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dotfiles

Setup

This is the fast path from nothing to a working install. For the full reference see Installation and Quick Start.

Prerequisites

Section titled “Prerequisites”
  • macOS, Ubuntu/Debian, or Arch Linux
  • curl and git (the bootstrap script installs Go ≥ 1.23 if it’s missing)

Install

Section titled “Install”

  1. Bootstrap the engine. This clones the repo, builds the CLI, and runs an install:

    Terminal window
    curl -sfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/garygentry/dotfiles/main/bootstrap.sh | bash

  2. Pick what to install. Run interactively and choose modules from the grid selector, or install a profile directly:

    Terminal window
    dotfiles install --profile minimal     # or: developer
    dotfiles install --dry-run             # preview without changing anything

    The repo ships developer, minimal, and test profiles. See Quick Start for the module list and interactive flow.

  3. Verify:

    Terminal window
    dotfiles list       # modules and their status
    dotfiles status     # what's installed

Make it yours (content overlay)

Section titled “Make it yours (content overlay)”

The engine is generic — it ships no personal identity. Rather than editing the committed config.yml, keep your identity, secrets choice, and custom profiles/modules in a separate content overlay repo that is deep-merged over the engine. Bootstrap can clone it for you:

Terminal window
curl -sfL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/garygentry/dotfiles/main/bootstrap.sh | bash -s -- \
  --content-repo https://github.com/you/my-dotfiles.git

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”