Developer Guides

Developer Guides

Welcome to the Ghaf Framework developer guides. These guides cover common development tasks and best practices.

Getting Started

Guide	Description
Writing Modules	How to write NixOS modules for Ghaf
Creating VMs	How to create new VM types
Adding Features	How to add hardware features
Extending Targets	How to customize existing targets

Downstream Development

Guide	Description
Downstream Setup	Setting up a downstream project
Migration Guide	Migrating from legacy patterns

Quick Links

For Ghaf Core Developers

If you’re contributing to the main Ghaf repository:

1. Writing Modules - Learn the module conventions
2. Adding Features - Add new hardware features
3. Creating VMs - Create new VM types

For Downstream Developers

If you’re building a product based on Ghaf:

1. Downstream Setup - Start here
2. Extending Targets - Customize configurations
3. Migration Guide - If upgrading from legacy patterns

Architecture Reference

Before diving into the guides, review the architecture documentation:

• Architecture Overview - System design
• VM Composition - How VMs are built
• Config Propagation - globalConfig/hostConfig
• Anti-Patterns - What to avoid

Library API Reference

When you need specific function documentation:

• VM Helpers - lib.ghaf.vm.* functions
• Features API - lib.ghaf.features.* functions
• Profiles API - lib.ghaf.profiles.* reference