nix-shorturl-plugin

A Nix plugin that lets you define custom short URL schemes for flake references.

For example, myorg:mylib can expand to github:my-organization/mylib.

How it works

The plugin registers a custom InputScheme that intercepts URL resolution. When Nix encounters a URL like myorg:mylib, the plugin:

Matches myorg against your configured schemes
Expands the template (e.g., github:my-organization/{path} becomes github:my-organization/mylib)
Delegates to the built-in scheme (e.g., the GitHub fetcher)

Lock files store the real resolved type (e.g., type = "github"), not type = "shorturl". This means lock files work on machines that don't have the plugin installed.

Installation

nix build github:yourusername/nix-shorturl-plugin

Then add to your Nix configuration (~/.config/nix/nix.conf):

plugin-files = /path/to/result/lib/nix/plugins/libnix-shorturl-plugin.so

Or use it ad-hoc:

nix --option plugin-files ./result/lib/nix/plugins/libnix-shorturl-plugin.so flake metadata myorg:mylib

Configuration

Create ~/.config/nix/shorturl.json (or set NIX_SHORTURL_CONFIG):

{
  "schemes": {
    "myorg": {
      "template": "github:my-organization/{path}"
    },
    "internal": {
      "template": "git+ssh://git.internal.corp/{path}"
    },
    "gl": {
      "template": "gitlab:mycompany/{path}"
    }
  }
}

Template syntax

{path} is replaced with everything after the colon in the short URL
Query parameters and fragments from the original URL are passed through

Examples

Short URL	Expanded URL
`myorg:mylib`	`github:my-organization/mylib`
`myorg:libs/mylib?ref=develop`	`github:my-organization/libs/mylib?ref=develop`
`gl:project`	`gitlab:mycompany/project`

Config path resolution

NIX_SHORTURL_CONFIG environment variable
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/nix/shorturl.json
~/.config/nix/shorturl.json

Development

nix develop
meson setup build
ninja -C build

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