nix/roadmap.md

Nix is everywhere

Nix is the universal build and configuration management tool.

Software developers use Nix as a matter of course every day, mostly without even noticing. Nix runs trivially, anywhere.

For individuals to large organizations, Nix underpins the entire software supply chain:

• Developer tooling
• Build automation
• Binary distribution

To this end, the Nix team will work towards the following goals.

Make Nix easy to adopt

• Well-defined target user base
  • anyone who wants to manage the complexity of - and build - software
  • transform bits in a declarative and reproducible way
• Well-defined core user stories
  • Ad hoc environments
    • One-liner setup (nix-shell)
  • Declarative environments
    • One-liner setup ("templates")
    • Easy modification/extension
    • Easy and transparent usage ("direnv"/"lorri")
  • Secret management as first-class citizen
  • Configurations as first-class citizens
    • Configuration/Modules/Nickel/etc.
  • Language bindings
  • Supply chain trust solution
    • Content-addressed derivation
    • Build result signing, key distribution
    • SBOM/SLSA
  • Unprivileged installation and use
    • Portable store?
    • restricted-root
    • ACLs
    • rewriting
  • ...
• Linux, MacOS and Windows support at feature parity

Make Nix a tool that users can rely on

• Reliable installer
• Effective testing
  • Test coverage for all major use cases
  • Memory safety validation (sanitizers, ...)
  • Benchmarking infrastructure
  • Test reports published and accessible
• Executable language specification

Make Nix a good investment for users

• Explicit compatibility guarantees (and non-guarantees)

  • Commitment to uncompromising reproducibility
  • Well-defined release process
  • Feature support status
  • Deprecation strategy
  • LTS commitments
  • Close Flakes schism, remove uncertanity/ambiguity/confusion

• Exemplary contributor and maintainer experience

  • Recommended development setup

  • Testing guidance

  • Formalize review criteria

  • Formalize design criteria (technical invariants)

  • Well-defined architecture of isolated components

    • Swappable store
      • Formalize store protocol
    • Swappable Nix language evaluator
    • Swappable scheduler and remote-build system
      • Integrate Hydra (modulo UI) into Nix
      • Remote protocol speed and reliability improvements
      • Binary cache protocol speed improvements

  • Minimal custom code base (proven off-the-shelf components where possible)

    • Git file hashing
    • Sandboxing, containers
    • Capnproto for RPC
    • Bazel RBE protocol
    • ...