Effects

Beyond building the software, it is useful to effect change "in the real world". Steps like deployment have characteristics that Nix’s derivations are not intended for. To support tasks like these, Hercules CI provides an Effects feature, which lets you write Nix expressions that specify what to do when the build succeeds.

effect attributes
Dashboard links to a successful derivation and effect run

Effects do run in a custom sandbox that, unlike normal derivations, gives access to:

  • the Nix store, without the restrictions of the Nix build sandbox

  • the network

  • locally configured secrets

  • the Hercules CI state files API

Secrets are configured locally on your agent machines, so you don’t have to entrust us with your cloud credentials.

The Hercules CI state file API helps with preserving essential information from one effect run to the next. For example, it can be used for the NixOps state or maintaining the SSH known_hosts. State files can be accessed through the dashboard in your project’s State tab, through the hci state command, or with the API.

Limitations

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