  We present a framework for de Sitter model building in type IIA string
theory, illustrated with specific examples. We find metastable dS minima of the
potential for moduli obtained from a compactification on a product of two Nil
three-manifolds (which have negative scalar curvature) combined with
orientifolds, branes, fractional Chern-Simons forms, and fluxes. As a discrete
quantum number is taken large, the curvature, field strengths, inverse volume,
and four dimensional string coupling become parametrically small, and the de
Sitter Hubble scale can be tuned parametrically smaller than the scales of the
moduli, KK, and winding mode masses. A subtle point in the construction is that
although the curvature remains consistently weak, the circle fibers of the
nilmanifolds become very small in this limit (though this is avoided in
illustrative solutions at modest values of the parameters). In the simplest
version of the construction, the heaviest moduli masses are parametrically of
the same order as the lightest KK and winding masses. However, we provide a
method for separating these marginally overlapping scales, and more generally
the underlying supersymmetry of the model protects against large corrections to
the low-energy moduli potential.
