# nix-community/colmena

A simple, stateless NixOS deployment tool [maintainer=@zhaofengli, @stepbrobd, @NickCao]

Repository: https://github.com/nix-community/colmena
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/colmena
Homepage: https://colmena.cli.rs/
Language: Rust
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: nixos, nix, deployment
Last push: 2026-08-20T20:35:55+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 67/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 2086, "days_push": 13, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2326, forks 112 (observed 2026-08-28T04:06:37.471021+00:00)

## What it is
Colmena is a simple, stateless NixOS deployment tool written in Rust, modeled after NixOps and morph. It wraps Nix commands like nix-instantiate and nix-copy-closure to build and activate configurations on remote hosts in parallel, with support for Nix Flakes.

## Use cases
- deploy nixos configurations to multiple servers
- parallel remote deployment of nixos hosts
- replace nixops with a stateless deployment tool
- apply nix flake configurations to remote machines over ssh
- manage a fleet of nixos servers declaratively
- select hosts by tag when deploying nixos

## When to choose
- you manage multiple NixOS hosts and want declarative, parallel deployment without state files
- you already use Nix Flakes and want first-class flake support
- you want a lightweight wrapper over plain Nix commands instead of a heavyweight orchestrator

## When to avoid
- you need multi-cloud provisioning or resource creation, not just configuration deployment
- your servers do not run NixOS or Nix
- you need rollback orchestration or secrets management beyond what Nix provides

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: active
- function: deployment, configuration-management, cli, developer-tools
- domain: infrastructure-as-code, self-hosted
- platform: rust, cli
- tags: nixos, nix, declarative-deployment, ssh, flakes, remote-builds, devops, automation, linux, macos

## Member repositories
- nix-community/colmena (main) score 67

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:37.471021+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:38:15.554919+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/nix-community/colmena (fetched 2026-08-28T04:06:37.471021+00:00, sha 2e9fa829e104)
  - homepage: https://colmena.cli.rs/ (fetched 2026-08-29T10:18:39.693593+00:00, sha 3b5bd51574ab)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.