Installation & Setup

This chapter shows the required setup and the standard project entry points.

Prerequisites

Hull requires Nix with Flakes enabled.

1. Install Nix

Install Nix by following https://nixos.org/download/.

2. Enable Flakes

Enable Flakes in the Nix configuration file.

The location of this file depends on your system:

• On NixOS: /etc/nixos/configuration.nix
• On Linux (multi-user install) or macOS: ~/.config/nix/nix.conf (you may need to create the file and directory).

Add the following lines to your configuration file:

experimental-features = nix-command flakes

Restart the Nix daemon if required.

sudo systemctl restart nix-daemon

Verify the setup with:

nix flake --version

Creating a New Problem

Use the Hull template to create a project.

Creating a New Project Directory

To create a problem in a directory, use nix flake init inside that directory.

# Initialize this directory from the basic Hull template
nix flake init -t github:rindag-devs/hull#basic

Initializing an Existing Directory

If you already have an empty directory where you want to set up your problem, you can initialize it directly.

mkdir myProblem
cd myProblem
nix flake init -t github:rindag-devs/hull#basic

Entering the Development Environment

Enter the development shell:

cd myProblem
nix develop

Inside this shell:

• The hull command-line interface (CLI) is available in your PATH.
• All necessary compilers (e.g., wasm32-wasi-wasip1-clang++) and tools are ready to use.
• Environment variables are set up for seamless integration with libraries like cplib.

Run Hull commands inside this shell.