🔧 FloxEnvs: Ready-to-Use Dev Environments

A collection of useful Flox environments that just work. Pick an environment, activate it, and get to work—no complex setup, no dependency conflicts, no hermetic isolation in Docker containers or VMs.

⚡ What's This?

This repo contains pre-configured Flox environments for common development stacks. Each environment:

• Runs consistently across macOS and Linux
• Includes smart defaults that don't get in your way
• Works out of the box with sensible configurations
• Offers both interactive (wizard-driven) and headless (automation-friendly) variants for many tools

🎯 Understanding Interactive vs Headless Environments

Many environments in this collection come in two variants to support different workflows:

Interactive Environments

Perfect for local development and learning:

• 🧙 Interactive configuration wizards guide you through setup
• 🎨 Rich terminal UI using gum for a friendly experience
• 📚 Great for learning - explains options as you configure
• 🔧 Flexible - easily reconfigure by re-running wizards

Best for: Local development, first-time users, learning, exploration

Headless Environments

Perfect for automation and CI/CD:

• ⚙️ Environment variable configuration - no interactive prompts
• 🤖 Scriptable and automatable - perfect for CI/CD pipelines
• 🚀 Zero interaction required - sensible defaults that just work
• 📦 Container-friendly - no TTY required

Best for: Docker containers, CI/CD pipelines, automated scripts, production deployments

How to Choose

Environments marked with ⚡ have both variants available:

• Choose the base name (e.g., postgres) for automation and scripting (headless, no interaction required)
• Choose the -local variant (e.g., postgres-local) for interactive wizard-driven setup

Example:

# Headless - configure via environment variables, no interaction
cd postgres && PGPORT=5432 PGDATABASE=mydb flox activate -s

# Interactive - wizard guides you through configuration
cd postgres-local && flox activate

📦 Available Environments

CLI & Development Tools

• awscli - AWS CLI v2 with encrypted credential storage (keyring/file)
• aws-1pass - AWS CLI v2 with 1Password integration
• ghcli - GitHub CLI with encrypted credential storage (keyring/file)
• xplatform-cli-tools - AWS CLI, GitHub CLI, and Git with 1Password integration

Databases ⚡

• postgres / postgres-local - PostgreSQL 16 with PostGIS extension
• mysql / mysql-local - MySQL 8.0 database
• mariadb / mariadb-local - MariaDB database
• redis / redis-local - Redis in-memory data store
• neo4j / neo4j-local - Neo4j graph database

Data Analytics & BI

• postgres-metabase - PostgreSQL + Metabase BI platform
• harlequin-postgres - PostgreSQL + Harlequin terminal-based SQL IDE

Distributed Computing & Streaming ⚡

• spark / spark-local - Apache Spark cluster computing
• kafka / kafka-local - Apache Kafka streaming platform
• karapace - Schema Registry & REST Proxy for Apache Kafka (Confluent API compatible, composable with kafka environments)

Container Runtime & Orchestration ⚡

• colima - Docker-compatible container runtime (alternative to Docker Desktop)
• kind / kind-local - Kubernetes in Docker with essential K8s tools

Web Servers & Reverse Proxies ⚡

• nginx / nginx-local - nginx reverse proxy with port/path-based routing and WebSocket support (interactive wizard) or multi-mode server with SSL, rate limiting, caching, and security features (headless)

CI/CD & Automation

• jenkins - Jenkins CI/CD server with JCasC and Kubernetes agent support (headless, automation-ready)
• jenkins-full-stack - Production Jenkins with nginx reverse proxy (WebSocket, gzip, SSL, rate limiting)

Workflow Orchestration

• airflow-local-dev - Apache Airflow 3.1.1 with LocalExecutor, CeleryExecutor, and KubernetesExecutor
• airflow-k8s-executor - Airflow Kubernetes executor with RBAC and pod templates
• airflow-stack - Enterprise Airflow stack with production-grade PostgreSQL, Redis, and Kubernetes
• dagster - Dagster 1.12.0 orchestration platform with optional PostgreSQL support (headless, composable)
• prefect - Prefect 3.5.0 orchestration platform with optional PostgreSQL support (headless, composable)
• temporal - Temporal 1.29.1 orchestration platform with optional PostgreSQL support (headless, composable)
• temporal-ui - Temporal UI v2.43.3 web interface for monitoring and managing Temporal workflows
• n8n / n8n-local - n8n workflow automation with PostgreSQL, Redis, and queue mode ⚡
• nodered / nodered-local - Node-RED low-code programming for IoT and event-driven apps ⚡

Data Science & Notebooks ⚡

• jupyterlab / jupyterlab-local - JupyterLab notebook environment

Python Development

• python310 - Python 3.10 with smart venv management
• python311 - Python 3.11 with smart venv management
• python312 - Python 3.12 with smart venv management
• python313 - Python 3.13 with smart venv management
• python-postgres - Python 3.12 with PostgreSQL tools and SQLAlchemy

AI & Machine Learning

• comfyui - ComfyUI node-based AI image generation with CUDA/Metal support, model downloads, and custom node dependencies
• ollama - Ollama LLM runtime with CUDA support (headless, composable)
• open-webui - Web UI for Ollama (includes ollama)
• wsl2-ollama - Ollama LLM runtime optimized for WSL2

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

1. Install Flox
2. Clone this repo

   git clone https://github.com/barstoolbluz/floxenvs
   cd floxenvs

Quick Start Examples

For local development (interactive):

cd postgres-local
flox activate
# Follow the interactive wizard to configure PostgreSQL

For CI/CD or automation (headless):

cd postgres
PGPORT=5432 PGDATABASE=mydb flox activate -s
# Starts immediately with your configuration

For basic activation:

cd python312
flox activate
# Python 3.12 environment ready to use

General Usage

1. Navigate to the environment you want to use

   cd floxenvs/postgres

2. Activate the environment

   flox activate

3. To start any services in the environment automatically at activation:

   flox activate -s

🔍 How It Works

Each directory contains:

• A manifest.toml file in ./.flox/env/ that defines the environment
• A README with specific instructions for that environment

Flox uses declarative configuration to create reproducible environments with:

• Specific package versions
• Built-in environment variables
• Built-in service management capabilities
• Activation hooks that configure environments or perform other tasks on startup

💻 System Requirements

• Works on macOS (Intel/ARM) and Linux (x86/ARM)
• Flox installed
• About 50GB free disk space for all environments

🔄 Contributing

Want to add a new environment? Create a PR with:

1. A new directory for your environment
2. A complete Flox environment with manifest.toml and manifest.lock files located in .flox/env/
3. A README following our template
4. For service-based environments, consider providing both interactive and headless variants

🔗 Key Features of Flox

Flox builds on Nix to provide:

• Declarative environments - Software, variables, services defined in TOML
• Content-addressed storage - Multiple package versions coexist without conflicts
• Reproducibility - Same environment across dev, CI, and production
• Deterministic builds - Same inputs always produce identical outputs
• Huge package collection - Access to 150,000+ packages from Nixpkgs

📝 License

MIT

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