flox

Flox Agentic Tools

This repository provides tools and integrations for AI agents to work with Flox, offering expert guidance and automation for Flox development environments, builds, services, and deployments.

Overview

This project includes specialized knowledge and tooling for Flox workflows, best practices, and patterns. It provides a comprehensive set of skills covering the entire Flox development lifecycle, from environment setup to production deployment, accessible through multiple AI agent platforms.

Components

Flox MCP Server

The Flox MCP (Model Context Protocol) server provides agents with direct access to Flox functionality through structured tool interfaces. It enables seamless environment management and workflow automation with better guardrails, since all environment management happens through MCP tool commands and does not require bash access.

The MCP server uses the stdio transport, so there's no service that runs—as long as flox-mcp is on your PATH, it will work.

Skills Library

The repository includes seven specialized skills, each focused on a specific aspect of Flox:

1. flox-environments

Manage reproducible development environments with Flox. This is the foundational skill that should be used first when creating any new project. Covers:

• Installing packages and managing dependencies
• Python, Node.js, and Go environment setup
• Environment configuration and secrets management
• Reproducible development workflows

2. flox-services

Running services and background processes in Flox environments. Covers:

• Service configuration and lifecycle management
• Network services (HTTP servers, databases, etc.)
• Logging and debugging patterns
• Service orchestration

3. flox-builds

Building and packaging applications with Flox. Covers:

• Manifest builds for quick iteration
• Nix expression builds for guaranteed reproducibility
• Sandbox modes and build isolation
• Multi-stage builds
• Packaging assets and artifacts

4. flox-containers

Containerizing Flox environments with Docker/Podman. Covers:

• Creating container images from Flox environments
• OCI exports
• Multi-stage container builds
• Deployment workflows

5. flox-publish

Publishing packages to Flox for distribution and sharing. Covers:

• Package publishing workflows
• Organization and personal namespace management
• Package versioning and distribution
• Sharing built packages across teams

6. flox-sharing

Sharing and composing Flox environments. Covers:

• Environment composition and layering
• Remote environments via FloxHub
• Team collaboration patterns
• Reusable environment stacks

7. flox-cuda

CUDA and GPU development with Flox (Linux only). Covers:

• NVIDIA CUDA toolkit setup
• GPU computing workflows
• Deep learning framework integration
• cuDNN configuration
• Cross-platform GPU/CPU development

Installation

Prerequisites

• Flox CLI installed and configured
• For GPU development: Linux system with NVIDIA GPU (aarch64-linux or x86_64-linux)

Install the Flox MCP Server

First, install the Flox MCP server package into an environment, ideally your default environment:

flox install flox/flox-mcp-server

Or you can make it available without installing by running the flox/flox-mcp-server remote environment:

flox activate -r flox/flox-mcp-server

Application-Specific Setup

Claude Code

The Flox plugin for Claude Code provides comprehensive Flox integration, including package management, environment composition, service orchestration, build system configuration, containerization, publishing, and CUDA support. The plugin includes both MCP server configuration and the Skills library as native Claude skills.

Install the Plugin:

From within Claude Code:

/plugin marketplace add flox/flox-agentic
/plugin install flox@flox-agentic

Or from the command line:

claude plugin marketplace add flox/flox-agentic
claude plugin install flox@flox-agentic

Configure MCP Server:

The plugin handles MCP server configuration automatically when used. You can also configure it manually:

# Per project:
claude mcp add flox -- flox-mcp

# Per user:
claude mcp add --scope user flox -- flox-mcp

Getting Started:

Once installed, the plugin automatically activates. Claude Code will use the appropriate skill based on your task:

• Creating a new project? The flox-environments skill activates first
• Setting up services? The flox-services skill provides guidance
• Building packages? The flox-builds skill helps with manifest or Nix builds
• Deploying containers? The flox-containers skill assists with containerization

Cursor

Make sure the MCP server is available (see "Install the Flox MCP Server" above), then add it to your MCP configuration file at ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "flox": {
      "command": "flox-mcp"
    }
  }
}