dotfiles

Personal system configuration managed by chezmoi.

New Machine Setup

sh -c "$(curl -fsLS get.chezmoi.io)" -- init --apply jasonkuhrt/dotfiles
# Paste age key from password manager to ~/.config/chezmoi/key.txt, then:
chezmoi apply
# Complete manual steps: docs/manual-setup.md

After bootstrap, just is the primary interface. Run just for all recipes, just sync for the daily driver.

How to Think About This Repo

chezmoi is a tool that copies files from a source directory into your home directory. This repo's source directory is home/. A file at home/.chezmoiroot tells chezmoi that, so the repo root can hold non-deployed things like docs and the justfile without them ending up in $HOME.

Inside home/, files are named with prefixes that tell chezmoi how to deploy them. dot_gitconfig becomes ~/.gitconfig. private_dot_ssh/config becomes ~/.ssh/config with mode 0700. encrypted_credentials.age gets decrypted with age on deploy. Prefixes compose: private_dot_aws/encrypted_credentials.age becomes ~/.aws/credentials in a private directory, decrypted from age. The full prefix vocabulary is dot_, private_, exact_, encrypted_, executable_, symlink_, and empty_ — once you know these, you can read the whole repo at a glance. Details in how-it-works.md.

That covers config files. But managing a system also means installing packages, setting macOS defaults, configuring the Dock — things that aren't files. That's what lifecycle scripts handle.

Lifecycle Scripts

home/.chezmoiscripts/ has 18 shell scripts that run during chezmoi apply. Their filenames encode when and how often they run. run_once_before_02-homebrew.sh.tmpl runs once, on a new machine, before chezmoi deploys files — it installs Homebrew. run_onchange_after_08-macos-defaults.sh.tmpl re-runs after file deployment whenever the script's content changes — it sets keyboard repeat rate, trackpad speed, and so on.

The interesting ones are scripts that re-run when a data file changes, not when the script itself changes. For example, the brew-bundle script has this line in it:

# Brewfile hash: {{ include "Brewfile" | sha256sum }}

chezmoi evaluates that template on every apply. If the hash is different from last time, chezmoi considers the script "changed" and re-runs it. So editing home/Brewfile and running just apply automatically triggers brew bundle — no manual step needed.

Data Files

Here's the thing that might seem odd at first: the Brewfile, dock/apps.txt, and npm/global-packages.txt all live inside home/, but they are NOT deployed to your home directory. They're listed in .chezmoiignore to prevent that.

Why put them in home/ at all? Because of the hash-trigger pattern above. chezmoi's include function can only read files that are inside the source directory (home/). If the Brewfile lived at the repo root, the script couldn't write {{ include "Brewfile" | sha256sum }} — chezmoi wouldn't find it. So these files live in home/ to be reachable by include, and .chezmoiignore keeps them from being deployed. It's a pragmatic workaround for a chezmoi limitation.

Daily Workflow

just edit ~/.config/fish/config.fish   # opens the source file in $EDITOR
just diff                              # preview what would change
just sync                              # commit + pull + push + apply

When external tools modify files chezmoi manages (Fisher updating fish_plugins, Lazy.nvim updating lazy-lock.json), capture those changes back with just re-add <file>. Use just verify to check for drift.

Secrets

Secrets are encrypted at rest with age. The only thing to transfer between machines is the age key at ~/.config/chezmoi/key.txt (keep it in your password manager). chezmoi add --encrypt <file> encrypts a new secret. chezmoi edit <file> decrypts, opens your editor, and re-encrypts on save.

Claude Code Config

Global CC config lives in home/dot_claude/ and deploys to ~/.claude/. Subdirectories use exact_, which means chezmoi deletes anything at the target that isn't in source — stale skills, rules, and commands get cleaned up automatically.

Project-local CC config for this repo lives in .claude/ at the repo root, managed by git, invisible to chezmoi.

~/.claude/settings.json is not managed by chezmoi — both tools use atomic writes (temp file + rename), so they'd destroy each other's files. CC owns it at runtime.

Name	creating-libraries
Description	This skill should be used when the user asks to "create a library", "scaffold a new lib", "add a local library", "create a namespace module", "set up _.ts and __.ts", or needs to create a new TypeScript library following the _.ts/__.ts namespace pattern. Handles both simple (single file) and complex (barrel) library structures.

creating-libraries

SKILL.md