structuring your NX siiz configuration can be a very daunting task there's no Universal way to do things right and in the end every configuration will be unique but putting everything in one file is clearly not a good option and so today I will showcase a bunch of patterns you can use to make your configuration scalable and easy to maintain firstly let's take a look at the most simple modular configuration example it basically looks like something you would end up with after your first couple of days of using nxs here we have our configuration. ni Hardware configuration. n and a bunch of other modules in the N modules directory in a single host configuration like this we can simply import everything we need straight in the configuration. NX or in one of the other modules notice that modules in nyos are imported relative to each other which means that to import module 2 in module one we don't have to go any deeper into the directory structure since we only have one PC to manage in this example we don't really have to come up with any conditional logic and can just UT remove modules whenever we want but now let's take a look at a more complex setup here we have multiple machines so if we want to share some modules between them it would only make sense to keep them in a separate place like a n modules directory located in one of their parent directories once again NX modules are imported relative to each other so in this case all we have to do is add a bunch of double dots to go up the directory hierarchy we don't have to touch other modules because relative to each other they did not move there's nothing wrong with a structure like this and as long as you keep it simple you could keep adding more and more configurations and modules but you probably already noticed that importing a bunch of modules like this looks a bit messy and gets complicated once you start expanding your configuration one simple solution to this problem would be grouping all modules by purpose here I have an example with a bunch of desktop apps so a logical thing to do would be to put all of them into a desktop apps module now we only have to import this one module on every machine that needs desktop apps keeping your config nice and clean right wrong let's put it to the test and make two configurations for two different machines one for your workstation and one for your home computer you probably don't want to have Steam on your work machine but with a current config structure there is no way to just disable it meaning that we have to go and regroup everything in a different way which will only get more TDs as your config is expanding so what's the solution to this problem of course making your configs toggleable remember how many built-in NS modules come with an enable option well we can apply this exact pattern to our own custom nxo modules all we have to do is open one of the modules wrap all the options or module declares with a config attribute and include an options attribute in the same file the top part can now be used to define new NS options and the bottom part can be used to declare these or any other NS options next thing we want to do is include liand config in the parameter set at the top first one will provide us with some useful functions for manipulating our config and the second one can be used to access these or any other options values let's create a simple Boolean option with a lip. make enable option function and then use lip. make IF function to conditionally enable our entire module if this option is set to true in this example our option will be called module 1. enable but you can call it however you like this pattern can now be applied to all modules you want to make toggleable which is probably the first step you want to take to make your configuration scalable if we now import a module like this into our configuration. n we can easily enable or disable it with one simple line with an approach like this we can once again bundle a bunch of modules in a single parent module and then import it in our configuration. n allowing us to enable and disable its sub modules whenever you want and the best part is we can now use conditional logic to enable and disable these modules based on other NS options making your configuration that much more flexible we could even declare which modules should be enabled by default with a li that make default function like in this example where modules 1 and four are disabled by default and modules 2 and three are enabled these values can then be overridden in other nze modules talking about this leave. make default function if you ever tried to use it you have probably already noticed that it essentially allows you to declare options twice and that is because lip. make default is basically a li. makeover rate function with the first parameter filled in the make overrate function I'm talking about lets you assign priority to option values which is very useful if you have multiple modules declaring the same option options with lower values are prioritized meaning that in this example modu one will get enabled since makeover right 900 is stronger than makeover right 1,000 functions like make default make force and some other functions from lib are also basically just LSS for make override with some priority value already assigned it is good to know about them but make sure to be extra careful when working with lower values because nixo will not question your choice and you may end up with a system that misses essential components or even flood out refuses to roll back scary stories aside applying make force to your own options is generally pretty safe and in this example it would force module 2 to be disabled and now the moment you all have been waiting for let's finally use the techniques we learned throughout the video and come up with a structured NX has flake containing a bunch of n configurations the directory structure of such flake can look something like this at the top level we have our fake. n file host directory containing all of our hosts and a NS modules directory with the modules we want to share between our configurations to save yourself from having to import dozens of modules on every host later let's also create a default n module in nxs modules its only purpose will be importing all other modules we have here after making all modules in NS modules to Global and bundling them by their purpose the only thing we have left to do is finally passing the modules default module to all of your hosts your configuration. n files will then be able to enable modules they need finally making your system truly modular I advise you to create modules for every little part of your system but in the end the way you separate everything largely depends on your preference and the only way to find your style is to go in and get your hands dirty by the way everything we learned today can also be applied to home manager so you can go ahead and also make your home manager modules toggleable group them and hopefully end up with a structure that looks something like this your next step will be different depending on how you install home manager if you're using Standalone pass the home manager default module directly to your configuration like this and if you using home manager as a module we can expose the default module in our fak outputs and then take it from here in the nxs module that declares home manager there are multiple ways to do it but here is what I consider to be the simplest approach we first want to apply an add syntax to our parameter and pass it to all of our modules with special arcs then open EXs module that declares your home manager config include inputs in the parameter set at the top and finally pass the default module to all home manager modules your home manager config is now modular and now I would like to thank the sponsors of this video specifically Hoskin Bey aing b Ponder noty not uni Xavier Al Albert C pan debal M Shen zet workflow Zak beer Aila Bradley Davis zth Urban Zan glitched code anub Simon slim 5782 chai Borg Liam creamers Shori Suzuki and Anonymous donations I would also like to thank people who supported the channel previously and as usual don't forget to check out our Discord server leave a like or comment if you enjoy this video or subscribe if you are feeling extra generous thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one