diff --git a/default.nix b/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..27902410a5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,74 @@
+{ }:
+
+let
+  nixpkgsUnstableRef = "47b36ad103aeff17f9be6fb7b4847d63d53f227a";
+  nixpkgsUnstableSha = "109shladi2pj27mmna2g53m59m110pbczhnskrn3knbgpdmd78xz";
+  nixpkgsUnstableUrl = "https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs/archive/${nixpkgsUnstableRef}.tar.gz";
+  nixpkgsUnstableTar = builtins.fetchTarball {
+    url = nixpkgsUnstableUrl;
+    sha256 = nixpkgsUnstableSha;
+  };
+
+  pkgs = import "${nixpkgsUnstableTar}" {};
+  rustPlatform = pkgs.rustPlatform;
+  llvmPkgs = pkgs.llvmPackages_12;
+in
+rustPlatform.buildRustPackage {
+  pname = "roc";
+  version = "0.1.0";
+
+  src = pkgs.nix-gitignore.gitignoreSource [] ./.;
+
+  cargoSha256 = "11r8drmps92i7l3bg3zabds9n5rim9f4fjsgr86nhqhcsivi80y4";
+
+  LLVM_SYS_120_PREFIX = "${llvmPkgs.llvm.dev}";
+
+  # required for zig builds
+  XDG_CACHE_HOME = "/build/xdgcache";
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = (with pkgs; [
+    cmake
+    git
+    pkg-config
+    python3
+    llvmPkgs.lld
+    llvmPkgs.clang
+    llvmPkgs.llvm.dev
+
+    (import ./nix/zig.nix { inherit pkgs; })
+  ]);
+
+  buildInputs = (with pkgs; [
+    (import ./nix/debugir.nix { inherit pkgs; })
+    libffi
+    libiconv
+    libxkbcommon
+    libxml2
+    ncurses
+    zlib
+  ]
+  ++ lib.optionals pkgs.stdenv.isLinux [
+      alsa-lib
+      glibc_multi
+      valgrind
+      vulkan-headers
+      vulkan-loader
+      vulkan-tools
+      vulkan-validation-layers
+      xorg.libX11
+      xorg.libXcursor
+      xorg.libXi
+      xorg.libXrandr
+      xorg.libxcb
+  ]
+  ++ lib.optionals pkgs.stdenv.isDarwin [
+      AppKit
+      CoreFoundation
+      CoreServices
+      CoreVideo
+      Foundation
+      Metal
+      Security
+  ]);
+
+}