Your dotfiles are how you personalize your system. These are mine.

I was a little tired of having long alias files and everything strewn about (which is extremely common on other dotfiles projects, too). That led to this project being much more topic-centric. I realized I could split a lot of things up into the main areas I used (Ruby, git, system libraries, and so on), so I structured the project accordingly.

If you're interested in the philosophy behind why projects like these are awesome, you might want to read my post on the subject.

Everything's built around topic areas. If you're adding a new area to your forked dotfiles — say, "Java" — you can simply add a java directory and put files in there. Anything with an extension of .zsh will get automatically included into your shell. Anything with an extension of .symlink will get symlinked without extension into $HOME when you run script/bootstrap.

A lot of stuff. Seriously, a lot of stuff. Check them out in the file browser above and see what components may mesh up with you. Fork it, remove what you don't use, and build on what you do use.

• aws/ - AWS CLI aliases, profile switching, and helper functions
• kubernetes/ - kubectl aliases, context switching, and cluster management
• terraform/ - Terraform workflow aliases and environment config
• atuin/ - Shell history management and sync
• docker/ - Docker and Docker Compose shortcuts
• git/ - Git aliases, configuration, and completions
• homebrew/ - Homebrew setup and management
• system/ - System-wide aliases and environment settings
• vim/ - Vim configuration
• zsh/ - ZSH configuration and customization

Each module directory may contain:

• aliases.zsh - Command shortcuts
• env.zsh - Environment variables and functions
• path.zsh - PATH modifications
• completion.zsh - Shell auto-completion
• *.symlink - Files to symlink to $HOME
• install.sh - Module-specific installation script
• README.md - Module documentation

There's a few special files in the hierarchy.

• bin/: Anything in bin/ will get added to your $PATH and be made available everywhere.
• topic/*.zsh: Any files ending in .zsh get loaded into your environment.
• topic/path.zsh: Any file named path.zsh is loaded first and is expected to setup $PATH or similar.
• topic/completion.zsh: Any file named completion.zsh is loaded last and is expected to setup autocomplete.
• topic/install.sh: Any file named install.sh is executed when you run script/install. To avoid being loaded automatically, its extension is .sh, not .zsh.
• topic/*.symlink: Any file ending in *.symlink gets symlinked into your $HOME. This is so you can keep all of those versioned in your dotfiles but still keep those autoloaded files in your home directory. These get symlinked in when you run script/bootstrap.

Run this:

git clone https://github.com/holman/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles
cd ~/.dotfiles
script/bootstrap

This will symlink the appropriate files in .dotfiles to your home directory. Everything is configured and tweaked within ~/.dotfiles.

Note: If you're cloning to a directory other than ~/.dotfiles, you'll need to create a symlink:

ln -s ~/dotfiles ~/.dotfiles

After running bootstrap, install all tools and applications via Homebrew:

cd ~/.dotfiles
script/install

This will:

1. Install Homebrew (if not already installed)
2. Install all packages listed in the Brewfile
3. Run any module-specific install.sh scripts

The Brewfile includes:

• CLI Tools: kubectl, terraform, awscli, helm, k9s, wget, imagemagick, atuin, and more
• GUI Apps: (macOS only) ghostty, vscode, vlc, etc.

The main file you'll want to change right off the bat is zsh/zshrc.symlink, which sets up a few paths that'll be different on your particular machine.

For private/local settings (API keys, etc.), create ~/.localrc:

# ~/.localrc (not tracked in git)
export AWS_DEFAULT_REGION="eu-central-1"
export GITHUB_TOKEN="your-token"

Once installed, simply open a new terminal or run:

source ~/.zshrc

All your aliases, functions, and environment variables from all modules will be loaded automatically.

# Git shortcuts (from git/)
gs          # git status
gco main    # git checkout main
glog        # pretty git log

# AWS shortcuts (from aws/)
awsinfo     # show current AWS identity
awsswitch production  # switch AWS profile
ec2running  # list running EC2 instances

# Terraform shortcuts (from terraform/)
tfi         # terraform init
tfp         # terraform plan
tfa         # terraform apply

# Kubernetes shortcuts (from kubernetes/)
k get pods  # kubectl get pods
kctxswitch  # switch contexts
kinfo       # show cluster info

# Docker shortcuts (from docker/)
d ps        # docker ps
dc up       # docker-compose up

See each module's README for complete documentation.

Adding a new tool to your dotfiles is easy:

1. Create a directory for your topic:

   mkdir ~/.dotfiles/python

2. Add configuration files:

   # Aliases
   echo "alias py='python3'" > ~/.dotfiles/python/aliases.zsh
   
   # Environment setup
   echo "export PYTHONDONTWRITEBYTECODE=1" > ~/.dotfiles/python/env.zsh
   
   # Completion
   echo "# Python completion here" > ~/.dotfiles/python/completion.zsh

3. Add to Brewfile (optional):

   brew 'python@3.11'

4. Install and reload:

   brew bundle
   source ~/.zshrc

That's it! The dotfiles framework automatically discovers and loads all .zsh files.

• path.zsh - Loaded first, modifies $PATH
• *.zsh - Loaded second (aliases, env, etc.)
• completion.zsh - Loaded last, sets up auto-completion
• *.symlink - Symlinked to $HOME (e.g., .gitconfig)
• install.sh - Runs during script/install (use .sh to prevent auto-loading)
• README.md - Documentation for your module

Keep your dotfiles fresh:

cd ~/.dotfiles
git pull

# Update packages
brew bundle

# Reload shell
source ~/.zshrc

I want this to work for everyone; that means when you clone it down it should work for you even though you may not have rbenv installed, for example. That said, I do use this as my dotfiles, so there's a good chance I may break something if I forget to make a check for a dependency.

If you're brand-new to the project and run into any blockers, please open an issue on this repository and I'd love to get it fixed for you!

I forked Ryan Bates' excellent dotfiles for a couple years before the weight of my changes and tweaks inspired me to finally roll my own. But Ryan's dotfiles were an easy way to get into bash customization, and then to jump ship to zsh a bit later. A decent amount of the code in these dotfiles stem or are inspired from Ryan's original project.