# What Is Nix

DevFeed: [What Is Nix](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/what-is-nix-1674.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://shopify.engineering/what-is-nix>)

Author: Burke Libbey

Published: 2020-05-19T17:37:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Shopify Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/shopify-engineering.md>), [Shopify Engineering - Shopify Engineering](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/shopify-engineering-shopify-engineering.md>)

Topics: [developer tooling](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/developer-tooling.md>)

Tags: [article](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/article.md>), [developer-tooling](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/developer-tooling.md>), [technology](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/technology.md>)

## AI overview

An introductory crash course on Nix, explaining its explicit dependency graph and core concepts including the Nix Store, derivations, sandboxing, and the Nix language.

## Source excerpt

This article is going to be a crash course in what Nix is, how to think about it, and why it's such a valuable and paradigm-shifting piece of technology.