Delta for Nix

Run the official Delta Linux binaries on NixOS. This flake supports x86_64-linux and aarch64-linux. Delta itself is proprietary; public downloads do not change its license. See Zed's terms and the Delta Early Access Agreement.

Usage

nix run github:zed-industries/delta-nix
nix build github:zed-industries/delta-nix#delta

For a NixOS or Home Manager configuration, add this input to your flake:

inputs.delta.url = "github:zed-industries/delta-nix";
inputs.delta.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";

This shares the embedding flake's nixpkgs instead of using Delta's separate pin. On NixOS, use the input that supplies your system's graphics stack, including when installing Delta through standalone Home Manager. Delta loads host drivers from /run/opengl-driver; an older glibc in Delta's package can fail to load newer Mesa or LLVM libraries, causing GLIBC_… not found and No GPU adapters found at startup.

Then add inputs.delta.packages.${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}.delta to environment.systemPackages (NixOS) or home.packages (Home Manager), passing inputs into your modules as usual.

Releases and updates

Update your input with nix flake update delta, then rebuild your configuration. To select a particular release, pin the input to its tag:

inputs.delta.url = "github:zed-industries/delta-nix/v0.17.0";

A release tag pins both the package definition and the binary version.

For standalone builds from a local checkout, update this flake's nixpkgs input with nix flake update nixpkgs and rebuild when upgrading the host graphics stack. The follows declaration above handles this alignment when Delta is embedded in your system flake.

The package exposes delta as the CLI. For paired-binary releases, the desktop entry uses the wrapped CLI as delta open %U so deep-link URLs reach the application, including for legacy entries that launched delta-app directly. The separate app wrapper remains available; both wrappers receive the Nix runtime library paths and have Delta's built-in updater disabled. Older pinned releases with a single executable retain their original desktop arguments (such as cli open %U).