Table of Contents

• Dotfiles
  • Setup and usage - Local (macOS)
  • Remote VM Setup (exe.dev, cloud VMs, etc.)
  • Structure
• Considered and rejected tools

Dotfiles

Personal system config files for my local (macOS) development environment and remote virtual machines.

• This repo uses nix-darwin (nix-darwin/flake.nix) to manage Homebrew and other OS-level system config.
• The nix config links config from this repo into $HOME using GNU Stow.

Setup and usage - Local (macOS)

Everyday usage (already installed)

Once the dotfiles are installed on this machine, the day-to-day loop is just two steps:

1. Edit the config. Make your changes — most often in nix-darwin/flake.nix (add a Homebrew package, tweak a macOS default, etc.), or in any of the stowed dotfile packages.

2. Apply it. Run compy from anywhere:

   compy

   compy is a shell function (defined in zsh/aliases-macos.zsh) that runs:

   cd ~/src/dotfiles/nix-darwin && sudo env PATH="$PATH" darwin-rebuild switch --flake .#simple

   The cd happens in a subshell, so you stay in whatever directory you invoked compy from.

   This rebuilds the system, applies Homebrew/macOS changes, and re-stows your dotfiles into $HOME.

Note: Flakes only see Git-tracked files, so git add any new or changed flake.nix/flake.lock before running compy, or the rebuild won't see your edits.

First-time setup (new machine)

Bootstrapping a fresh macOS machine (clone, nix-darwin rebuild, Antidote bundle, verification) lives in docs/SETUP.md.

Remote VM Setup (exe.dev, cloud VMs, etc.)

I use a curated selection of these configs on my remote headless Linux VMs. It bundles vim, tmux, git, and core aliases — no macOS dependencies. See docs/REMOTE.md for the one-line install plus what gets installed, updating, per-VM customization, and alias architecture.

Structure

Repository layout — the full list of stow packages and what each one configures, app setup scripts, shared sources, and manual-stow instructions — lives in docs/STRUCTURE.md. Note that this repo is a first pass, not a complete mirror of $HOME: some manually-installed apps keep their own configs that aren't tracked here.

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Considered and rejected tools

• Zellij - Too heavy for my simple tmux usage. Don't need floating panes.
• Oh my zsh - Too heavy. Used to use, but the terminal started slowing down after a few years.