dotfiles

My Mac dev environment, managed with chezmoi.

Setup

One-time: Create the repo (do this once, from any machine or GitHub.com)

1. Create a new public repo called dotfiles on github.com
2. Upload all the files from this repo via the GitHub web UI (drag and drop works)
3. Update YOUR_USERNAME with your actual GitHub username in bootstrap.sh and dot_config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml

Every new Mac after that

# 1. Download and run the bootstrap script
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/YOUR_USERNAME/dotfiles/main/bootstrap.sh -o bootstrap.sh
chmod +x bootstrap.sh
./bootstrap.sh

# 2. Restart your terminal (open Warp)

# 3. Install the language runtimes you need
mise use --global node@lts
mise use --global python@latest
mise use --global go@latest

# 4. Add your secrets
echo 'export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."' >> ~/.zshenv.local

The bootstrap script handles everything else — Homebrew, chezmoi, Oh My Zsh, mise, VS Code, and cloning this repo to the right place.

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What Gets Installed

Tool	Purpose
Homebrew	Package manager
chezmoi	Dotfiles manager
git + git-delta	Version control with better diffs
Oh My Zsh	Shell framework
mise	Universal version manager — Node, Python, Ruby, Go, Rust, Java, and more
direnv	Per-project environment variables
fzf	Fuzzy finder (Ctrl+R for history, Ctrl+T for files)
ripgrep	Fast search (rg)
eza	Better ls
bat	Better cat
zoxide	Smarter cd — use z
gh	GitHub CLI
Warp	Terminal
VS Code	Editor

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Managing Language Runtimes with mise

mise replaces language-specific version managers (nvm, pyenv, rbenv, gvm, etc.) with a single unified tool.

# Install a runtime globally
mise use --global node@lts
mise use --global python@3.12
mise use --global go@latest
mise use --global ruby@3.3

# Pin a version per project (creates .mise.toml in current dir)
cd my-project
mise use node@20
mise use python@3.11

# See everything installed
mise list

# See all available versions
mise ls-remote node

Per-project .mise.toml files can be committed to your repos so anyone with mise gets the same runtime versions automatically.

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Daily Dotfiles Workflow

# Edit a dotfile
chezmoi edit ~/.zshrc

# See what would change
chezmoi diff

# Apply changes to your machine
chezmoi apply

# Pull latest from GitHub and apply (on a second machine)
chezmoi update

With autoCommit and autoPush enabled in chezmoi.toml, changes are committed and pushed to GitHub automatically when you run chezmoi apply.

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Secrets Management

Never commit real secrets to this repo.

Option 1: .zshenv.local (simple, global)

Create ~/.zshenv.local on each machine — it's sourced by .zshenv but gitignored:

# ~/.zshenv.local (not in git)
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
export GITHUB_TOKEN="ghp_..."

Option 2: direnv per project (recommended for project-specific keys)

Create a .envrc in any project directory:

# myproject/.envrc
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY="sk-ant-..."
export DATABASE_URL="postgres://..."

Then run direnv allow once. Vars load automatically when you cd in, unload when you leave.

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Adding a New Machine

1. Run the bootstrap script
2. Install your language runtimes via mise use --global
3. Add secrets to ~/.zshenv.local

Adding New Dotfiles

# Tell chezmoi to manage a file
chezmoi add ~/.some-new-config

# Edit it
chezmoi edit ~/.some-new-config

# Apply + auto-commit/push
chezmoi apply

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Structure

dotfiles/
├── bootstrap.sh          # Run on a fresh Mac
├── Brewfile              # All Homebrew packages
├── dot_zshrc             # → ~/.zshrc
├── dot_zshenv            # → ~/.zshenv
├── dot_gitconfig.tmpl    # → ~/.gitconfig (template with name/email)
├── dot_gitignore_global  # → ~/.gitignore_global
└── dot_config/
    └── chezmoi/
        └── chezmoi.toml  # chezmoi config

chezmoi maps filenames: dot_ → ., .tmpl → processed as a Go template.