I built a tool that lets you run any package from nixpkgs without having Nix installed on your system.
uvx nixwrap ripgrep --version uvx nixwrap jq --help uvx nixwrap bat README.md
How it works: 1. Queries nix-index-database to find packages 2. Fetches NARs from cache.nixos.org 3. Uses patchelf to fix binaries with hardcoded /nix/store paths 4. Runs via bundled ld-linux with the correct library path
There’s also a PEP 503 package index, so you can install tools via pip/uv:
uvx --index-url https://elohmeier.github.io/nixwrapfd --version
Requires Python 3.14+ (uses stdlib compression.zstd for zero external dependencies). Linux only for now.
Works great for simple CLI tools. Complex packages with hardcoded runtime paths (like neovim) have limitations.