// services & runtime //

managing long-running processes inside nix2gpu containers.

// overview //

nix2gpu uses Nimi, a tiny process manager for NixOS modular services (Nix 25.11). Define services under services.<name> and nix2gpu will build an OCI image with Nimi as the entrypoint.

No extra flake inputs are required to enable services.

// defining services //

using existing modular services

services."ghostunnel" = {
  imports = [ pkgs.ghostunnel.services ];
  ghostunnel = {
    listen = "0.0.0.0:443";
    cert = "/root/service-cert.pem";
    key = "/root/service-key.pem";
    disableAuthentication = true;
    target = "backend:80";
    unsafeTarget = true;
  };
};

a minimal custom service

services."hello" = {
  process.argv = [
    (lib.getExe pkgs.bash)
    "-lc"
    "echo hello from Nimi"
  ];
};

For a full custom module example, see defining custom services.

// runtime behavior //

When the container starts, Nimi runs the nix2gpu startup hook and then launches all configured services. You can still drop into a shell for debugging with:

$ docker run -it --entrypoint bash my-container:latest

// restart policies //

Nimi controls service restarts. Tune it with nimiSettings.restart:

nimiSettings.restart = {
  mode = "up-to-count"; # never | up-to-count | always
  time = 2000;           # delay in ms
  count = 3;             # max restarts when using up-to-count
};

// logging //

Logs always stream to stdout/stderr for docker logs. You can also enable per-service log files:

nimiSettings.logging = {
  enable = true;
  logsDir = "nimi_logs";
};

At runtime, Nimi creates a logs-<n> directory under logsDir and writes one file per service.

Modular services can provide config files via configData. Nimi exposes these files under a temporary directory and sets XDG_CONFIG_HOME for the service. This lets services read configs from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/<path> without writing to the Nix store.

See nix2gpu service modules like services/comfyui.nix for real-world usage.

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