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gitea-axi/INSTALL.md
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feat(nix): expose declarative outputs and a home-manager module (task 0045)
Let a Nix configuration declare gitea-axi's ambient context instead of
running a command that writes it. `setup` and `setup hooks` are write-only
against files the operator is assumed to own, so an operator whose agent
configuration is generated cannot use them at all.

The package installs the bundled Agent Skill to share/gitea-axi/skills and
publishes it as `passthru.skill`, alongside `passthru.sessionStartHook` read
from `session-start-hook.json` — a committed declaration the fast tier reads
too, so a test drives `setup hooks` and asserts the two agree.

On top of that, `homeModules.gitea-axi` declares both from those attributes
through home-manager's own Claude Code options, so an operator's existing
skills and SessionStart hooks compose rather than collide. Importing it
without enabling it yields a byte-identical generation.

The spec's Out of Scope entry deferring a home-manager module is deleted;
ADR 0020 records the reversal, and INSTALL.md describes both paths.
2026-07-20 13:51:19 -04:00

5.2 KiB

Installing gitea-axi

gitea-axi is a CLI plus two pieces of ambient context it installs for your agent:

  • an Agent Skill, which teaches the agent to reach for gitea-axi instead of tea, raw API calls, or improvised git;
  • a SessionStart hook, which renders the repository dashboard at the start of every agent session.

Installing the binary and installing that context are separate steps, and the second one has two paths. Which path you want depends on who owns ~/.claude.

Installing the binary

npm

npm install -g gitea-axi

Nothing has been published to the registry yet, so this works only once the first release lands — see PUBLISHING.md. Until then, the Nix path below and a local npm pack are the working ones.

Nix

The flake exposes the package as packages.<system>.gitea-axi, with default as an alias.

nix run git+https://git.alexion.dev/alexion/gitea-axi -- --help

To install it from a system configuration, add the flake as an input and put gitea-axi.packages.${system}.default in environment.systemPackages. Point the flake's nixpkgs input at your own to deduplicate.

gitea-axi shells out to git and to tea — the latter for credential discovery, per ADR 0001. The Nix package wraps the binary so both are reachable without your installing them, while still preferring your own where you have them (ADR 0018).

Installing the ambient context

The setup command, if you own your agent configuration

gitea-axi setup         # the Agent Skill
gitea-axi setup hooks   # and the SessionStart hook

Both are idempotent, and there is no postinstall script — installation is always explicit (ADR 0009). setup hooks covers three agents: Claude Code, Codex, and OpenCode.

This is the right path when the files under ~/.claude (and ~/.codex, and ~/.config/opencode) are yours to write.

The home-manager module, if your configuration owns them

If your agent configuration is generated declaratively, setup cannot write to it — the targets are read-only, and gitea-axi reports that rather than failing obscurely. Use the module instead (ADR 0020).

{
  inputs.gitea-axi.url = "git+https://git.alexion.dev/alexion/gitea-axi";
  inputs.gitea-axi.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
}
{
  imports = [ inputs.gitea-axi.homeModules.default ];

  programs.claude-code.enable = true;
  programs.gitea-axi.enable = true;
}

That installs the package, declares the Agent Skill, and registers the SessionStart hook. Importing the module without setting enable changes nothing at all.

It declares both pieces through programs.claude-code's own options, so a configuration that already sets programs.claude-code.skills or its own settings.hooks.SessionStart gets gitea-axi's merged in alongside rather than colliding with it. That module must be enabled; if it is not, the declarations would be silently dropped, so this is an assertion failure instead.

Two requirements on the surrounding configuration:

  • Your home-manager must be recent enough to have programs.claude-code.skills.
  • You must be using the attribute-set form of that option, skills.<name> = .... Home-manager also accepts a single path there, standing for a whole skills directory, and that form takes over the option outright — a configuration using it cannot have gitea-axi's skill merged in, and gets a type-merge error rather than composition. Switch to the attribute-set form, or set programs.gitea-axi.skill.enable = false and place the Skill in your own directory.

Options

Option Default Meaning
programs.gitea-axi.enable false Switches everything below on.
programs.gitea-axi.package your pkgs' build of the package The package to install, or null to install nothing.
programs.gitea-axi.skill.enable true Declare the Agent Skill.
programs.gitea-axi.sessionStartHook.enable true Declare the SessionStart hook.

package = null is the documented way to declare the context without installing the binary — for instance when you install gitea-axi system-wide through environment.systemPackages. The hook records the bare name gitea-axi and lets PATH resolve it (ADR 0019), so a binary installed anywhere on PATH satisfies it.

The two toggles let you mix the paths: turn one off and write that piece with setup while the module manages the other.

What the module does not cover

Only the Claude Code integration is declarative. The Codex and OpenCode files that setup hooks also writes have no home-manager module owning them, so gitea-axi does not write them declaratively either. On a declarative system those targets are unmanaged and therefore writable, so gitea-axi setup hooks still installs them.

Verifying an install

gitea-axi --help
gitea-axi            # the dashboard, from inside a Gitea repository

A SessionStart hook takes effect on the next agent session, not the current one.