This is a real problem! Sounds like you and dura landed on similar solutions: https://github.com/tkellogg/dura

Keep it up!

Using nix-darwin to manage brew declaratively feels like using a jackhammer to nail a picture to the wall, but I can’t live without it anymore.

What about pulumi's declarative yaml interface which can be exported from type-safe languages like cue? https://www.pulumi.com/blog/extending-pulumi-languages-with-...