README driven development

README.md

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+# nixos-generate-facts - a data-driven alternative to nixos-generate-config
+
+nixos-generate-config has two problems:
+1. It only ships on machines that already have Nix available.
+2. It outputs Nix code instead of data.
+
+The first point is mostly relevant to cases where you want to bootstrap a new
+server with a remote tool like nixos-anywhere. It should be possible to gather
+the machine facts without first installing Nix. Otherwise there is a bootstrap
+problem.
+
+The second point is for everybody. If instead of generating Nix code we would
+be generating a JSON-like data structure of facts about the machine. This can
+be recorded and loaded by Nix. Or added to the nixos-hardware repo. It can be
+used for user diagnostics. It inverts the control where the NixOS module
+system can now make decisions on which kernel modules to load over time.
+
+## Status: vaporware
+
+The project is currently just a README.
+
+The next step is going to generate the minimal binary and adapter so that I
+can replace my machine's hardware-configuration.nix
+
+Once proven, I'm hoping to integrate that project upstream.
+
+## How the project works
+
+The project has two parts:
+
+1. The binary that scans the system and outputs JSON or TOML.
+2. A NixOS module that can load that data and make decisions.
+
+That's it.