Nix System Rebuild

After changing any Nix-managed config in ~/.config/dotfiles , the system must be rebuilt for changes to take effect. Nix store symlinks are read-only — you cannot edit them in place.

Quick Rebuild

cd ~/.config/dotfiles sudo darwin-rebuild switch --flake .

darwin-rebuild has a NOPASSWD sudoers rule, so this works non-interactively.

Using hey

The hey command wraps rebuilds:

hey rebuild # or: hey re hey test # build + activate without boot entry hey rollback # roll back to previous generation

When to Rebuild

• After editing any .nix file

• After editing config files symlinked through home-manager (lazygit, ghostty, etc.)

• When you see "permission denied" writing to a Nix store path

Workflow

• Edit source config in ~/.config/dotfiles/

• Commit changes

• Run sudo darwin-rebuild switch --flake ~/.config/dotfiles

• Verify the symlink now points to updated Nix store path