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fry69 @fry69.dev · 11/09/2026

I am not a nix fan (yet), but trynix.dev could change that. "Boot anything nixpkgs ever shipped, in your browser." It seems to be quite new, link to repo -> github.com/fzakaria/try...

trynix
Multiverse
Version ranges
Omniflake
GitHub

Boot any package nixpkgs ever shipped, in this tab. Pick a package and a version from 13 years of nixpkgs history; its closure is fetched from cache.nixos.org into an x86_64 Linux virtual machine (QEMU compiled to WebAssembly) and you get a shell with the package on PATH. Nothing runs on a server.

Try: hello · ripgrep and jq · python 3.6.2 from 2017 · jujutsu · two eras of hello at once · python 3.10 with openssl 1.1 · a patched hello from another cache · benchmark the emulator
Search packages Package specs Store path Caches
python3 3.6.2
✕

Add to the running VM
or start over in a fresh VM

Packages added to a running VM appear in the shell straight away; the most recently added one wins when two provide the same command. A command the shell has already run once is remembered at its old path until hash -r.
Boot
closure walk
16 paths
signatures
16 verified
qemu engine
13 MiB
guest image
3.7 MiB
snapshot
31 MiB
closure
19 MiB
virtual machine
running
ttyS0 ghostty

~ # python3 --version
Python 3.6.2
~ #

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fry69 @fry69.dev · 11/09/2026

h/t @simonwillison.net -> simonwillison.net/2026/Sep/10/...

Any Nix package, live in your browser (via) Farid Zakaria calls this his "magnum opus of Nix work", and I can see why.

trynix.dev provides a qemu-wasm powered x86_64 Linux virtual machine running entirely in your browser through WebAssembly. That VM can then be booted with any Nix package from the past 13 years. They are URL addressable, so you can navigate to this page:

https://trynix.dev/?pkg=python3%403.6.2

Then click "Load" and get an interactive shell against a virtual machine running Python 3.6.2 from 2017.

Farid is building all sorts of neat things on top of this. One recent example: Review a pull request by booting it introduces trynix-preview, described like this:

GitHub action that comments a link on a pull request which lets you boot the PR’s build in the browser using https://trynix.dev. No servers, just browsers.

Posted 10th September 2026 at 11:44 pm

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