Andy Carlberg's Dotfiles

A portable, cross-platform configuration managed with chezmoi. Optimised for macOS, Arch Linux (CachyOS), and WSL, with Fish as the primary shell and clean fallbacks for Zsh, Bash, and POSIX sh.

Bootstrap

On a fresh machine:

sh -c "$(curl -fsLS get.chezmoi.io)" -- init --apply andycarlberg

This downloads a standalone chezmoi binary, prompts for a few configuration values, then runs all install scripts (Homebrew, packages, shell default, SSH config) autonomously.

Init prompts

Prompt	Default	Purpose
Email	—	Git identity
Full name	Andy Carlberg	Git identity
Work machine?	false	Enables work-specific SSH config
Personal GitHub SSH host	github.com	Host alias for personal key on work machines
Install packages and tools?	true	Set false for config-only setup (skips Homebrew, packages, mise)
Set fish as default shell?	true	Runs chsh to set fish as login shell

Stack

Category	Tools
Primary shell	Fish
Fallback shells	Zsh, Bash, POSIX sh
Editor	Helix (hx)
Terminal	Ghostty
Multiplexer	Zellij
File manager	Yazi
Prompt	Starship (Fish, Zsh, Bash)
Runtime manager	Mise (Node, Python, Go)
Package manager	Homebrew (macOS + Linux), Pacman/Paru (Arch), Apt (Debian)

Architecture

Cross-shell sharing (dot_shell/)

The core design goal is a single source of truth for configuration that all four shells consume. Fish cannot source POSIX files natively, so there is a defined boundary:

File	Shared how	Available in
env_vars	. ~/.shell/env_vars / posix_source	sh, bash, zsh, fish
interactive_aliases	. ~/.shell/interactive / posix_source	sh, bash, zsh, fish
interactive_functions	. ~/.shell/interactive	sh, bash, zsh
env	. ~/.shell/env	sh, bash, zsh
common_paths.tmpl	. ~/.shell/env	sh, bash, zsh

Fish paths and Homebrew/Mise activation live in dot_config/fish/conf.d/env.fish since they require fish-native syntax.

The practical rule: command shortcuts go in interactive_aliases (all shells get them); logic goes where it lives (fish functions for fish, POSIX functions for fallback shells).

Shell startup chains

sh:   ~/.profile → ~/.sh/env → ~/.shell/env
      $ENV      → ~/.sh/interactive → ~/.shell/interactive

bash: ~/.bash_profile → ~/.bash/env → ~/.shell/env
                      → ~/.bash/interactive → ~/.shell/interactive
      ~/.bashrc       → ~/.bash/env + ~/.bash/interactive

zsh:  ~/.zshenv → ~/.zsh/env → ~/.shell/env
      ~/.zshrc  → ~/.zsh/interactive → ~/.shell/interactive

fish: ~/.config/fish/conf.d/env.fish        (paths, brew, mise, posix_source env_vars)
      ~/.config/fish/conf.d/interactive.fish (posix_source aliases, starship, fzf)

Chezmoi templates

• .chezmoi.toml.tmpl — prompts for identity and machine context once per machine using promptStringOnce/promptBoolOnce
• dot_shell/common_paths.tmpl — generates PATH entries from the paths list in .chezmoidata/packages.yaml
• dot_config/mise/config.toml.tmpl — runtime tool versions

SSH multi-identity (work machines)

On work machines with a custom github_ssh_host, chezmoi manages ~/.ssh/config.d/github.conf with the personal GitHub host alias (e.g. github.com-personal → github.com via a specific SSH key). A run_once_after_ script adds Include ~/.ssh/config.d/* to ~/.ssh/config. The chezmoi repo remote is automatically converted to SSH using the configured host alias.

Install scripts

All install scripts (except fisher) are skipped when install_packages = false.

Script	Trigger	Purpose
run_once_install-homebrew.sh.tmpl	Once	Installs Homebrew
run_onchange_install-packages.sh.tmpl	packages.yaml changes	Installs OS packages
run_onchange_after_install-mise-tools.sh.tmpl	mise config changes	Installs runtime tools
run_onchange_after_install-fisher.sh.tmpl	fish_plugins changes	Bootstraps fisher and syncs plugins
run_once_after_set-default-shell.sh.tmpl	Once	Sets fish as login shell
run_once_after_configure-ssh-includes.sh.tmpl	Once (work machines)	Wires up SSH config.d
run_after_configure-git-remote.sh.tmpl	Always	Converts chezmoi remote to SSH

Local overrides

File	Purpose
~/.shell/env_local	Machine-specific env vars (sourced by all POSIX shells)
~/.config/fish/local.fish	Machine-specific fish config

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Personal project — fork or reference freely, use at your own risk.