Nix templates

The Nix flake template NativeLink ships — Local Remote Execution with Bazel in one flake init command.

NativeLink ships a Nix flake template that wires a Bazel project to Local Remote Execution in one command. Useful for experimenting with LRE, demoing the system, or debugging a regression on a known-good baseline.

Prerequisites

Nix with flakes enabled. The next-gen installer is the easiest path.
About 5 GB of disk space for the toolchain on first run.

Available templates

nix flake show github:TraceMachina/nativelink

This command is the source of truth

Templates get added and removed between releases. Run the command above rather than trusting a hardcoded list — including the one below, which only reflects what's shipping as of this page's last update.

Template	What it gives you
`bazel`	A Bazel `cc_binary` project pre-wired for Local Remote Execution: Nix-pinned toolchain, LRE Bazel module, and a `user.bazelrc` you point at a cache and executor.

The Bazel template

mkdir my-rbe-test && cd my-rbe-test
nix flake init -t github:TraceMachina/nativelink#bazel
nix develop

nix develop downloads the Nix-pinned toolchain and generates lre.bazelrc, which the template's .bazelrc already try-imports. It does not bundle a NativeLink server — you point it at one you already have:

# In user.bazelrc
build --remote_cache=grpcs://TODO
build --bes_backend=grpcs://TODO
build --remote_timeout=600
build --remote_executor=grpcs://TODO

Three ways to fill in TODO — Local Remote Execution → Point user.bazelrc at a real cache and executor has a worked, filled-in example of the file below, whichever option you pick:

dev.nativelink.com — paste your cloud credentials, use grpcs://.
A self-hosted cluster — your own endpoint, grpcs:// if it terminates TLS.
Nothing but your own machine — drop the s, point both remote_cache and remote_executor at grpc://127.0.0.1:50051. Local cache and executor gets you a from-scratch, credential-free instance in one command — enough to validate remote_cache, though the included C++ example's lre-cc platform still needs a worker running the matching container image to actually execute (see Local Remote Execution for what that involves).

Then build the included example:

bazel build hello-world

Re-run; the cached actions should skip straight to a cache hit.

Not shipped as flake templates today

Earlier drafts of this page also described cargo, lre, and kubernetes templates. None exist in flake.nix right now — running nix flake init -t github:TraceMachina/nativelink#lre (or #cargo, #kubernetes) fails with does not provide attribute 'templates.X'. If you followed a link here looking for one of those:

A local Bazel cluster with no Nix at all — Local cache and executor starts CAS, AC, a scheduler, and a worker in one nativelink process.
A real Kubernetes deployment — Deployment → Kubernetes covers the Helm chart directly; kind + that chart gets you the same result a kubernetes template would have.
Cargo / sccache — not currently packaged as a template; the bazel template above is the maintained path.

Customising

The template is a flake — fork and edit. The most common modifications:

Point user.bazelrc at your real cluster instead of a throwaway one.
Add custom worker platform properties in platforms/BUILD.bazel.
Pin to a specific NativeLink commit (inputs.nativelink.url in flake.nix, kept in sync with the local-remote-execution module override in MODULE.bazel).

What's next

Local Remote Execution — this same template, walked through step by step and tested for real.
Local cache and executor — the fastest way to get something running on 127.0.0.1 to point this template at.
Explanations → LRE — what the toolchain pinning this template sets up actually buys you.
Architecture — the data flow this template exercises.
Configuration → Basic — the JSON5 shape a server you point this at should speak.