Dotfiles

Personal dotfiles managed with chezmoi.

What's Included

• ZSH configuration (.zshrc) with Oh My Zsh
• Powerlevel10k theme configuration (.p10k.zsh)
• Ghostty terminal configuration (.config/ghostty/config.ghostty)
• Cross-platform Homebrew setup (works on macOS and Linux)

Prerequisites

• Homebrew (macOS) or Linuxbrew (Linux)
• Git
• A terminal with a Nerd Font (see below)

Nerd Font

Powerlevel10k uses Nerd Font glyphs for its icons. Two easy options:

• Use Ghostty — it ships with JetBrains Mono Nerd Font bundled as the default font, so icons work with zero configuration. This repo also tracks a Ghostty config (theme, opacity, blur, and a global quick-terminal hotkey) that chezmoi apply installs automatically.
• Install a Nerd Font manually and set it as your terminal font:

  brew install --cask font-meslo-lg-nerd-font

Fresh Setup on a New Machine

Important: The Oh My Zsh installer overwrites ~/.zshrc, so install Oh My Zsh and Powerlevel10k first, then apply chezmoi last.

1. Install required tools

brew install chezmoi tmux fzf thefuck direnv nvm

2. Install Oh My Zsh

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

When asked if you want to change your default shell, choose No if you're already using ZSH.

3. Install Powerlevel10k theme

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k

4. Apply dotfiles with chezmoi

chezmoi init https://github.com/QingqiShi/dotfiles.git
chezmoi diff   # Preview changes
chezmoi apply

This overwrites the default ~/.zshrc that Oh My Zsh installed with the one from this repo, along with ~/.p10k.zsh.

5. Clear Ghostty's other config location (macOS)

On macOS, Ghostty also reads ~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config.ghostty, and loads it after ~/.config/ghostty/config.ghostty. If a config is sitting there, it silently overrides the one this repo installs. Remove it so the tracked config wins:

rm -f ~/Library/Application\ Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config.ghostty

To confirm which settings are actually live — here or any time Ghostty ignores a change you made:

/Applications/Ghostty.app/Contents/MacOS/ghostty +show-config --default=false

Edit the config with chezmoi edit ~/.config/ghostty/config.ghostty, not through Ghostty's own Cmd+,, which writes to the untracked Application Support path.

6. Reload your shell

exec zsh

Or simply open a new terminal window.

Features

Quick reference for the day-to-day features installed by these dotfiles. Forgot what something does? Start here.

Prompt — Powerlevel10k

A fast, information-rich Zsh prompt showing the current directory, git branch and dirty state, exit code and duration of the previous command, and Node version (in JS projects). Two comfort features worth knowing about:

• Instant prompt — the prompt renders from a cache before .zshrc finishes loading, so cold shells feel instantaneous.
• Transient prompt — previous prompts collapse to a single line in scrollback so history stays tidy.

Reconfigure with p10k configure (overwrites ~/.p10k.zsh — remember to run chezmoi re-add ~/.p10k.zsh afterwards to save it back to the repo).

Fuzzy finder — fzf

The single biggest productivity boost in the whole setup. Key bindings are wired up automatically via the OMZ fzf plugin — no extra config needed.

Shortcut	What it does
Ctrl-R	Fuzzy-search shell history (the killer feature — never history | grep again)
Ctrl-T	Fuzzy-find a file under the current directory and paste its path onto the command line
Alt-C	Fuzzy-cd into a subdirectory
**<Tab>	Fuzzy completion for any command: vim **<tab>, cd **<tab>, kill **<tab> (pid picker), ssh **<tab>, etc.

Git aliases — OMZ git plugin

The OMZ git plugin ships ~150 aliases. The ones worth memorizing:

Alias	Expands to
gst	git status
gco <branch>	git checkout <branch>
gcb <branch>	git checkout -b <branch> (create + switch)
gc	git commit -v (opens editor)
gcmsg "msg"	git commit -m "msg"
ga <file> / gaa	git add <file> / git add --all
gd / gds	git diff / git diff --staged
gp / gl	git push / git pull
glog	git log --oneline --decorate --graph
gb / gbd <name>	git branch / git branch -d <name>
grb / grbi	git rebase / git rebase -i
gsta / gstp	git stash / git stash pop

Full list: OMZ git plugin reference.

