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May 5, 2026 · View on GitHub

⚛️ Helium Browser Nix Flake

🔒 Private, fast, and honest web browser based on Chromium
📦 Packaged as a Nix flake with NixOS module, Home Manager module, and overlay support

🌐 helium.computer · 📦 Helium Source · ⬇️ Releases · 📦 This Flake

🌐 English · Русский · 中文

✨ How it Works

This flake does NOT build Helium from source. Instead, it:

📥 Downloads pre-built .deb packages from imputnet/helium-linux releases
📦 Extracts the .deb using dpkg and ar
🔧 Patches the ELF binaries with patchelf to use Nix libraries
🎁 Wraps the browser with wrapGAppsHook for proper GTK/desktop integration
📝 Installs desktop files and icons for system integration

This approach is similar to how Vivaldi and Brave are packaged in nixpkgs.

🎯 Features

✅ NixOS Module - Declarative system-wide configuration with programs.helium
✅ Home Manager Module - User-level configuration
✅ Overlay - Expose pkgs.helium in your Nixpkgs instance
✅ Flags Support - Declarative command-line flags via programs.helium.flags
✅ Policies Support - Full Chrome Enterprise policy support via /etc/chromium/policies/managed/
✅ Multi-Arch - Supports both x86_64-linux and aarch64-linux
✅ Wayland Ready - Includes --ozone-platform-hint=auto for native Wayland support

📂 Repository Structure

├── flake.nix                  # Flake definition with all outputs
├── helium.nix                  # Package derivation (repackages .deb)
├── overlay.nix                 # Nixpkgs overlay
├── LICENSE                     # GPL-3.0 License
├── README.md                   # This file (English)
├── README.ru.md                # Russian translation
├── README.zh.md                # Chinese translation
├── helium-logo.png            # Helium logo
└── modules/
    ├── nixos/
    │   └── default.nix        # NixOS module
    └── home-manager/
        └── default.nix        # Home Manager module

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

Nix with flakes enabled (NixOS 22.05+ or enable nix-command and flakes experimental features)
Linux (x86_64 or aarch64)

Clone & Build

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/oxcl/nix-flake-helium-browser.git
cd nix-flake-helium-browser

# Build Helium
nix build

# Run directly
nix run .

# Open a shell with helium
nix shell .

📦 Flake Outputs

Packages

# Build the package
nix build .#helium

# Run via app
nix run .

Apps

nix run .

🔧 Using the Overlay

The overlay exposes pkgs.helium in your Nixpkgs instance:

In a flake-based configuration (`flake.nix`):

{
  inputs = {
    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
        helium-flake.url = "github:oxcl/nix-flake-helium-browser";
    helium-flake.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
  };

  outputs = { nixpkgs, helium-flake, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.my-system = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      system = "x86_64-linux";
      modules = [
        {
          nixpkgs.overlays = [ helium-flake.overlays.default ];
          environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.helium ];
        }
      ];
    };
  };
}

In a traditional `configuration.nix`:

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

{
  nixpkgs.overlays = [
    (import (fetchTarball "https://github.com/oxcl/nix-flake-helium-browser/archive/main.tar.gz")).overlays.default
  ];

  environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.helium ];
}

🖥️ Using the NixOS Module

The NixOS module provides declarative configuration under programs.helium with full policies support:

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

{
  imports = [
    (import (fetchTarball "https://github.com/oxcl/nix-flake-helium-browser/archive/main.tar.gz")).nixosModules.default
    # Or if using flakes: inputs.helium-flake.nixosModules.default
  ];

  programs.helium = {
    enable = true;

    # Optional: override the package
    # package = pkgs.helium;

    # 🚩 Flags - Command-line arguments always passed to Helium
    flags = [
      "--disable-gpu"
      "--ozone-platform-hint=auto"
    ];

