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+## Run your own Nixery
+
+<!-- markdown-toc start - Don't edit this section. Run M-x markdown-toc-refresh-toc -->
+
+- [0. Prerequisites](#0-prerequisites)
+- [1. Choose a package set](#1-choose-a-package-set)
+- [2. Build Nixery itself](#2-build-nixery-itself)
+- [3. Prepare configuration](#3-prepare-configuration)
+- [4. Deploy Nixery](#4-deploy-nixery)
+- [5. Productionise](#5-productionise)
+
+<!-- markdown-toc end -->
+
+
+---------
+
+⚠ This page is still under construction! ⚠
+
+--------
+
+Running your own Nixery is not difficult, but requires some setup. Follow the
+steps below to get up & running.
+
+*Note:* Nixery can be run inside of a [GKE][] cluster, providing a local service
+from which images can be requested. Documentation for how to set this up is
+forthcoming, please see [nixery#4][].
+
+## 0. Prerequisites
+
+To run Nixery, you must have:
+
+* [Nix][] (to build Nixery itself)
+* Somewhere to run it (your own server, Google AppEngine, a Kubernetes cluster,
+  whatever!)
+* *Either* a [Google Cloud Storage][gcs] bucket in which to store & serve layers,
+  *or* a comfortable amount of disk space
+
+Note that while the main Nixery process is a server written in Go,
+it invokes a script that itself relies on Nix to be available.
+You can compile the main Nixery daemon without Nix, but it won't
+work without Nix.
+
+(If you are completely new to Nix and don't know how to get
+started, check the [Nix installation documentation][nixinstall].)
+
+## 1. Choose a package set
+
+When running your own Nixery you need to decide which package set you want to
+serve. By default, Nixery builds packages from a recent NixOS channel which
+ensures that most packages are cached upstream and no expensive builds need to
+be performed for trivial things.
+
+However if you are running a private Nixery, chances are high that you intend to
+use it with your own packages. There are three options available:
+
+1. Specify an upstream Nix/NixOS channel[^1], such as `nixos-20.09` or
+   `nixos-unstable`.
+2. Specify your own git-repository with a custom package set[^2]. This makes it
+   possible to pull different tags, branches or commits by modifying the image
+   tag.
+3. Specify a local file path containing a Nix package set. Where this comes from
+   or what it contains is up to you.
+
+## 2. Build Nixery itself
+
+### 2.1. With a container image
+
+The easiest way to run Nixery is to build a container image.
+This section assumes that the container runtime used is Docker,
+please modify instructions accordingly if
+you are using something else.
+
+With a working Nix installation, building Nixery is done by invoking `nix-build
+-A nixery-image` from a checkout of the [Nixery repository][repo].
+
+This will create a `result`-symlink which points to a tarball containing the
+image. In Docker, this tarball can be loaded by using `docker load -i result`.
+
+### 2.2. Without a container image
+
+*This method might be more convenient if you intend to work on
+the code of the Nixery server itself, because you won't have to
+rebuild (and reload) an image each time to test your changes.*
+
+You will need to run the two following commands at the root of the repo:
+
+* `go build` to build the `nixery` binary;
+* `nix-env --install --file prepare-image/default.nix` to build
+  the required helpers.
+
+## 3. Prepare configuration
+
+Nixery is configured via environment variables.
+
+You must set *all* of these:
+
+* `NIXERY_STORAGE_BACKEND` (must be set to `gcs` or `filesystem`)
+* `PORT`: HTTP port on which Nixery should listen
+* `WEB_DIR`: directory containing static files (see below)
+
+You must set *one* of these:
+
+* `NIXERY_CHANNEL`: The name of a [Nix/NixOS channel][nixchannel] to use for building,
+  for instance `nixos-21.05`
+* `NIXERY_PKGS_REPO`: URL of a git repository containing a package set (uses
+  locally configured SSH/git credentials)
+* `NIXERY_PKGS_PATH`: A local filesystem path containing a Nix package set to use
+  for building
+
+If `NIXERY_STORAGE_BACKEND` is set to `filesystem`, then `STORAGE_PATH`
+must be set to the directory that will hold the registry blobs.
+That directory must be located on a filesystem that supports extended
+attributes (which means that on most systems, `/tmp` won't work).
+
+If `NIXERY_STORAGE_BACKEND` is set to `gcs`, then `GCS_BUCKET`
+must be set to the [Google Cloud Storage][gcs] bucket that will be
+used to store & serve image layers.
+
+You may set *all* of these:
+
+* `NIX_TIMEOUT`: Number of seconds that any Nix builder is allowed to run
+  (defaults to 60)
+
+To authenticate to the configured GCS bucket, Nixery uses Google's [Application
+Default Credentials][ADC]. Depending on your environment this may require
+additional configuration.
+
+If the `GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS` environment is configured, the service
+account's private key will be used to create [signed URLs for
+layers][signed-urls].
+
+## 4. Start Nixery
+
+Run the image that was built in step 2.1 with all the environment variables
+mentioned above. Alternatively, set all the environment variables and run
+the Nixery server that was built in step 2.2.
+
+Once Nixery is running you can immediately start requesting images from it.
+
+## 5. Productionise
+
+(⚠ Here be dragons! ⚠)
+
+Nixery is still an early project and has not yet been deployed in any production
+environments and some caveats apply.
+
+Notably, Nixery currently does not support any authentication methods, so anyone
+with network access to the registry can retrieve images.
+
+Running a Nixery inside of a fenced-off environment (such as internal to a
+Kubernetes cluster) should be fine, but you should consider to do all of the
+following:
+
+* Issue a TLS certificate for the hostname you are assigning to Nixery. In fact,
+  Docker will refuse to pull images from registries that do not use TLS (with
+  the exception of `.local` domains).
+* Configure signed GCS URLs to avoid having to make your bucket world-readable.
+* Configure request timeouts for Nixery if you have your own web server in front
+  of it. This will be natively supported by Nixery in the future.
+
+## 6. `WEB_DIR`
+
+All the URLs accessed by Docker registry clients start with `/v2/`.
+This means that it is possible to serve a static website from Nixery
+itself (as long as you don't want to serve anything starting with `/v2`).
+This is how, for instance, https://nixery.dev shows the website for Nixery,
+while it is also possible to e.g. `docker pull nixery.dev/shell`.
+
+When running Nixery, you must set the `WEB_DIR` environment variable.
+When Nixery receives requests that don't look like registry requests,
+it tries to serve them using files in the directory indicated by `WEB_DIR`.
+If the directory doesn't exist, Nixery will run fine but serve 404.
+
+-------
+
+[^1]: Nixery will not work with Nix channels older than `nixos-19.03`.
+
+[^2]: This documentation will be updated with instructions on how to best set up
+    a custom Nix repository. Nixery expects custom package sets to be a superset
+    of `nixpkgs`, as it uses `lib` and other features from `nixpkgs`
+    extensively.
+
+[GKE]: https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/
+[nixery#4]: https://github.com/tazjin/nixery/issues/4
+[Nix]: https://nixos.org/nix
+[gcs]: https://cloud.google.com/storage/
+[repo]: https://github.com/tazjin/nixery
+[signed-urls]: under-the-hood.html#5-image-layers-are-requested
+[ADC]: https://cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/production#finding_credentials_automatically
+[nixinstall]: https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/installation/installing-binary.html
+[nixchannel]: https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Nix_channels