Rooms

Rooms are pre-configured module bundles. Enable one room and dozens of modules activate with sensible defaults. Each room includes the one below it — rooms form a dependency chain.

room.basis
 ├─ room.general
 ├─ room.server-mini → room.server
 ├─ room.container
 └─ room.desktop.basis
      └─ room.desktop.general
           ├─ room.desktop.dev
           ├─ room.desktop.game
           └─ room.desktop.wsl

How Rooms Work

Rooms are available for NixOS, home-manager, and nix-darwin. Each room auto-enables its dependency chain — enable desktop.dev and you get all of basis → general → desktop.basis → desktop.general → desktop.dev.

All sub-module enables use lib.mkDefault, so you can override any individual module:

cattery.room.desktop.dev.enable = true;
# Still get everything except the stuff you opt out of:
cattery.apps.jetbrains.enable = false;
cattery.desktop.plasma.enable = false;

NixOS Rooms

room.basis — Essential System

The foundation. Every other room builds on this.

Enables: mtr, nix-ld, cron, openssh, locale, network, time, kernel, nix, cli-apps.openssh, ulimit

cattery.room.basis.enable = true;

room.general — Everyday System

Basis + boot setup.

Enables: basis + boot.efi

cattery.room.general.enable = true;

room.server-mini — Lightweight Server

Basis + cloud-friendly additions.

Enables: basis + cloud-init, qemu-guest, acme

cattery.room.server-mini.enable = true;
cattery.room.server-mini.qemu-guest.enable = true;   # optional
cattery.room.server-mini.cloud-init.enable = true;   # optional

room.server — Full Server

Basis + server-mini with passthrough options.

Enables: basis + server-mini (inherits qemu-guest/cloud-init passthrough)

cattery.room.server = {
  enable = true;
  qemu-guest.enable = true;
  cloud-init.enable = true;
};

room.container — Container Host

Basis optimized for containers.

Enables: basis + acme, boot.isContainer = true

cattery.room.container.enable = true;

room.desktop.basis — Desktop Base

Basis + display foundation.

Enables: basis + automount, fcitx5, wireless, peripherals, chromium-support, fido2, fonts

cattery.room.desktop.basis.enable = true;

room.desktop.general — Full Desktop

Desktop basis + boot.

Enables: desktop.basis + boot.efi

cattery.room.desktop.general.enable = true;

room.desktop.dev — Developer Desktop

Full desktop + dev tools. The most common room for developers.

Enables: desktop.general + yubikey, docker, vscode-server, binfmt (aarch64 emulation)

Also sets security.sudo.wheelNeedsPassword = false (passwordless sudo).

cattery.room.desktop.dev.enable = true;

room.desktop.game — Gaming Desktop

Full desktop + gaming.

Enables: desktop.general + steam

Also sets security.sudo.wheelNeedsPassword = false.

cattery.room.desktop.game.enable = true;

room.desktop.wsl — WSL Desktop

Desktop basis + WSL integration.

Enables: desktop.basis + wsl

Also sets security.sudo.wheelNeedsPassword = false.

cattery.room.desktop.wsl.enable = true;

Home-Manager Rooms

room.basis

Essential CLI tools.

Enables: git, nix (dev-kit), gh, home-manager, nix-index

cattery.room.basis.enable = true;

room.general

Basis + everyday shell tools.

Enables: basis + atuin, direnv, starship, powershell, http-utils, monitoring, network, compressor, useful (aliases), tldr, misc, yazi, disk, misc(linux)

cattery.room.general.enable = true;

room.game

Basis + gaming-oriented apps. Standalone (not in the desktop chain).

Enables: basis + vscode, zed-editor, instant-messengers, video (visual + youtube), apps.game (Linux), iina (Darwin)

cattery.room.game.enable = true;

room.server-mini

Basis + prompt.

Enables: basis + starship

room.server

General + server-mini + acme-sh.

room.container

Basis + starship + acme-sh.

room.desktop.basis

General + GUI apps.

Enables: general + apps.graphics, apps.useful, desktop.xdg

room.desktop.general

Desktop basis + editors + browser.

Enables: desktop.basis + wezterm, vscode, zed-editor, browser

room.desktop.dev

Full developer setup — IDEs, databases, all dev kits, cloud tools.

Enables: desktop.general + instant-messengers, jetbrains, code-cursor, sqlite, dev-kits (optional via allDevKit), cloud, kubernetes, gnupg, ollama, thunderbird(linux), science(linux), video(linux), cloudflared(linux), warp(linux), iina(darwin), android(darwin)

cattery.room.desktop.dev = {
  enable = true;
  allDevKit = true;   # enable all dev-kits
};

room.desktop.game

Desktop general + gaming.

Enables: desktop.general + instant-messengers, game

room.desktop.wsl

Desktop basis only.

Darwin Rooms

room.basis

macOS essentials.

Enables: brew, system.sudoTouch, system.useful, nix, cli-apps.openssh, system.fonts, system.ulimit (openFilesLimit=4096)

room.desktop.dev

Basis + fido2.

Enables: basis + cli-apps.security.fido2

Customizing Rooms

All rooms use lib.mkDefault for sub-module enables. Your explicit config always wins:

cattery.room.desktop.dev.enable = true;
 
# Disable individual modules from the room:
cattery.desktop.hyprland.enable = false;
cattery.desktop.niri.enable = true;           # prefer niri
cattery.apps.jetbrains.enable = false;         # prefer neovim
cattery.cli-apps.shell.fish.enable = false;    # prefer zsh
cattery.cli-apps.shell.zsh.enable = true;

Composing Multiple Rooms

You can enable multiple rooms simultaneously (later rooms override defaults from earlier ones):

cattery = {
  room.desktop.dev.enable = true;    # gets developer tools
  room.desktop.game.enable = true;   # adds steam + gaming
};

Room vs Individual Modules

You can mix both — start with a room, then disable or add individual modules as needed.