In reply to @angerman:matrix.org
so I should initialize the nixpkgs with the controller system?

I'm getting the following error on a simple deployment at the moment:

-> % colmena apply
[INFO ] Enumerating nodes...
error: infinite recursion encountered

       at /nix/store/y41rr1klzvwrmjs6smyl8kd1ipa5m5kj-source/lib/modules.nix:305:28:

          304|         builtins.addErrorContext (context name)
          305|           (args.${name} or config._module.args.${name})
             |                            ^
          306|       ) (lib.functionArgs f);
(use '--show-trace' to show detailed location information)
[ERROR] -----
[ERROR] Operation failed with error: Nix exited with error code: 1

NixOS config is

{ config, lib, pkgs, modulesPath, home-manager, ... }:
{
  deployment = {
    targetHost = "192.168.x.y";
    targetUser = "nixos";
    tags = [ "rpi" "lab" ];
  };

  imports = [
    (home-manager + "/nixos")
  ];
}

In reply to @zhaofeng:zhaofeng.li
What does your hive.nix look like?

Sorry for not replying earlier, but I don't have a hive.nix, just a flake.nix as follows:

{
  description = "Flake for RPI 4 Lab Infrastructure";

  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-21.05";
    devshell.url = "github:numtide/devshell";
    flake-utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";
    colmena.url = "github:zhaofengli/colmena/v0.2.0";
    colmena.inputs.utils.follows = "flake-utils";
    home-manager.url = "github:nix-community/home-manager/release-21.05";
    home-manager.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
  };
  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, devshell, flake-utils, colmena, home-manager }:
    let
      nativePkgs = import nixpkgs { 
        system = ( if builtins ? currentSystem then builtins.currentSystem else "x86_64-linux" );
        };
    in
    {
      colmena = {
        meta.nixpkgs = nativePkgs;
        pi = import ./pi4.nix;
        specialArgs = {
          inherit home-manager;
        };
      };
    } // flake-utils.lib.eachDefaultSystem
      (system:
        let 
          pkgs = import nixpkgs { inherit system; overlays = [ devshell.overlay ]; };
        in
        {
          devShell = pkgs.devshell.mkShell {
            packages = with pkgs; [
              colmena.defaultPackage.${system}
            ];
          };
        }
      );
}