Experiment: Using Determinate + nix-darwin in a way where nix-darwin doesn't manage Nix at all

.gitignore

@@ -2,3 +2,4 @@ result*
 
 # Test artifacts
 tests/flake.lock
+.direnv

flake.nix

@@ -216,6 +216,7 @@
         };
       };
 
+      darwinModules.unmanaged = ./modules/nix-darwin-unmanaged.nix;
 
       nixosModules.default = { lib, pkgs, config, ... }: {
         imports = [

modules/nix-darwin-unmanaged.nix

@@ -0,0 +1,75 @@
+{ lib, ... }: {
+  # Disable some modules that conflict with determinate-nixd.
+  disabledModules = [
+    # Wants to add an outdated Nix to the environment, manage nix.conf, manage the
+    # NIX_PATH, manage the Nix build users and group
+    "nix"
+
+    # Wants to configure various Nix settings that want to write to nix.conf
+    "nix/linux-builder.nix"
+
+    # Wants to configure NIX_PATH
+    "nix/nixpkgs-flake.nix"
+
+    # Wants to add to nix.conf
+    "services/hercules-ci-agent"
+
+    # Wants to configure the nix-daemon launchd unit, but determinate-nixd has its own
+    "services/nix-daemon.nix"
+  ];
+
+  ### Setup bogus options so that some things still work as expected.
+
+  # determinate-nixd manages the Nix daemon.
+  options.nix.useDaemon = lib.mkOption {
+    type = lib.types.bool;
+    default = true;
+    internal = true;
+  };
+
+  # Necessary for darwin-rebuild, etc. tools.
+  # https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/blob/55d07816a0944f06a9df5ef174999a72fa4060c7/pkgs/nix-tools/default.nix#L8
+  options.nix.package = lib.mkOption {
+    type = lib.types.package;
+    default = {
+      type = "derivation";
+      outPath = "/nix/var/nix/profiles/default";
+    };
+    internal = true;
+  };
+
+  # Necessary system/checks
+  # https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/blob/a35b08d09efda83625bef267eb24347b446c80b8/modules/system/checks.nix#L350
+  options.nix.configureBuildUsers = lib.mkOption {
+    type = lib.types.bool;
+    default = false;
+    internal = true;
+  };
+
+  # Unconditionally set in the nix-darwin flake[1], but we disable the nixpkgs-flake
+  # module[2] since it would interfere with determinate-nixd.
+  # [1]: https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/blob/55d07816a0944f06a9df5ef174999a72fa4060c7/flake.nix#L36
+  # [2]: https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/blob/55d07816a0944f06a9df5ef174999a72fa4060c7/modules/nix/nixpkgs-flake.nix
+  options.nixpkgs.flake = lib.mkOption {
+    internal = true;
+  };
+
+  ### Modify config settings to prevent darwin-rebuild errors caused by determinate-nixd
+  ### doing things differently.
+
+  # Disable the activation script that attempts to reload the nix-daemon on config change
+  # -- it does it by name (org.nixos.nix-daemon) which is wrong for us, and
+  # determinate-nixd manages the nix.conf and can make decisions about reloading /
+  # restarting when it needs to[1][2].
+  # [1]: https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/blob/55d07816a0944f06a9df5ef174999a72fa4060c7/modules/nix/default.nix#L827-L836
+  # [2]: https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/blob/55d07816a0944f06a9df5ef174999a72fa4060c7/modules/system/activation-scripts.nix#L67
+  config.system.activationScripts.nix-daemon.text = "";
+
+  # determinate-nixd does not support nix-channels. Thus, don't try to verify them[1][2].
+  # [1]: https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/blob/55d07816a0944f06a9df5ef174999a72fa4060c7/modules/system/checks.nix#L321C5-L325
+  # [2]: https://github.com/LnL7/nix-darwin/blob/55d07816a0944f06a9df5ef174999a72fa4060c7/modules/system/checks.nix#L158-L175
+  config.system.checks.verifyNixChannels = false;
+
+  # Determinate.pkg can handle fixing build users itself.
+  config.system.checks.verifyBuildUsers = false;
+}

tests/flake.nix

@@ -38,5 +38,16 @@
         }
       ];
     }).system;
+
+    checks.aarch64-darwin.nix-darwin-unmanaged = (nix-darwin.lib.darwinSystem {
+      system = "aarch64-darwin";
+
+      modules = [
+        determinate.darwinModules.unmanaged
+        {
+          system.stateVersion = 5;
+        }
+      ];
+    }).system;
   };
 }