dotmaster

Interactive dotfile generator and project configuration manager.

Answer a few questions, get a fully configured project — .gitignore, linting, formatting, testing, Docker, CI, and more, all in one place.

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Installation

# Recommended: install as a global tool via pipx
pipx install dotmaster

# Or install into your current environment
pip install dotmaster

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Quick Start

# Navigate to your project directory
cd my-new-project

# Run the guided wizard
dotmaster init

The wizard will ask you about your stack, and then generate all relevant dotfiles.

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Commands

Command	Description
dotmaster init	Run the wizard and generate all dotfiles
dotmaster sync	Regenerate files from an existing dotmaster.yaml
dotmaster add <plugin>	Add or regenerate one plugin's files
dotmaster list	Show all available plugins
dotmaster profile [name]	Inspect or apply a preset profile
dotmaster validate	Check dotmaster.yaml for inconsistencies

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Preset Profiles

Skip the wizard entirely with --preset:

dotmaster init --preset web_app      # React/Next.js + ESLint + Prettier + Docker + CI
dotmaster init --preset backend_api  # Python + FastAPI + Ruff + Docker + CI
dotmaster init --preset library      # ESLint + Jest, no Docker
dotmaster init --preset monorepo     # pnpm + ESLint + CI

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Generated Files

Depending on your answers, dotmaster can generate:

File	Plugin
.gitignore	gitignore (via gitignore.io API or template)
.eslintrc.json + .eslintignore	eslint
.prettierrc + .prettierignore	prettier
.editorconfig	editorconfig
Dockerfile + .dockerignore	docker
.github/workflows/ci.yml	github_actions
.gitlab-ci.yml	gitlab_ci
pyproject.toml	pyproject
.env.example	dotenv
ruff.toml	ruff

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dotmaster.yaml

All answers are persisted in dotmaster.yaml at the root of your project:

version: "1"
project:
  name: my-app
  description: A web application
  author: Jane Doe
stack:
  languages: [javascript, typescript]
  framework: nextjs
  package_manager: pnpm
quality:
  linter: eslint
  formatter: prettier
  testing: jest
infrastructure:
  docker: true
  docker_multistage: true
  ci: github_actions
  env_file: true
  editorconfig: true
profile: web_app

Edit it directly, then run dotmaster sync to re-generate.

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Plugin System

Each tool is implemented as a plugin with two strategies:

1. Delegate — hand off to the official CLI tool if available (e.g. gitignore.io API for .gitignore)
2. Generate — fall back to a high-quality Jinja2 template

You can add custom plugins by subclassing dotmaster.plugins.base.BasePlugin.

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Development

git clone https://github.com/your-org/dotmaster
cd dotmaster
pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

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License

MIT