Somewhat un-guixy-but-easy way to get started in: $ mkdir -p ~/profiles $ guix package -p ~/profiles/developer -i gcc-toolchain gfortran-toolchain emac

Somewhat un-guixy-but-easy way to get started in: $ mkdir -p ~/profiles $ guix package -p ~/profiles/developer -i gcc-toolchain gfortran-toolchain emacs $ guix shell -p ~/profiles/developer --check (env)$ cd yourproject # which has guix.scm inside (env)$ emacs (have emacs do "guix build -f guix.scm" in there from time to time) This creates a new profile "developer" (you might want that to be more granular eventually, but whatever) with the 3 packages inside and then starts a shell inside that profile. You will have access to those inside that shell (only guarded by PATH etc), but you will ALSO have access to all the tools-outside-that-shell. If you want to containerize, you can do that, too. Note that then you won't have any of the usual packages, including coreutils, available (no "ls" :) ): (env)$ exit $ guix shell -C -p ~/profiles/developer --check (env)$ ls sh: ls: command not found (env)$ exit $ guix package -p ~/profiles/developer -i coreutils $ guix shell -C -p ~/profiles/developer --check (env)$ ls It works! (env)$ guix sh: guix: command not found Well, that can't be good. (env)$ exit $ guix package -p ~/profiles/developer -i guix $ guix shell -C -p ~/profiles/developer --check (env)$ guix build -f guix.scm It works! Note that the "-C" automatically also exposes the current directory that "guix shell" saw when starting up to the container.