How to get one package from nix unstable?

I ended up working this out. For anyone viewing this ticket in the future, do the following:

  1. Add nixpkgs-unstable.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable"; to one’s inputs
  2. Add nixos-unstable to the arguments of outputs.
  3. Pass nixos-unstable to any import statements below where you need it.
  4. Add nixos-unstable to the argument list of any imported files where you have added the nixos-unstable argument.

That will then generate an entry in flake.nix the next time you run things. You can then manually edit the commit pin if you like.