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Nix Documentation

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Discussion about documentation improvements around the Nix ecosystem94 Servers

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18 Apr 2026
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8 May 2026
@ibizaman:matrix.orgibizaman Hello all, I was wondering if there was some work on making nix documentation executable? In my project I extensively use nmd to build the documentation but what I see missing is that I can’t test the examples and snippets I’m writing and they inevitably become stale. 15:26:48
@ibizaman:matrix.orgibizaman* Hello all, I was wondering if there was some work on making nix documentation executable? In my project I extensively use nmd to build the documentation but what I see missing is that I can’t test the examples and snippets I’m writing and they inevitably become stale. I did some light research on this but didn’t find anything.15:27:12
@ibizaman:matrix.orgibizamanFWIW I looked at existing literate programming tools but they are all so verbose. And they somehow don’t support markdown files for the major part. I thought I’d just roll my own parser using some markdown lib to just concatenate all source code but I’d like for others to be able to use it instead of this sitting in my own repo.16:06:07
11 May 2026
@friedow:beeper.comChristian FriedowThe only thing that comes to my mind is https://ngi.nixos.org/. They provide executable examples that spin up VMs. But I guess what you are talking about is more like small code snippets that you can execute in a browser. What project are you working on? And where are you rendering documentation to (man pages, documentation website, help flags in cli tools or code)?07:29:29
@fricklerhandwerk:matrix.orgfricklerhandwerk
In reply to @ibizaman:matrix.org
Hello all, I was wondering if there was some work on making nix documentation executable? In my project I extensively use nmd to build the documentation but what I see missing is that I can’t test the examples and snippets I’m writing and they inevitably become stale. I did some light research on this but didn’t find anything.
The most generic — and indeed language-agnostic — tool for this is noweb. It’s extremely simple and thanks to Nix-based workflows, easy to control. There’s also modern variants that convert the block annotations to something other than TeX, and the mechanism is so simple one can implement any custom format on a whim.
09:42:58
@figsoda:matrix.orgfigsodau might also be able to run some nix implementation in wasm like snix17:09:43
@hsjobeki:matrix.orghsjobekiunified js let's you build whatever you want for markdown. If it's a web page it uses JavaScript anyways. Remark, rehype plugins are the both tools that I would use to build this myself. Noweb has some benefits but it seems pretty niche. Unified.js is the defacto standard in frontend for processing markdown. (Afaik) If it's just for evaluation you can call snix as mentioned via wasm directly in the browser. 17:20:21
@hsjobeki:matrix.orghsjobeki* unified js let's you build whatever you want for markdown. If it's a web page it uses JavaScript anyways. Remark, rehype plugins are the both tools that I would use to build this myself. Noweb has some benefits but it seems pretty niche. Unified.js is the defacto standard in frontend for processing markdown. (Afaik) For evaluation you can call snix as mentioned via wasm directly in the browser. For more than that you might need a backend 17:21:16
@hsjobeki:matrix.orghsjobekiOr is it a local cli thingy 17:23:51
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9 Jun 2026
@friedow:beeper.comChristian Friedow

After publishing the new vision for the documentation team, @hsjobeki and I received several requests from people asking how to get in touch with the documentation team and how to help make that vision a reality.

So today, long overdue, we’re happy to announce a new series of Nix documentation meetings.

We’re starting with a one-hour meeting every two weeks on Wednesdays. This is just a starting point: Expect the schedule to be adjusted based on participation and interest in the future.

Whether you’re interested in the new vision, want to talk about specific documentation issues, or would simply like to sit down with us and work heads-down on improving the documentation, you’re warmly invited to join, say hi, and get involved.

Meeting details

When: Bi-weekly Wednesdays, 4pm CEST, starting tomorrow :scream:
Where: https://jitsi.lassul.us/nixos-documentation-team
Meeting notes: Meeting Notes

FYI: You can also subscribe to the official NixOS Google Calendar or the ICS feed to be notified about future documentation team meetings.

06:43:13

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