diff --git a/crates/pile-value/build.rs b/crates/pile-value/build.rs
index c15a285..06351f9 100644
--- a/crates/pile-value/build.rs
+++ b/crates/pile-value/build.rs
@@ -23,6 +23,13 @@ fn main() {
 		.expect("unexpected OUT_DIR structure")
 		.to_path_buf();
 
+	// If PDFIUM_LIB_DIR is set (e.g. by Nix), use the pre-installed library directly.
+	if let Ok(lib_dir) = env::var("PDFIUM_LIB_DIR") {
+		println!("cargo:rustc-link-search=native={lib_dir}");
+		println!("cargo:rustc-link-lib=dylib=pdfium");
+		return;
+	}
+
 	let lib_path = profile_dir.join("libpdfium.so");
 
 	if !lib_path.exists() {
diff --git a/default.nix b/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c524003
--- /dev/null
+++ b/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+let
+  rustOverlay = import (
+    builtins.fetchTarball {
+      url = "https://github.com/oxalica/rust-overlay/archive/master.tar.gz";
+      sha256 = "0qgrkgc695a7gja83dngxrcx4gdg9056gvg5325i5yyjxg0ni6c9";
+    }
+  );
+  pkgsDefault = import <nixpkgs> { overlays = [ rustOverlay ]; };
+  rustToolchain = pkgsDefault.rust-bin.fromRustupToolchainFile ./rust-toolchain.toml;
+  rustPlatformDefault = pkgsDefault.makeRustPlatform {
+    cargo = rustToolchain;
+    rustc = rustToolchain;
+  };
+in
+{
+  pkgs ? pkgsDefault,
+  pileRustPlatform ? rustPlatformDefault,
+}:
+
+pileRustPlatform.buildRustPackage {
+  pname = "pile";
+  version = "0.0.1";
+  src = ./.;
+
+  cargoLock.lockFile = ./Cargo.lock;
+
+  PDFIUM_LIB_DIR = "${pkgs.pdfium-binaries}/lib";
+
+  buildInputs = [
+    pkgs.pdfium-binaries
+    pkgs.openssl
+  ]
+  ++ pkgs.lib.optionals pkgs.stdenv.isDarwin [
+    pkgs.darwin.apple_sdk.frameworks.Security
+    pkgs.darwin.apple_sdk.frameworks.SystemConfiguration
+  ];
+
+  nativeBuildInputs = [
+    pkgs.pkg-config
+    pkgs.makeWrapper
+  ];
+
+  postInstall = ''
+    wrapProgram $out/bin/pile \
+      --prefix LD_LIBRARY_PATH : ${pkgs.lib.makeLibraryPath [ pkgs.pdfium-binaries ]}
+  '';
+
+  meta = {
+    description = "pile - flexible file indexing";
+    mainProgram = "pile";
+  };
+}
diff --git a/flake.nix b/flake.nix
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..da3d7cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/flake.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,40 @@
+{
+  description = "pile - personal data indexer";
+
+  inputs = {
+    nixpkgs.url = "github:NixOS/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
+    rust-overlay = {
+      url = "github:oxalica/rust-overlay";
+      inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "nixpkgs";
+    };
+    flake-utils.url = "github:numtide/flake-utils";
+  };
+
+  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, rust-overlay, flake-utils }:
+    flake-utils.lib.eachDefaultSystem (system:
+      let
+        overlays = [ (import rust-overlay) ];
+        pkgs = import nixpkgs { inherit system overlays; };
+
+        rustToolchain = pkgs.rust-bin.fromRustupToolchainFile ./rust-toolchain.toml;
+
+        rustPlatform = pkgs.makeRustPlatform {
+          cargo = rustToolchain;
+          rustc = rustToolchain;
+        };
+
+      in {
+        packages.default = import ./default.nix { inherit pkgs; pileRustPlatform = rustPlatform; };
+
+        devShells.default = pkgs.mkShell {
+          buildInputs = [
+            rustToolchain
+            pkgs.pdfium-binaries
+            pkgs.openssl
+            pkgs.pkg-config
+          ];
+
+          LD_LIBRARY_PATH = pkgs.lib.makeLibraryPath [ pkgs.pdfium-binaries ];
+        };
+      });
+}
diff --git a/rust-toolchain.toml b/rust-toolchain.toml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b648214
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rust-toolchain.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+[toolchain]
+channel = "1.94.0"
\ No newline at end of file