Replit

// March 5, 2025

Replit is my "open tab" dev environment. Their team describes Replit Apps as a shared bazaar where you can browse games, ML models, or tools, run them instantly, and then jump into the workspace to modify them without leaving the browser. Combined with the Nix-powered runtime that exposes 30,000+ packages via a declarative replit.nix, it's the quickest path I've found to taking an idea from prompt to deployed experiment.

Why it stays in my kit

• Truly any stack. Nix on Replit lets me declare whatever language/runtime I need, from Zig to Clojure, and the platform mounts a shared Nix store so the packages are ready without apt/yum gymnastics.
• Remix-first workflow. Because Apps turns every published Repl into something I can run, react to, and fork, onboarding onto a teammate's codebase is as easy as clicking "Publish" and sharing a link.
• Multiplayer teaching. Students can co-edit while I watch their cursor, fix their .replit run command, or leave inline comments; no one fights local setup.
• Deploy from the same tab. I can keep prototypes hosted on Replit or eject to Cloud Run/Vercel once they need dedicated infra.

Typical plays

1. Prototype proofs. Start from an Apps template, tweak logic live with a student, and hit publish so they have a URL plus editable source.
2. Agent sandboxes. Provision secrets, schedule tasks, and let Replit handle the cron + compute for light autonomous workers.
3. Curriculum kits. Preload replit.nix and .replit files with the exact toolchain we're covering so an entire cohort clones a working baseline.

Try it

• Browse or publish from the Apps gallery to see what the community is remixing right now.
• Explore how Nix environments work in their launch post, then fork those example Repls to customize your own.
• Keep a template org under replit.com/@tomosman so collaborators always start from a known-good stack.