From 7b6cec41000dcc9980f4bc35448a3f3ccc7ec1d9 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Johannes Kirschbauer <hsjobeki@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, 1 Nov 2025 12:25:50 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] services: update hello-world readme and tests

---
 clanServices/hello-world/README.md            | 84 ++++++++++++++++++-
 clanServices/hello-world/default.nix          |  2 +-
 clanServices/hello-world/flake-module.nix     |  2 +-
 clanServices/hello-world/tests/eval-tests.nix | 20 +++--
 4 files changed, 100 insertions(+), 8 deletions(-)

diff --git a/clanServices/hello-world/README.md b/clanServices/hello-world/README.md
index 04c30234b..5a6451870 100644
--- a/clanServices/hello-world/README.md
+++ b/clanServices/hello-world/README.md
@@ -1 +1,83 @@
-This a test README just to appease the eval warnings if we don't have one
\ No newline at end of file
+!!! Danger "Experimental"
+    This service is for demonstration purpose only and may change in the future.
+
+The Hello-World Clan Service is a minimal example showing how to build and register your own service.
+
+It serves as a reference implementation and is used in clan-core CI tests to ensure compatibility.
+
+## What it demonstrates
+
+- How to define a basic Clan-compatible service.
+- How to structure your service for discovery and configuration.
+- How Clan services interact with nixos.
+
+## Testing
+
+This service demonstrates two levels of testing to ensure quality and stability across releases:
+
+1. **Unit & Integration Testing** — via [`nix-unit`](https://github.com/nix-community/nix-unit)
+2. **End-to-End Testing** — via **NixOS VM tests**, which we extended to support **container virtualization** for better performance.
+
+We highly advocate following the [Practical Testing Pyramid](https://martinfowler.com/articles/practical-test-pyramid.html):
+
+* Write **unit tests** for core logic and invariants.
+* Add **one or two end-to-end (E2E)** tests to confirm your service starts and behaves correctly in a real NixOS environment.
+
+NixOS is **untyped** and frequently changes; tests are the safest way to ensure long-term stability of services.
+
+```
+               / \
+              /   \
+             / E2E \
+            /-------\
+           /         \
+          /Integration\
+         /-------------\
+        /               \
+       /    Unit Tests   \
+       -------------------
+```
+
+### nix-unit
+
+We highly advocate the usage of
+
+[nix-unit](https://github.com/nix-community/nix-unit)
+
+Example in: tests/eval-tests.nix
+
+If you use flake-parts you can use the [native integration](https://flake.parts/options/nix-unit.html)
+
+If nix-unit succeeds you'r nixos evaluation should be mostly correct.
+
+!!! Tip
+    - Ensure most used 'settings' and variants are tested.
+    - Think about some important edge-cases your system should handle.
+
+### NixOS VM / Container Test
+
+!!! Warning "Early Vars & clanTest"
+    The testing system around vars is experimental
+
+    `clanTest` is still experimental and enables container virtualization by default.
+    This is still early and might have some limitations.
+
+Some minimal boilerplate is needed to use `clanTest`
+
+```nix
+nixosLib = import (inputs.nixpkgs + "/nixos/lib") { }
+nixosLib.runTest (
+    { ... }:
+    {
+        imports = [
+            self.modules.nixosTest.clanTest
+            # Example in tests/vm/default.nix
+            testModule
+        ];
+        hostPkgs = pkgs;
+
+        # Uncomment if you don't want or cannot use containers
+        # test.useContainers = false;
+    }
+)
+```
diff --git a/clanServices/hello-world/default.nix b/clanServices/hello-world/default.nix
index 5c682cb13..d86d5cfe8 100644
--- a/clanServices/hello-world/default.nix
+++ b/clanServices/hello-world/default.nix
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 {
   _class = "clan.service";
   manifest.name = "clan-core/hello-word";
-  manifest.description = "This is a test";
+  manifest.description = "Minimal example clan service that greets the world";
   manifest.readme = builtins.readFile ./README.md;
 
   # This service provides two roles: "morning" and "evening". Roles can be
diff --git a/clanServices/hello-world/flake-module.nix b/clanServices/hello-world/flake-module.nix
index e41c5c196..f62f0811f 100644
--- a/clanServices/hello-world/flake-module.nix
+++ b/clanServices/hello-world/flake-module.nix
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ in
             # The hello-world service being tested
             ../../clanServices/hello-world
             # Required modules
-            ../../nixosModules/clanCore
+            ../../nixosModules
           ];
           testName = "hello-world";
           tests = ./tests/eval-tests.nix;
diff --git a/clanServices/hello-world/tests/eval-tests.nix b/clanServices/hello-world/tests/eval-tests.nix
index 1cca5c54b..dfa735af2 100644
--- a/clanServices/hello-world/tests/eval-tests.nix
+++ b/clanServices/hello-world/tests/eval-tests.nix
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
   ...
 }:
 let
-  testFlake = clanLib.clan {
+  testClan = clanLib.clan {
     self = { };
     # Point to the folder of the module
     # TODO: make this optional
@@ -33,10 +33,20 @@ let
   };
 in
 {
-  test_simple = {
-    config = testFlake.config;
+  /**
+    We highly advocate the usage of:
+    https://github.com/nix-community/nix-unit
 
-    expr = { };
-    expected = { };
+    If you use flake-parts you can use the native integration: https://flake.parts/options/nix-unit.html
+  */
+  test_simple = {
+    # Allows inspection via the nix-repl
+    # Ignored by nix-unit; it only looks at 'expr' and 'expected'
+    inherit testClan;
+
+    # Assert that jon has the
+    # configured greeting in 'environment.etc.hello.text'
+    expr = testClan.config.nixosConfigurations.jon.config.environment.etc."hello".text;
+    expected = "Good evening World!";
   };
 }