Nix Package Hunting on The Big Screen

By Emzy · 09/18/2025

Tuning in to nix-search-tv

Nix-search-tv is a terminal tool that allows you to fuzzy search through nix packages, nixos options and even home-manager. This guide will show you how to setup nix-search-tv with fzf/television integration.

Install Methods

Barebones

One way to install nix-search-tv is to add it to your system packages.

environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    nix-search-tv
];

Installing this way is very barebones and running nix-search-tv would only print out all nix packages. Nix-search-tv is meant to be adaptable so it doesn’t do the searching itself but rather integrates with other general purpose fuzzy finders, such as televsion and fzf. Next sections show how we can setup integration with televesion or fzf

Television Integration

If using home-manager. an option is already provided.

programs.nix-search-tv.enableTelevisionIntegration = true;

Otherwise, add nix.toml file to your television cables directory with the content below.

[metadata]
name = "nix"
requirements = ["nix-search-tv"]

[source]
command = "nix-search-tv print"

[preview]
command = "nix-search-tv preview {}"

And thats it :) you can now tune into nix-search-tv

Fzf Integration

A straightforward integration might look like

alias ns="nix-search-tv print | fzf --preview 'nix-search-tv preview {}' --scheme history"

But nix-search-tv already provides a more complete fzf integration script. It adds shortcuts along with the same search functionality. Lets see how we can use it.

pkgs.writeShellApplication {
  name = "ns";
  runtimeInputs = with pkgs; [
    fzf
    nix-search-tv
  ];
  text = builtins.readFile "${pkgs.nix-search-tv.src}/nixpkgs.sh";
}

Here we’re using the nix writer, writeShellApplication instead of the typical writeShellScriptBin as it allows us to specify runtime dependencies of the script, without this fzf would need to be installed in your config and in PATH.

That’s it

You can now enjoy the greatness of fuzzy search and avoid opening up your browser. Spread the gospel and stay safe :)
PS: both integrations are executable with ns