nixpkgs
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nixpkgs is the official package collection and module set for Nix and NixOS. It is a single large repository holding tens of thousands of package derivations, the NixOS module system, and the standard library (lib) used to build and configure everything.
Structure
• pkgs/ — package derivations, organised by category and exposed through a top-level attribute set
• nixos/ — the NixOS modules, options, and tests
• lib/ — the Nix standard library helpers (lib.mkIf, lib.mapAttrs, …)
• maintainers/ — maintainer list and team definitions
Channels
nixpkgs is released through channels — named pointers (e.g. nixos-unstable, nixos-25.11) to revisions that have passed CI. With flakes the same revisions are pinned via the nixpkgs input in flake.lock instead of channels.