It's nix run, the dot means current directory, # means flake, cowsay is the attribute, and then anything after -- is passed to what's run by that command, which is typical of many Unix programs.
So it's run the cowsay attribute from the flake in the current directory, passing flakes are neat as input to cowsay.
So it's run the cowsay attribute from the flake in the current directory, passing flakes are neat as input to cowsay.