Writing your own jobs¶

This page fills in some gaps from the Quick start so you can start making your own workflows, jobs, and steps.

Where does now.nix go?¶

now run looks for a now.nix file in the current directory. now init creates it there. If your workflow lives somewhere else, point now at it with --workflow:

now run --workflow path/to/now.nix

Or if you're using a flake:

now run --flake path/to/flake#now

Writing your own jobs¶

Open the now.nix that now init created (or find the now output that you added to your flake). The part you'll change most is the run string, which contains the script that gets run by a shell:

{
  jobs.my-second-job = { pkgs, ... }: {
    steps = [
      {
        run = ''
          echo "Do your thing here"
        '';
      }
    ];
  };
}

Run it with:

now run my-second-job

What is pkgs?¶

Your job function automatically receives a pkgs argument, populated with an instance of <nixpkgs>. You can add packages to a step's PATH:

{
  jobs.build-docs = { pkgs, ... }: {
    steps = [
      {
        path = [ pkgs.zola ];
        run = "zola build";
      }
    ];
  };
}

Or you can run your script on an entirely different shell.

{
  jobs.countdown = { pkgs, ... }: {
    steps = [
      {
        shell = pkgs.nushell;
        run = ''
          for i in 10..1 {
            print $"(ansi green)($i)!(ansi reset)"
            sleep 1sec
          }
          'Liftoff!' | ansi gradient -F rainbow
        '';
      }
    ];
  };
}

Two ways to write a job¶

A job can be a plain attribute set (for steps that only need bash), or a function that receives pkgs:

{
  jobs.hello-plain = {
    steps = [ { run = "echo hi"; } ];
  };

  jobs.hello-function = { pkgs, ... }: {
    steps = [ { path = [ pkgs.hello ]; run = "hello"; } ];
  };
}

Checking your workflow¶

Before running, you can check that your workflow is valid:

now list           # list the available jobs
now eval           # print the workflow as JSON
now run --dry-run  # see the jobs flow without actually running any steps

Guide¶

Read on to the Configuration guide for advanced usage.