dotfiles

Personal macOS dotfiles for zsh + Oh My Zsh. Built from scratch for a homelab-oriented dev environment.

Fresh Mac Setup

1. Prerequisites

Attempting to install homebrew on a new Mac will trigger the download and installation of macos developer tools. I recommend simply opening a terminal and issuing the git command, which will prompt for the download and install. Once that's complete, continue with the prerequisites.

Install these manually before running bootstrap:

• Homebrew
• Oh My Zsh
• Git (brew install git)
• SSH key (ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "your@email.com")

2. Clone the repo

git clone git@github.com:tanichols/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles
cd ~/dotfiles

3. Bootstrap

chmod +x bootstrap.sh
./bootstrap.sh

This symlinks all dotfiles into ~/. Re-running is safe.

4. Install Homebrew packages

brew bundle

5. Create ~/.extra

Copy the template and fill in your details:

cp .extra.template ~/.extra

Edit ~/.extra with your git identity and any machine-specific config. This file is never committed.

6. Apply macOS defaults (optional, review first)

source .macos

⚠️ Read through .macos carefully before running — it changes many system settings.

7. Reload shell

source ~/.zshrc

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Structure

File	Purpose
.zshrc	Oh My Zsh config, theme, plugins
.aliases	Shell aliases
.exports	PATH and environment variables
.functions	Shell functions
.gitconfig	Git preferences and aliases
.gitignore_global	Global gitignore for all repos
.macos	macOS system defaults
Brewfile	All Homebrew packages and casks
bootstrap.sh	Symlinks dotfiles into ~/
.extra.template	Template for ~/.extra (never committed)

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Theme

Theme is set to robbyrussell by default. Update ZSH_THEME in .zshrc when ready.

Popular options:

• Powerlevel10k — install via brew install powerlevel10k, uncomment in Brewfile
• Starship — cross-shell, configure via ~/.config/starship.toml

A Nerd Font is required for most themes — uncomment your preferred font in the Brewfile.

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Adding a new machine

1. Clone repo
2. Run ./bootstrap.sh
3. Run brew bundle
4. Create ~/.extra from template