS module that receives inputs through specialArgs:

{ inputs, pkgs, ... }:
{
  environment.systemPackages = [
    inputs.t3code-nix.packages.${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}.t3code
  ];
}

Or try the desktop app directly:

nix run github:Sawrz/t3code-nix#t3code

That community package is useful, but it adds a separate packaging repository to the update path. Its README describes checks every six hours followed by an update PR. Users depend on that repository publishing its packaging update before updating their own input picks up a new T3 Code release.

Proposed usage

With official outputs, the same installation could use this repository directly. For example:

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
    t3code.url = "github:pingdotgg/t3code";
  };

  outputs = { nixpkgs, ... }@inputs: {
    nixosConfigurations.my-host = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      system = "x86_64-linux";
      specialArgs = { inherit inputs; };
      modules = [
        ./configuration.nix
        ({ pkgs, inputs, ... }: {
          environment.systemPackages = [
            inputs.t3code.packages.${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}.stable
          ];
        })
      ];
    };
  };
}

This assumes an existing configuration.nix. To use nightly, change the package selection from .stable to .nightly. Users who want the default stable release can select .default or .t3code.

From the system configuration directory, updating would be:

nix flake update t3code
sudo nixos-rebuild switch --flake .#my-host

For a quick launch without adding a system package, the proposed interface would be:

nix run --refresh github:pingdotgg/t3code#stable
nix run --refresh github:pingdotgg/t3code#nightly

These official-input examples describe the requested interface; they do not work today.

Keeping releases current

Please update the flake's package versions and hashes as part of publishing stable and nightly releases, so the corresponding package is available as soon as the release is published. This would let NixOS users update directly from upstream without waiting for a downstream packaging update.

The user's flake.lock should still pin the selected revision for reproducibility and rollback. “Latest” means the newest published version after an explicit input update and rebuild; a locked configuration should remain pinned.

Starting with the existing x86_64-linux desktop release would be enough. Packaging the published AppImage with the required NixOS runtime wrapper is a reasonable first implementation. A development shell alone would not satisfy this installation use case.

Related work

• Created a nix flake of t3code #347 links the community flake used in the current example.
• Add a flake.nix for NixOS Flake users #2734 and Add a self-contained Nix flake #4699 proposed upstream Nix packaging and were closed without merging.
• feat: Add Nix flake support #12561 proposed a development shell and was also closed without merging.

This request focuses on a small, documented installation interface with stable and nightly packages kept in sync with upstream releases.

[juliusmarminge]

Note

Grok responding on behalf of Julius.

Triage

Thanks @SINGH-RAJVEER for the detailed proposal and the worked examples. This is a feature request rather than a bug, and per the contributing guide feature requests are tracked in Ideas discussions.

What exists today

• main has no root flake.nix, so github:pingdotgg/t3code isn't a flake input yet and the nix run examples don't work today, as you noted.
• Linux desktop builds ship as the AppImage and .deb. The release workflow republishes the x86_64 AppImage to the AUR as t3code-bin and t3code-nightly-bin. The CLI installs with curl -fsSL https://t3.codes/install.sh | sh (T3CODE_CHANNEL=nightly for nightly). None of that is a Nix flake.
• nixpkgs has a downstream t3code package, but it doesn't give nix flake update against this repo for stable and nightly. Ideas Discussion Support Linux distribution packages that run T3 Code on a shared Electron #14799 is about shared-Electron distro packages, not flake outputs here.

Prior attempts

• Add a flake.nix for NixOS Flake users #2734 (an AppImage wrapper) and Add a self-contained Nix flake #4699 (a self-contained flake) were closed without merging; Add a self-contained Nix flake #4699 was closed over adding an unsupported distribution channel and its ongoing maintenance.
• Add nix flake devshell #10135 and feat: Add Nix flake support #12561 were development-shell flakes, not installable release packages, and were also closed without merging.

Where to continue

The open Ideas thread for an official Nix flake is Discussion #7057, which follows up on the community flake from #347 (Sawrz/t3code-nix). Adding your stable/nightly release-sync interface there would keep everything in one place. Maintainers haven't committed to owning a Nix channel, and a maintainer will decide on direction.

[mavam]

The only way forward here is integrating this into the release process. The community flake is outdated. Would be very happy to see this!