Digga / Hive¶
Overview¶
Digga and Hive (divnix) are flake layout / collector tools for organizing hosts and module-system apps in a repo. They are not a network mesh, not Clan’s mesh VPN, and not Colmena’s deploy “hive.” See Name collisions below.
Digga (divnix/digga) was a flake utility library for shell, Home Manager, and NixOS hosts in one repository (DevOS lineage; built on flake-utils-plus). As of mid-2023 maintainers marked it deprecated and unmaintained. Verified 2026-07: the GitHub repo is not archived (archived: false), but the README forbids new use.
Hive (divnix/hive) is a separate divnix project for “module system applications” (NixOS, nix-darwin, Home Manager, …). It is not a Digga rewrite. It sits on std / Paisano (cells, block types) and collects configs for upstream tools rather than Digga’s monolithic mkFlake API. Docs are intentionally thin.
For greenfield flakes, prefer flake-parts, Snowfall, or Blueprint and others—not Digga.
Details¶
Name collisions¶
| Name | What it is | Wiki |
|---|---|---|
| Digga / Hive (this page) | Flake organization / std collectors for hosts and modules | Here |
| Colmena hive | Attrset of deployable NixOS nodes for hub → hosts SSH deploy | Colmena |
| Clan mesh | Overlay/VPN and peer networking among inventory machines | Clan and mesh |
| Machine mesh (concept) | Interconnected Nix devices + inter-trust axes—not a flake layout name | Machine mesh |
Hive collectors may feed a Colmena hive; that wiring does not make Digga/Hive a mesh or Colmena’s hive the same project.
Digga (legacy)¶
Public surface centered on lib.mkFlake: channels/overlays, NixOS hosts, Home Manager users, and devshell setups. Layout vocabulary:
- Modules — reusable options/implementation without fixing system state
- Profiles — concrete settings in a domain
- Suites — aggregations of profiles
Maintainers later called that surface hard to keep correct; see Ending digga (#503) (2023). Suggested exits: flake-parts, std, raw nixosSystem / deploy tooling—no single successor.
| Fact | Digga (as of 2026-07) |
|---|---|
| Org / repo | divnix/digga |
| GitHub archived? | No |
| Maintainer stance | Deprecated; “not recommended for any sort of use case” (README) |
| Last push (API) | 2024-05-17 |
| Handoff | Offered in #503; no active steward assumed |
Hive (related, different model)¶
Same problem space (hosts / module-based systems), different shape: Paisano/std cells, haumea loading, collectors such as hive.collect that can feed Colmena. Modules / profiles / suites appear as block types, not Digga’s exporter.
Verified 2026-07: divnix/hive is also not GitHub-archived; commits appear occasionally. README points at source and Matrix (#hive-std-nix:matrix.org), not a full manual. Niche std-adjacent kit—not “the Digga rewrite.”
Examples¶
Historical Digga flake inspection only—do not start new configs from Digga templates:
# Historical only — Digga is deprecated (repo not archived)
nix flake show github:divnix/digga
# Template / examples lived under examples/devos in that repo
Typical Digga exit path (sketch; not Digga-specific):
# flake-parts + explicit nixosConfigurations
outputs = inputs@{ flake-parts, nixpkgs, ... }:
flake-parts.lib.mkFlake { inherit inputs; } {
systems = [ "x86_64-linux" ];
flake.nixosConfigurations.example = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
system = "x86_64-linux";
modules = [ ./hosts/example ];
};
};
For Hive, read community flakes that wire divnix/hive with std (e.g. configs linked from Digga #503), not a Digga-style guide.
See also¶
- Machine mesh — interconnect / trust concept; not this Hive
- Clan and mesh — Clan mesh VPN vs hive naming
- Colmena — deploy hive attrset; different “Hive”
- std / Paisano
- flake-parts
- Snowfall
- Blueprint and others
References¶
- divnix/digga — source; README deprecation; not GitHub-archived (verified 2026-07)
- Ending digga (#503) — deprecation rationale and alternatives
- Digga site (historical): digga.divnix.com
- divnix/hive — Hive source; not Digga; not archived (verified 2026-07)
- Related stack: divnix/std, paisano-nix/core