    # 🎯 Policies - Written to /etc/chromium/policies/managed/helium-nixos.json
    # Also written to /etc/helium/policies/managed/ for future compatibility
    policies = {
      "BrowserSignin" = 0;
      "PasswordManagerEnabled" = false;
      "SyncDisabled" = true;
      "SpellcheckEnabled" = true;
      "SpellcheckLanguage" = [ "en-US" ];
    };
  };
}

Available Options (NixOS Module)

Option	Type	Default	Description
`programs.helium.enable`	`bool`	`false`	Install Helium system-wide
`programs.helium.package`	`package`	`pkgs.helium`	The Helium package to use
`programs.helium.flags`	`list of str`	`[]`	Command-line flags added to the wrapper
`programs.helium.policies`	`attrs`	`{}`	Policies written to `/etc/chromium/policies/managed/`

📋 Policy Documentation

Helium (being Chromium-based) reads policies from /etc/chromium/policies/managed/ on Linux. This flake writes policies to both:

/etc/chromium/policies/managed/helium-nixos.json (current Chromium path)
/etc/helium/policies/managed/helium-nixos.json (future Helium path)

See the Chrome Enterprise Policy List for all available policies.

Common policies:

{
  "BrowserSignin" = 0;                                    # Disable browser signin
  "PasswordManagerEnabled" = false;                        # Disable password manager
  "SyncDisabled" = true;                                  # Disable sync
  "HomepageLocation" = "https://nixos.org";             # Set homepage
  "DefaultSearchProviderEnabled" = true;
  "DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL" = "https://search.nixos.org/?q={searchTerms}";
  "ExtensionInstallForcelist" = [                          # Pre-install extensions
    "cjpalhdlnbpafiamejdnhcphjbkeiagm"                   # uBlock Origin
  ];
}

🏠 Using the Home Manager Module

For user-level configuration:

{ config, pkgs, ... }:

{
  imports = [
    (import (fetchTarball "https://github.com/oxcl/nix-flake-helium-browser/archive/main.tar.gz")).homeModules.default
    # Or if using flakes: inputs.helium-flake.homeModules.default
  ];

  programs.helium = {
    enable = true;

    # Optional: override the package
    # package = pkgs.helium;

    # 🚩 Flags - Command-line arguments always passed to Helium
    flags = [
      "--enable-features=TouchpadOverscrollHistoryNavigation"
      "--start-maximized"
    ];

    # Optional: user policies (best-effort, use NixOS module for critical policies)
    policies = {
      "BrowserSignin" = 0;
    };
  };
}

Available Options (Home Manager Module)

Option	Type	Default	Description
`programs.helium.enable`	`bool`	`false`	Enable Helium for user
`programs.helium.package`	`package`	`pkgs.helium`	The Helium package to use
`programs.helium.flags`	`list of str`	`[]`	Command-line flags added to the wrapper
`programs.helium.policies`	`attrs`	`{}`	User policies written to `~/.config/helium/policies/managed/nixos.json`

⚠️ Note: User-level policies may not be reliably read by Chromium-based browsers. For critical policies, use the NixOS module instead.

🚩 Persistent Flags

Declarative flags via Nix (Recommended)

Flags can be set declaratively in your NixOS or Home Manager configuration. These are baked into the wrapped binary:

programs.helium = {
  enable = true;
  flags = [
    "--disable-gpu"
    "--ozone-platform-hint=auto"
    "--start-maximized"
  ];
};

Helium also supports persistent flags via configuration files (a feature added by Linux distro packagers). These are read by the upstream wrapper script and are useful for per-user flags you don't want managed by Nix:

System-wide flags

Create /etc/helium-flags.conf:

# Disable hardware acceleration
--disable-gpu

# Enable Wayland
--ozone-platform-hint=auto

User flags

Create ~/.config/helium-flags.conf:

# Enable touchpad swipe navigation
--enable-features=TouchpadOverscrollHistoryNavigation

# Start maximized
--start-maximized

Format: One flag per line, # for comments. The file is read by Helium's wrapper script.

📄 License

This flake packaging is licensed under GPL-3.0 (see LICENSE).

Helium Browser is also licensed under GPL-3.0 - see imputnet/helium.