nix-darwin-activation.nix

system.activationScripts.applications.text = let
  env = pkgs.buildEnv {
    name = "system-applications";
    paths = config.environment.systemPackages;
    pathsToLink = "/Applications";
  };
in
  pkgs.lib.mkForce ''
  # Set up applications.
  echo "setting up /Applications..." >&2
  rm -rf /Applications/Nix\ Apps
  mkdir -p /Applications/Nix\ Apps
  find ${env}/Applications -maxdepth 1 -type l -exec readlink '{}' + |
  while read -r src; do
    app_name=$(basename "$src")
    echo "copying $src" >&2
    ${pkgs.mkalias}/bin/mkalias "$src" "/Applications/Nix Apps/$app_name"
  done
      '';

++1 ☝🏽using https://github.com/hraban/mac-app-util

Worked perfectly and was super easy to add to my config file.

Do you mind sharing your flake.nix with mac-app-util? I tried it, and it doesn't work for me.

@tylercritchlow Sure! I've uploaded a copy here: https://gist.github.com/frarredondo/192930a454c992f306143bfc4eefc948

I will say that after posting my comment above i very quickly learned that very few packages were actually available for aarch64-darwin and found that i needed to install everything via homebrew so i didn't see the point in using nix at least on apple silicon atm and uninstalled it and went back to using homebrew for package management.