Install nickel with Homebrew, apk, Nix, pacman

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• nickel

Project history

Tweag's October 22, 2020 open-sourcing post framed Nickel as the answer to what the Nix language might look like if separated from the Nix package manager and improved with experience from the Nix community. The repository rationale says Nickel originated as an effort to detach the Nix expression language from the package manager while adding typing and improving modularity.

Nickel 1.0 was announced on May 17, 2023. A February 19, 2026 Tweag retrospective says Nickel 1.0 shipped in May 2023 and that subsequent releases added algebraic data types, richer pattern matching, field punning, let blocks, contract improvements, `nickel test`, JSON/YAML/TOML interop improvements, package management, and expanded binary distribution.

Adoption history

Nickel sits in the configuration-language niche alongside Nix, CUE, Dhall, Jsonnet, Starlark, and Pkl. The upstream README lists ecosystem projects for Kubernetes contracts, Terraform-Nickel, Bazel rules, JSON Schema conversion, editor tooling, and the Nickel language server.

Homebrew analytics on July 1, 2026 reported 244 install-on-request events over 365 days, so Homebrew adoption is modest. The broader adoption signal is stronger in Nix/Tweag-adjacent infrastructure work, where the project is useful as a standalone configuration language and as a way to generate or validate existing config formats.

How it is used

Users install the `nickel` binary, evaluate `.ncl` files with `nickel eval`, export to formats such as JSON/YAML/TOML, open a REPL, query field metadata, or use contracts as runtime schemas. Package nerds are especially interested in Nickel because it tries to keep Nix-like expressiveness while making schemas, validation, and editor feedback first-class.

The package also matters as a library and tooling surface: the 2026 retrospective mentions Python bindings, C and Go bindings, a stable Rust API, package management through `Nickel-pkg.ncl`, and up-to-date packages in nixpkgs, Arch Linux, and Homebrew.

Timeline

• {'date': '2020-10-22', 'event': 'Tweag published the Nickel open-sourcing announcement.'}
• {'date': '2023-05-17', 'event': 'Nickel 1.0 release announced.'}
• {'date': '2026-02-19', 'event': 'Tweag published a post summarizing Nickel changes since 1.0.'}
• {'date': '2026-07-01', 'event': 'Homebrew API listed stable version 1.17.0.'}

Related projects

• Nix
• CUE
• Dhall
• Jsonnet
• Starlark
• Pkl
• nickel-kubernetes
• Terraform-Nickel
• rules_nickel

Sources

• https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nickel-1-0-release/28252
• https://formulae.brew.sh/api/formula/nickel.json
• https://github.com/nickel-lang/nickel
• https://github.com/tweag/nickel/blob/master/RATIONALE.md
• https://www.tweag.io/blog/2020-10-22-nickel-open-sourcing/
• https://www.tweag.io/blog/2026-02-19-nickel-since-1-0/