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Version: 2.0.0

Using the Nixhub API

The Nixhub API lets you search over 1 million package versions for over 100,000 Nix packages. You can use the Nixhub API to search for packages, resolve historic versions, and then install them using Devbox or Nix. Nixhub is designed to be simple and easy to use, and is free to use for personal use.

Nixhub is a RESTful API that uses standard HTTP methods and status codes. Parameters are passed to the API as query parameters, and the API returns JSON responses. The current version does not make use of pagination, though this may be added in the future.

The API is available for free for personal use, subject to rate limiting. If you need a higher rate limit or wish to use Devbox for a commercial project, you can request access to our paid tier.

Endpoints​

Nixhub exposes the following endpoints for searching and resolving packages:

  • v2/search - Search for packages by name
  • v2/pkg - Get details and version history for a specific package
  • v2/resolve - Resolve a package name and version to a nixpkgs commit and attribute path.

Rate Limits​

In order to prevent abuse, personal use of the API is subject to rate limits. API Rate limiting works as follows:

  1. A given IP address starts with a pool of 1000 requests
  2. Each request decrements the pool by 1
  3. The pool is replenished at a rate of 5 requests per minute

If the pool is empty, the API will return a 429 Too Many Requests status code.

tip

If you have a use case that requires a higher rate limit or would like to use the API for commercial purposes, please fill out this form to request access.

Nixhub for Enterprise​

Nixhub provides an index of publicly available packages from the Nixpkgs repository. If you're interested in using Nixhub to index and install private packages or Flakes for your team, we'd love to chat with you. You can request a meeting with our team

Versioning​

The API is versioned using a v2 prefix in the URL. All v2 endpoints are considered stable and will not change in a backwards-incompatible way. Breaking changes will be introduced in a new version of the API, with a new version prefix.

API Reference​