3.7 KiB
:material-clock-fast: Getting Started
Ready to create your own Clan and manage a fleet of machines? Follow these simple steps to get started.
By the end of this guide, you'll have a fresh NixOS configuration ready to push to one or more machines. You'll create a new Git repository and a flake, and all you need is at least one machine to push to. This is the easiest way to begin, and we recommend you to copy your existing configuration into this new setup!
Prerequisites
=== "Linux"
Clan requires Nix to be installed on your system. Run the following command to install Nix:
```bash
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install
```
If you have previously installed Nix, make sure `experimental-features = nix-command flakes` is present in `~/.config/nix/nix.conf` or `/etc/nix/nix.conf`. If this is not the case, please add it to `~/.config/nix/nix.conf`.
=== "NixOS"
If you run NixOS the `nix` binary is already installed.
You will also need to enable the `nix-command` and `flakes` experimental features in your `configuration.nix`:
```nix
{ nix.settings.experimental-features = [ "nix-command" "flakes" ]; }
```
=== "macOS"
Clan requires Nix to be installed on your system. Run the following command to install Nix:
```bash
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install
```
If you have previously installed Nix, make sure `experimental-features = nix-command flakes` is present in `~/.config/nix/nix.conf` or `/etc/nix/nix.conf`. If this is not the case, please add it to `~/.config/nix/nix.conf`.
Step 1: Add Clan CLI to Your Shell
Add the Clan CLI into your development workflow:
nix shell git+https://git.clan.lol/clan/clan-core#clan-cli --refresh
You can find reference documentation for the clan CLI program here.
Alternatively you can check out the help pages directly:
clan --help
Step 2: Initialize Your Project
If you want to migrate an existing project, follow this guide.
Set the foundation of your Clan project by initializing it by running:
clan flakes create my-clan
This command creates the flake.nix and .clan-flake files for your project.
It will also generate files from a default template, to help show general clan usage patterns.
Step 3: Verify the Project Structure
Ensure that all project files exist by running:
cd my-clan
tree
This should yield the following:
.
├── flake.nix
├── machines
│ ├── jon
│ │ ├── configuration.nix
│ │ └── hardware-configuration.nix
│ └── sara
│ ├── configuration.nix
│ └── hardware-configuration.nix
└── modules
└── shared.nix
5 directories, 9 files
??? info "Recommended way of sourcing the clan CLI tool"
The default template adds the `clan` CLI tool to the development shell.
This means that you can access the `clan` CLI tool directly from the folder
you are in right now.
In the `my-clan` directory, run the following command:
```
nix develop
```
This will ensure the `clan` CLI tool is available in your shell environment.
To automatically add the `clan` CLI tool to your environment without having to
run `nix develop` every time, we recommend setting up [direnv](https://direnv.net/).
clan machines list
jon
sara
!!! success
You just successfully bootstrapped your first Clan.