Troubleshooting

nix state parse error: not a mica-managed nix file

You are targeting a default.nix that is not managed by mica markers.

Fix:

1. Run mica init in that directory, or
2. Point mica at a file/directory that already has mica markers with --file or --dir.

building index failed

This usually means nix evaluation failed for one or more attrs while indexing.

Try:

MICA_NIX_SHOW_TRACE=1 mica index rebuild /tmp/nixpkgs.json

For local repo evaluation with built-in retry/skip behavior:

mica index rebuild-local ~/dev/jpetrucciani-nix --skip-attr home-packages,watcher --show-trace

For pin-driven rebuild diagnostics:

MICA_KEEP_INDEX_NIX=1 MICA_NIX_SHOW_TRACE=1 mica tui

Then inspect the error and optionally skip offenders with:

MICA_NIX_SKIP_ATTRS=attrA,attrB mica tui

nix-prefetch-url not found or nix-env not found

Install Nix and ensure these commands are in PATH.

GitHub API errors while updating pins

mica update --latest resolves revision through GitHub API. Network issues or rate limits can fail this step.

Workarounds:

• Retry later
• Provide explicit --rev and --sha256
• Use a reachable mirror/repo URL

Preview Current Effective State

Use these commands to understand what mica currently sees:

mica list
mica diff
mica export