dotfiles

Personal macOS dev environment — Homebrew packages, Oh My Zsh + Powerlevel10k, custom zsh plugins, and a handful of config files. One script bootstraps a new machine from zero.

Layout

dotfiles/
├── install              # bootstrap script
└── files/
    ├── alacritty.toml   → ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml
    ├── claude.md        → ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md
    ├── init.lua         → ~/.config/nvim/init.lua
    ├── p10k.zsh         → ~/.p10k.zsh
    ├── tmux.conf        → ~/.tmux.conf
    └── zshrc            → ~/.zshrc

What gets installed

• Homebrew
• Formulae: ant, awscli, ccm, docker, eza, fzf, gh, git, jq, neovim, openjdk@21, reattach-to-user-namespace, ripgrep, rtk, tmux, tox, grpc-cli, xlog
• Casks: alacritty, codex, font-meslo-lg-nerd-font, memoryanalyzer, warp
• fzf shell key bindings + completion
• Oh My Zsh with custom plugins: zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-syntax-highlighting, fast-syntax-highlighting, zsh-autocomplete, zsh-history-substring-search, zsh-autopair, zsh-you-should-use
• Powerlevel10k theme
• TPM (tmux plugin manager) + all plugins declared in tmux.conf
• nvm
• All dotfiles above, symlinked into place

Usage

git clone <this-repo> ~/dotfiles
cd ~/dotfiles
./install

Then restart your shell (or source ~/.zshrc).

The script is idempotent — re-run any time to update Homebrew packages, pull the latest Oh My Zsh plugins, and re-sync dotfile symlinks.

Post-install steps

The installer handles everything automatically. A few things you may want to do manually on a fresh machine:

1. Restart your shell (or source ~/.zshrc) so the new zshrc, plugins, and Powerlevel10k prompt load.
2. Set the default shell to zsh if needed: chsh -s /bin/zsh. On modern macOS it already is.
3. Set Alacritty's font to MesloLGS Nerd Font in alacritty.toml if it isn't already — required for Powerlevel10k icons to render. The font itself is installed via the font-meslo-lg-nerd-font cask.
4. Open Neovim once (nvim) so it can bootstrap its plugin manager (lazy.nvim/packer/etc.) and install plugins declared in init.lua.
5. Pick a Node version via nvm if you need one: nvm install --lts.

How dotfile deployment works

Files are symlinked, not copied. This is the industry-standard approach (same as stow and chezmoi): edits in either the repo or ~/.zshrc are reflected in the other since they point to the same inode. Commit changes from the repo side to version them.

For each entry the installer:

1. Creates the parent directory if missing.
2. Leaves it alone if the correct symlink already exists.
3. Replaces a different symlink.
4. Backs up any real file to <path>.backup.<timestamp> before linking.

Adding a new dotfile

1. Drop the file in files/ (no leading dot — easier to browse).
2. Add a link_dotfile line to install pointing at its target path.
3. Commit.