How do I properly export host configuration so consumer can extend it?

[Admasnd]

I have a public and private repo for my dendritic based nix configuration. For the public repo, I have aspects defined for my hosts (one host defines a user that has an associated aspect). I would like the private repo to be able to import my aspects and my den.hosts option definitions as well as extend the host and user aspects so that that the nixos systems are instantiated from configuration from both repos.

I think you import (den.namespace "name" inputs.dotfiles), which should then set the namespace as a module argument for consuming repo, but I am not sure on whether this is correct.
I am not sure at all how to carry forward den.hosts options but I think I need to do something with flake.flakeModule.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and attention.

[vic]

I am not sure on whether this is correct

you are correct, however we currently have a bug precisely on sharing aspects across repositories (where deeply nested aspects are not merged correctly, see flake-aspects#18 and #113 ) if you don't need to re-use deeply nested aspects it should work.

how to carry forward den.hosts options

interesting, den.hosts are intended for final configurations (the flake that consumes other aspects and setups hosts), It never come to my mind sharing host definitions, but it is possible, at some extent now because these den.hosts.* can have base modules (see #119 tests) to configure them, so you could probably expose those modules via flake.modules.den-host.<name> or something like that.

{ inputs, ... }
{
  den.hosts.x86_64-linux.my-laptop = { };

  # this example reads from self, but could be another input.
  den.base.host.imports = [ inputs.self.modules.den-host.shared ];
  
  flake.modules.den-host.shared = {
    options.foo = lib.mkOption { default = "bar"; };
  };

  # then aspects can use `host.foo`
}

[vic]

Is there some sort of transformation that occurs to aspects when exported through namespaces?

nop. there's no transformation, or at least there should not be any transformation, see this test that is still in on flake-aspects#25 PR.

[vic]

I've just merged flake-aspects#25 after current den tests succeed.

error: expected a Boolean but found a list:

this error was present in den examples tests apparently introduced by this change which was not merged.

[vic]

Ok, flake-aspects now has checks that we can merge aspects from remote flakes as if they were defined locally. Can you try with latest flake-aspects ? I've updated in den #125 and we have green tests. Now I'll rebase theirs branch which tests using den namespaces.

[vic]

I'm somewhat confused by what you are trying to achieve.

admasnd.iso = den.lib.parametric den.aspects.iso;

This is basically config.den.ful.admasnd.iso = parametric den.aspects.iso
Why have den.aspects.iso at all ?

Then flake.denful.admasnd = config.den.ful.admasnd; because the namespace is flake-output.

On the consumer flake:

den.aspects.iso.includes = [ (den.lib.parametric inputs.dotfiles.denful.admasnd.iso) ];

this re-creates den.aspects.iso on the consumer. I'm wondering why you need it to be named den.aspects.iso

---

if producer has:

{ inputs, ... }:
{
  imports = [ (inputs.den.namespace "ns" true) ];
  ns.foo = {
    nixos = ...; 
  };
}

and consumer:

{ ns, inputs, ... }:
{
  imports = [ (inputs.den.namespace "ns" inputs.producer) ];
  
  den.hosts.x86_64-linux.my-laptop.includes = [ ns.foo ]; # use `ns.foo` just as if it was local
}

[Admasnd]

My goal is to define the iso host in my public repo while simultaneously exporting my iso aspect so that I can extend its configuration in a private repo. With the latest den and flake-aspects update, I am able to do this using the pattern you describe. Thank you so much for your assistance!