: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`.

Add Clan CLI to Your Shell

Add the Clan CLI into your environment:

nix shell git+https://git.clan.lol/clan/clan-core#clan-cli --refresh

clan --help

Should print the avilable commands.

Also checkout the cli-reference documentation.

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 a flake.nix and some other files for your project.

Explore the Project Structure

Take a lookg at all project files:

cd my-clan
tree

For example, you might see something like:

.
├── flake.nix
├── machines/
├── modules/
└── README.md

Don’t worry if your output looks different—the template evolves over time.

??? 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

If you see no output yet, that’s expected — add machines to populate it.

Next Steps

You can continue with any of the following steps at your own pace:

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