cargoxx

A Cargo-style frontend for modern C++ that uses Nix as the dependency source of truth and generates CMake for the build. Users author projects with C++23 modules and never touch CMake or flake.nix by hand.

Status: M6. Self-hosting (cargoxx builds itself from Cargoxx.toml). Full auto-resolver chain (Conan / vcpkg / nix-config / CMake FindModule / pkg-config / brute-force fallback). Pre-v0.1; CLI is stable but the on-disk linkdb schema is not.

See SPEC.md for the user-facing contract and TECH_SPEC.md for the implementation.

What it does

cargoxx new myapp        # scaffold Cargoxx.toml + src/main.cpp
cd myapp
cargoxx add fmt          # resolve fmt → write recipe to ~/.cache/cargoxx/linkdb.sqlite,
                         # pin nixpkgs rev into Cargoxx.lock
cargoxx build            # generate build/CMakeLists.txt + flake.nix,
                         # then `nix develop -c cmake --build`
cargoxx run              # build + exec
cargoxx test             # build + ctest

The user never touches build/CMakeLists.txt or flake.nix. Both are regenerated from Cargoxx.toml on every build.

How dependency resolution works

cargoxx add <pkg> (and cargoxx build on a missing dep) walks a probe chain. The first probe whose verify-link build succeeds wins; its recipe is confirmed in the SQLite overlay.

#	Probe	Source
1	conan-center-index	exact + Levenshtein fuzzy ≤ ⌈len/4⌉
2	microsoft/vcpkg ports	exact + Levenshtein fuzzy
3	nix-probe	`<X>Config.cmake` under `pkgs.<pkg>.dev`
4	cmake-findmodule	CMake's bundled `Find*.cmake`
5	pkg-config	`<X>.pc` under `pkgs.<pkg>.dev/lib/pkgconfig`
6	brute-force	every `lib/lib*.{a,so,dylib}` + `include/`

Package names match nixpkgs/devbox. Conan/vcpkg fuzzy match is internal only — the user-typed name is preserved end-to-end in the manifest, lockfile, and linkdb key.

Debugging a failed `cargoxx add`

Every probe's verify-link scratch project is preserved under ~/.cache/cargoxx/last-failure/<pkg>/<NN>-<probe>/. Re-run cmake inside any subdir to reproduce, or just inspect the generated flake.nix and build/CMakeLists.txt.

~/.cache/cargoxx/last-failure/sqlite/
  01-vcpkg/              # vcpkg fuzzy candidate, failed
  02-cmake-findmodule/   # FindSQLite3 candidate, won

Building from source

cargoxx is self-hosted, so the bootstrap path requires an existing cargoxx binary (release artifact or one built from a prior commit) plus a Nix toolchain.

nix develop
cargoxx build             # regenerate build/CMakeLists.txt + root flake.nix
cmake -S build -B build/debug -G Ninja
cmake --build build/debug

The dev shell ships pkgs.gcc15Stdenv (g++ 15, libstdc++, with import std; via bits/std.cc). cmake/ninja are also injected.

On a clean clone with an empty ~/.cache/cargoxx/linkdb.sqlite, cargoxx build auto-resolves all three of cargoxx's own deps (sqlite, reproc, catch2_3) on first invocation.

Manifest

[package]
name = "myapp"
version = "0.1.0"
edition = "cpp23"

[dependencies]
fmt = "10.2"
sqlite = "*"

[dev-dependencies]
catch2_3 = "*"

[build]
warnings_as_errors = true
include_dirs = ["third_party"]
sanitizers = ["address"]

See SPEC.md §4 for the full schema.

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