dotfiles

twpayne/chezmoi

Quick Start

Pre-Install Dependencies

Tools that will be configured by chezmoi below:

• git
• neovim (LunarVim)
• zsh (oh-my-zsh, zsh-kubectl-prompt)
• tmux (tmux-catpuccin)

Toolchains needed (for aliases, vim, development):

• nix
• rustup
• uv
• bun

Other tools, useful but not blocking install:

• utilities
  • gh
  • jq
  • yq
  • direnv
  • fzf
  • sccache
• replacements
  • btop
  • mold
  • bat
  • fdfind
  • git-delta
• infra
  • tailscale
  • podman
  • kubectl
• apps
  • Ghostty
  • Zen Browser
  • Tridactyl
  • Obsidian

Getting Started

Install binary, for example:

One-line binary install

Then configure for local files and templating:

mkdir -p ~/.config/chezmoi/
touch ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml
echo "[data]"                           >> ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml
echo "  email = \"<EMAIL>@gmail.com\"" >> ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml

chezmoi cd
git remote add origin https://github.com/CSRessel/dotfiles.git
git pull origin master
exit

chezmoi status
chezmoi diff

Philosophy

1. Maximize consistency everywhere
2. Minimize future cost to revise

Philosophy in Practice

• For aliases, use a prefix of the command when possible.

  • If you're ever in an unsupported environment, muscle memory is still consistent with the default tooling (Consistency)
  • If you ever revise your aliases or resolve a collision then you can still retain any existing muscle memory (Revision Cost)

• Satisfy all (or every possible) tooling need with solely a terminal + a browser.

  • Fewer applications means fewer configs to update with changes (Revision Cost) and less config drift (Consistency)
  • If any of them phase in and out of use, configs break or are out-of-date

• Never do thrice, automate after twice

  • If it's not automated, it's not likely to stay up-to-date (Consistency)
  • And if it's manual to update and sync across environments, it's honerous to change (Revision Cost)
  • However, automation used less than yearly is often the worst of all worlds (if the automation itself breaks, you did twice the work and got no use out of it!)

• TODO...

  • keyboards,
  • vi bindings everywhere,
  • ephemeral environments,
  • remote development,
  • treat yearly setups like infra provisioning,
  • SSOT where possible for binaries/shortcuts/scripts/aliases/etc,