For a long time I tried to do the same and avoid 3rd party tooling. Sadly with Nix (the library, cli commands and tooling) being a moving target and having quit

For a long time I tried to do the same and avoid 3rd party tooling. Sadly with Nix (the library, cli commands and tooling) being a moving target and having quite a few edges these wrappers are a breath of fresh air. It'll really be wonderful once Nix gains some popularity and some of these kinks get ironed out.