Nix Flake error: path '/nix/store/--/flake.nix' does not exist

I’ve noticed a ‘path _ does not exist’ quirk when copying the flake.nix file from one project to another

I thought that I could replicate the nix-flake defined environment of one folder(project) by copying flake.nix and .envrc into a new folder. When I do that, I’m asked to run direnv allow on the new folder, but then something weird happens; you’ll get an error like this:

direnv: loading ~/proj/project-name/.envrc
direnv: using flake .
error: path '/nix/store/0cc..nm8-source/flake.nix' does not exist

AI fails miserably when offering debugging help, telling me to rm -rf .direnv then run direnv reload.

Those commands don’t work because the nix flake or direnv looks for some folders whose names are derived from certain hash values in the .git folder

As it doesn’t work, AI will enter its death loop, where it tells you to do the same thing over and over.

It turns out, the solution is simple: git add flake.nix

If the flake-defined direnv has a .git/ folder, then the flake.nix file needs to be staged/committed.

I delved into some other scenarios that didn’t end up being consistent, but in the end, the problem is caused when the flake.nix file is not staged/committed. When the directory is not a git project, things work as expected.