Correct me if I'm wrong. So you're worried about not being able to recall the names of all the tools you will need, at a time when you are about to install nixOS on your main workstation?
If there was ever an OS in existence where it doesn't matter that you remember everything from the get go or that you need to do things "in the correct order" lest you you mess something up, it's nixOS.
That being said, you can use the following search pages to cherry pick to your heart's content:
And if you find something interesting but you're unsure exactly how to use it, search for it like so.
Maybe something like these? The pulumi one is similar to the example you mentioned.
In case you're not familiar with a direnv+nix workflow, find a good starting point here.