Claude Code on NixOS feels like it has super powers. Being able to spin up a nix-shell with needed dependencies on demand gives it access to all sorts of tools I don't have or want installed on my base system. My "book-recommendation" claude code uses sqlite to manage my reading history and to-read and maybe-read lists but I never installed tools for sqlite and they aren't present on my NixOS desktop. It just launches a nix-shell with sqlite anytime it needs to read/modify the database. As long as the database file is within the directory claude code was launched from, it doesn't need to prompt for permission. With the caching that NixOS does, it's fast enough to not even think about.

If you make claude work with c/c++, it may need apt for libraries or build tools.

Even with npm/pip, these may not be available on a base linux box.

Even then, some complex projects may need other tools that are not part of a base system (command line tools, redis, ...).