diff --git a/.envrc b/.envrc
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..4f4f1088
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.envrc
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+# this caches nix setup, making day-to-day nix usage much faster.
+# see flake.nix for our nix setup
+use flake
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index c395be12..4005c6c6 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -9,3 +9,6 @@ yarn.lock
 .env
 dist
 lib
+
+# used by the nix when nix is used to provide a development environment
+.direnv
diff --git a/flake.lock b/flake.lock
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..5e8c3171
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flake.lock
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+{
+  "nodes": {
+    "flake-utils": {
+      "inputs": {
+        "systems": "systems"
+      },
+      "locked": {
+        "lastModified": 1705309234,
+        "narHash": "sha256-uNRRNRKmJyCRC/8y1RqBkqWBLM034y4qN7EprSdmgyA=",
+        "owner": "numtide",
+        "repo": "flake-utils",
+        "rev": "1ef2e671c3b0c19053962c07dbda38332dcebf26",
+        "type": "github"
+      },
+      "original": {
+        "owner": "numtide",
+        "repo": "flake-utils",
+        "type": "github"
+      }
+    },
+    "nixpkgs": {
+      "locked": {
+        "lastModified": 1708979614,
+        "narHash": "sha256-FWLWmYojIg6TeqxSnHkKpHu5SGnFP5um1uUjH+wRV6g=",
+        "owner": "nixos",
+        "repo": "nixpkgs",
+        "rev": "b7ee09cf5614b02d289cd86fcfa6f24d4e078c2a",
+        "type": "github"
+      },
+      "original": {
+        "owner": "nixos",
+        "ref": "nixos-23.11",
+        "repo": "nixpkgs",
+        "type": "github"
+      }
+    },
+    "root": {
+      "inputs": {
+        "flake-utils": "flake-utils",
+        "nixpkgs": "nixpkgs"
+      }
+    },
+    "systems": {
+      "locked": {
+        "lastModified": 1681028828,
+        "narHash": "sha256-Vy1rq5AaRuLzOxct8nz4T6wlgyUR7zLU309k9mBC768=",
+        "owner": "nix-systems",
+        "repo": "default",
+        "rev": "da67096a3b9bf56a91d16901293e51ba5b49a27e",
+        "type": "github"
+      },
+      "original": {
+        "owner": "nix-systems",
+        "repo": "default",
+        "type": "github"
+      }
+    }
+  },
+  "root": "root",
+  "version": 7
+}
diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b2099bd1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+# this flake installs all tools required for the dev env
+{
+  description = "nlx SDK dev env";
+
+  inputs.flake-utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";
+  inputs.nixpkgs.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-23.11";
+
+  outputs =
+    { self
+    , nixpkgs
+    , flake-utils
+    }:
+    flake-utils.lib.eachDefaultSystem (system:
+    let
+      assertVersion = version: pkg: (
+        assert (pkgs.lib.assertMsg (builtins.toString pkg.version == version) ''
+          Expecting version of ${pkg.name} to be ${version} but got ${pkg.version};
+        '');
+        pkg
+      );
+      pkgs = import nixpkgs
+        {
+          system = system;
+          config.allowUnfree = true;
+        };
+
+    in
+    {
+      formatter = pkgs.nixpkgs-fmt;
+      devShells.default = pkgs.mkShell {
+        packages = with pkgs; [
+          (assertVersion (nixpkgs.lib.strings.fileContents "${self}/.node-version") nodejs_18)
+        ];
+      };
+    });
+}