Nix-Factory is a Nix-based project for building and running NixOS virtual machines. It leverages nixos-generators to produce QEMU-compatible images, primarily for use with UTM.app on macOS.

I am not happy with any solution for managing Virtual Machines on MacOS. Most of existing tools either focus on GUI, have limited scripting/CLI capabilities or are just weird gimmicks that use custom image format, without NixOS support.

• Build QCOW2 (and other formats supported by nixos-generators) VM images via nix flakes.
• Manage UTM.app VMs through simple CLI scripts, without need to use GUI at all.
• Preconfigured NixOS user with password and SSH key preinstalled (modifiable in configurations/base.nix).

Build image based on nixosConfiguration in flake.nix.

./scripts/build-vm.sh <MACHINE>

<MACHINE>

Name of nixosConfiguration (see flake.nix).

Start a VM based on image built from nixosConfiguration. By default, machine will be named after an image it’s created from. Optionally provide unique name for the VM, so that multiple VMs can be created using the same image.

./scripts/start-vm.sh <MACHINE> [<NAME>]

<MACHINE>

Name of the nixosConfiguration built using build-vm.sh.

<NAME> (optional)

A unique identifier for the VM instance.

./scripts/delete-vm.sh <NAME>

<NAME>

Name of the VM, matching <MACHINE> unless specified during startup.

Remove all UTM machines, built images, and unused Nix store references. Then run the nix garbage collector.

./scripts/cleanup.sh

flake.nix

Defines the configurations and flake outputs.

configurations/

Contains base.nix configuration for all machines, as well as additional specialized configurations.

scripts/

Scripts used to build images and to manage virtual machines.

• nixos-generators
• UTM