dotfiles

My macOS configuration, managed with GNU Stow. Each top-level directory is a stow package; running stow <name> symlinks its contents into ~.

Active packages

Package	What it is
bin	personal scripts (tmux-sessionizer, sync-tix-to-vault, …)
borders	JankyBorders — window outlines tinted by skhd mode
claude	Claude Code global settings, hooks, status line
codex	OpenAI Codex CLI config
fastfetch	system info banner at shell startup
fonts	installed font files
gate	operator config for the gate/retro/handoff skills (vault, routing)
ghostty	Ghostty terminal config
git	gitconfig, commit template, global gitignore
homebrew	Brewfile — brew, cask, cargo, and npm package manifest
karabiner	keyboard remapping
shell	shell-agnostic .profile, aliases, functions
sketchybar	macOS status bar with mode indicator, calendar, battery, clock
skhd	modal hotkey daemon (yabai control, tmux mode, …)
terminfo	italic-capable iterm and tmux terminfo entries
tmux	true-color tmux with bell alerts and per-session colors
vim	vim config and plugin set
yabai	tiling window manager
zsh	zsh config with zplug, purer prompt, Human++ theme

Legacy

Kept around for reference or because something on disk still expects them, but no longer maintained: babel, bash, chunkwm (replaced by yabai), clang-format, dircolors, eslint, grc, iterm2 (replaced by ghostty), khd (replaced by skhd), mpv, neovim, readline, ruby, spaceship, vint.

Installation

Fresh machine

bootstrap.sh brings a new (or existing) Mac all the way up — idempotent, so it's safe to re-run any time to converge a machine back to this state.

git clone https://github.com/fielding/dotfiles ~/etc &&cd~/etc
./bootstrap.sh --dry-run # preview everything first
./bootstrap.sh # do it

Phases (run a subset with --only/--skip, list with --list):

Phase	Does
preflight	Xcode CLT, Rosetta, hostname, timezone
sshkey	per-machine ed25519 key + agent/keychain wiring (never clobbers)
homebrew	install Homebrew + Rust, then brew bundle the Brewfile
stow	symlink the active packages into ~
terminfo	compile the italic-capable tmux terminfo entries
shell	default shell → zsh, install zplug + vim plugins
macos	defaults write tweaks and the Dock-clutter cleanup
yabai	scripting-addition sudoers wiring (SIP stays a manual step)
agents	install selected LaunchAgents from bootstrap/launchagents/
continuity	Handoff/Universal Control toggles + M4↔M5 one-desk checklist
mlx	Apple-Silicon local-model stack (mlx-lm via uv)

--agents cadence,glean,weather,sync-tix-to-vault picks which LaunchAgents get installed (those four are the default; ollama is opt-in). --no-agents skips them. --yes runs non-interactively (keeps the current hostname).

SIP / yabai: full scripting-addition support needs SIP partially disabled, which can only be done from Recovery. The yabai phase wires up everything else and prints the exact csrutil disable … command to run there; reboot and ./bootstrap.sh --only yabai afterward.

Manual (stow only)

brew install stow
# Symlink the active set:
stow bin borders claude codex fastfetch fonts ghostty git homebrew \
karabiner shell sketchybar skhd terminfo tmux vim yabai zsh
# Compile terminfo entries (italic support in tmux):
tic ~/.terminfo/74/tmux.terminfo
tic ~/.terminfo/74/tmux-256color.terminfo

Theme

Most colors come from Human++, my base24 palette. The shell-init script under ~/src/hack/human-plus-plus/dist/shell-init.sh is sourced from .zshrc and emits the OSC palette overrides at startup.

Inspiration / thanks

• Jeffrey Carpenter and his dotfiles — for somebody to "talk nerdy" to.
• Mathias Bynens and his dotfiles.
• Xero Harrison and his dotfiles.