Local Dev on Linux (Nix)

Prerequisites

• Nix Package Manager
• NodeJS (latest LTS version)
• Docker Engine
• Git

What is this?

This guide describes local development setup using Nix instead of Vagrant. This approach offers several advantages:

• Faster boot times without VM overhead
• Lower resource consumption
• Flexible configuration through nix/buildsteps.sh
• Improved reliability across Linux distributions

Getting Started

1. Install Nix and enable flakes support (configuration varies by distribution)
2. Clone the Pyrodactyl panel repository
3. Install dependencies: npm i
4. Build the application: npm run ship
   • This caches build results and uploads sourcemaps to Sentry
   • Subsequent builds are much faster if code hasn't changed
5. Create environment file: cp .env.nix .env
6. Initialize development environment: nix run
   • Completely Automated
   • Sets up Wings and required services
   • Configures databases and application
   • Takes approximately 15 minutes
7. Once you see "Pyrodactyl is now up and running at localhost:8000", access the application
8. Login using the credentials shown in your console

   ⚠️ Important: Always use localhost:8000, not 127.0.0.1, to avoid CORS issues!

9. Visit http://localhost:8000/admin to create your first server

Known Issues

Currently, Pterodactyl Wings has compatibility issues with the NixOS development environment. This limitation is temporary and will be addressed in future updates.