NixHub - API

[Malix-Labs]

Problem

Using NixHub from the terminal

Solution

An API for NixHub

Alternatives

• Replicating NixHub algorithm / Open Sourcing NixHub (see NixHub - Open Sourcing #2827)
• Keep using the web version of NixHub

[jameswarren]

The jetify docs cover the Nixhub API: https://www.jetify.com/docs/nixhub

I had to do a little digging to find the base URL for the endpoints, but otherwise it works as described:

> curl -s -H "Accept: application/json" https://search.devbox.sh/v2/pkg\?name\=emacs | jq | head -n 20
{
  "name": "emacs",
  "summary": "Extensible, customizable GNU text editor",
  "homepage_url": "https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/",
  "license": "GPL-3.0-or-later",
  "releases": [
    {
      "version": "30.2",
      "last_updated": "2026-06-27T07:37:20Z",
      "platforms": [
        {
          "arch": "x86-64",
          "os": "Linux",
          "system": "x86_64-linux",
          "attribute_path": "emacs",
          "commit_hash": "3d46470bb3030020f7e1361f33514854f5bfa86d",
          "date": "2026-06-27T07:37:20Z",
          "outputs": [
            {
              "name": "out",
...

[Malix-Labs]

Cool, thanks!

I'll let the issue stay open so they can hopefully see it and add that link somewhere

[Malix-Labs]

Workaround : use https://github.com/fzakaria/nixpkgs-multiverse

[mikeland73]

Triage: looks easy, p3

A public API already exists. It is the same one the devbox CLI uses (the host can be overridden with DEVBOX_SEARCH_HOST, internal/envir/env.go:18):

curl -s 'https://search.devbox.sh/v2/pkg?name=sshm' | jq .name          # "sshm"
curl -s 'https://search.devbox.sh/v2/resolve?name=nodejs&version=22' | jq .version

https://www.jetify.com/docs/nixhub describes the endpoints, but the page I fetched doesn't clearly state the base URL (https://search.devbox.sh), which is what the reporter hit. devbox search <pkg> also covers the terminal use case.

Suggested fix: add the base URL and a curl example to the Nixhub API docs, and maybe link to it from nixhub.io.

---

Generated by Claude Code