REFERENCE / GLOSSARY
Glossary
Flox and Nix terms to use correctly in front of a customer. Each entry is one sentence with its source beside it. Where a term is Nix vocabulary that Flox’s docs only use in passing, the entry says so.
This page is drawn from https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/environments, https://flox.dev/docs/man/manifest.toml, https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/generations, https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/activation, https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/package-groups, https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/packages-and-catalog, https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/floxhub, https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/composition, https://flox.dev/docs/man/flox-containerize, https://flox.dev/docs/imageless-kubernetes/intro, https://github.com/flox/flox-skills and the Flox docs index.
Environments and files
| Term | Meaning | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Environment | A shell that provides environment variables, software packages and activation scripts, layered on top of your existing system. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/environments |
| Path environment | An environment stored in a local .flox directory, created with flox init and shareable through version control. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/environments |
| Centrally managed environment | An environment stored on FloxHub, created by running flox push on a path environment. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/environments |
| Manifest | The TOML file manifest.toml that declares an environment; edit it with flox edit. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/environments |
| Lockfile | manifest.lock, a snapshot of the exact package versions and dependencies built and activated, managed by Flox. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/environments |
| Generation | A version number of an environment on FloxHub, incremented by any command that modifies it. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/generations |
Manifest sections
| Term | Meaning | Source |
|---|---|---|
[install] | The table that lists the packages in the environment. | https://flox.dev/docs/man/manifest.toml |
| pkg-path | A package’s location in the catalog, such as ripgrep or python310Packages.pip. | https://flox.dev/docs/man/manifest.toml |
| Package group | A set of packages that all resolve against the same nixpkgs commit, used to isolate version or ABI conflicts. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/package-groups |
| Stability | A per-group setting that filters which builds a package may resolve to and limits how often the group updates. | https://flox.dev/docs/man/manifest.toml, https://flox.dev/docs/man/flox-upgrade |
| Hook | The [hook] on-activate script, sourced from bash during activation, for setup that later scripts depend on. | https://flox.dev/docs/man/manifest.toml |
| Profile | The [profile] scripts sourced by your own shell, for aliases and prompt settings. | https://flox.dev/docs/man/manifest.toml |
| Service | A long-running program defined in [services] with a command, managed by flox services. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/services |
| Include | The [include] table that merges other environments into this one, with the composing manifest taking highest priority. | https://flox.dev/docs/man/manifest.toml |
| Composition | Building an environment from reusable included environments rather than recreating it per project. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/composition |
Running
| Term | Meaning | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Activation | Configuring a shell with the manifest’s packages and variables, as a subshell, in place, via -c, or by exec. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/activation |
| Auto-activation | Activating an environment on cd into a directory with a .flox subdirectory, on by default. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/auto-activation |
| Containerize | flox containerize, which exports an environment as a container image. | https://flox.dev/docs/man/flox-containerize |
| Imageless Kubernetes | Running Kubernetes pods backed by Flox environments rather than container images. | https://flox.dev/docs/imageless-kubernetes/intro |
| containerd shim | containerd-shim-flox-v2, which intercepts the container configuration to prepare the environment. | https://flox.dev/docs/imageless-kubernetes/tech |
Catalog and FloxHub
| Term | Meaning | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Catalog | A collection of package artifacts and associated metadata consumed through an environment. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/packages-and-catalog |
| Base Catalog | The Flox-maintained catalog generated from a fork of nixpkgs, updated on an automated schedule. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/base-catalog |
| Catalog revision | A snapshot of the catalog’s packages at one nixpkgs commit. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/package-groups |
| FloxHub | The cloud service for sharing environments, at hub.flox.dev. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/floxhub |
| Organization | A shared FloxHub workspace with a private catalog and roles Owner, Writer and Reader; a paid Teams feature. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/organizations |
| Service account | An org-owned automation identity whose tokens begin with flox_sat_. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/service-accounts |
| Personal access token | A flox_pat_ token that signs the CLI in as you where a browser flow cannot run. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/personal-access-tokens |
| Manifest build | A build defined in [build] using familiar commands, with a reasonable level of reproducibility. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/builds |
| Nix expression build | A build written as a .nix file under .flox/pkgs/, for truly reproducible builds. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/builds |
Nix terms you will hear
| Term | Meaning | Source |
|---|---|---|
| nixpkgs | The community-maintained package collection the Base Catalog is built from. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/packages-and-catalog |
| Store path | A hash-addressed /nix/store/... location; manifest.lock records one per package output. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/environments |
| Closure | The transitive closure, the complete set of a package’s dependencies, which flox publish uploads with the package. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/publishing, https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/manifest-builds |
| Derivation | A Nix build unit, shown as .drv store paths when a Nix expression build prints “these 2 derivations will be built”. | https://flox.dev/docs/concepts/nix-expression-builds |
| Flake | Flox accepts a flake descriptor to install software from an arbitrary Nix flake. | https://flox.dev/docs/man/manifest.toml |
Agents
| Term | Meaning | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Skill | Agent skills are what the Flox Skills repository ships to teach AI coding agents how to use Flox. | https://github.com/flox/flox-skills |
floxify | The skill that onboards an existing repo by writing .flox/env/manifest.toml. | https://github.com/flox/flox-skills |
flox-debug | The skill that diagnoses why the catalog resolver will not give the build you expected. | https://github.com/flox/flox-skills |