Per-directory env vars — direnv

Drop a .envrc file in a project root, run direnv allow once, and its contents auto-load when you cd in and auto-unload when you cd out. Keeps secrets out of .zshrc and scopes env vars to the projects that need them.

# in some-project/.envrc
export OPENAI_API_KEY="sk-..."
export DATABASE_URL="postgres://localhost/myapp"

$ cd some-project
direnv: loading ~/some-project/.envrc
direnv: export +OPENAI_API_KEY +DATABASE_URL

Node version management — nvm (lazy-loaded)

Command	What it does
nvm install 22	Install Node 22
nvm use 22	Switch the current shell to Node 22
nvm alias default 22	Default Node version for new shells
nvm ls	List installed versions
nvm current	Show active version

Lazy-loading note: nvm is not sourced when your shell starts — it's stubbed for nvm, node, npm, npx, pnpm, yarn, and corepack, and only actually loads the first time you call one of those. Expect a ~200-500ms one-time pause on first use in a new shell, in exchange for dramatically faster shell startup.

Auto-switching: cd into a directory containing an .nvmrc and the shell switches to that Node version automatically, reverting to your default on the way out. Projects pinned to an older Node "just work" without a manual nvm use; install the version once with nvm install if it's missing.

Command correction — thefuck

Mistyped the last command? Type fuck and hit Enter. It reruns the previous command with the most likely fix, asking for confirmation first.

$ gti status
zsh: command not found: gti
$ fuck
git status [enter/↑/↓/ctrl+c]

Terminal multiplexing — tmux

The OMZ tmux plugin adds convenience aliases:

Alias	Expands to
ta	tmux attach (attach to the last session)
ts <name>	tmux new-session -s <name>
tl	tmux list-sessions
tkss <name>	Kill a specific session

Once inside tmux, the prefix key is Ctrl-b:

Keys	Action
Ctrl-b c	New window
Ctrl-b n / p	Next / previous window
Ctrl-b % / "	Split pane vertically / horizontally
Ctrl-b <arrow>	Move focus between panes
Ctrl-b d	Detach (session keeps running in the background)
Ctrl-b [	Enter copy / scroll mode (q to exit)

Ghostty

• `Ctrl+`` (global) — toggle the drop-down quick terminal from anywhere in macOS. Requires Accessibility permission — see Troubleshooting.
• Shift+Enter — in TUI apps like Claude Code, inserts a literal newline without submitting the current input.
• Alt+Backspace — delete the previous word on the command line.
• Appearance — Aura theme, 90% opacity with background blur.
• Config location — ~/.config/ghostty/config.ghostty. Ghostty prefers ~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config.ghostty if that exists, so keep it deleted — see step 5.

Updating Dotfiles

Chezmoi is configured to automatically commit and push changes.

Edit a dotfile

chezmoi edit ~/.zshrc

Capture local changes back into the repo

chezmoi re-add ~/.zshrc

This will automatically commit and push to the repository.

Pull latest changes from repository

chezmoi update

Manual Git Operations

If you need to manually work with the repository:

chezmoi cd        # Enter chezmoi source directory
git status        # Check status
git add .         # Stage changes
git commit -m ""  # Commit
git push          # Push to GitHub
exit              # Return to previous directory

Troubleshooting

Homebrew path errors

The .zshrc is configured to work across platforms. It checks for Homebrew in:

1. /opt/homebrew/bin/brew (Apple Silicon Mac)
2. /usr/local/bin/brew (Intel Mac)
3. /home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/brew (Linux)

Missing plugins errors

If you see plugin errors on shell startup, ensure you've completed step 1 — it installs direnv, nvm, fzf, thefuck, and tmux, which back the Oh My Zsh plugins enabled in .zshrc.

Theme not found

If Powerlevel10k theme isn't found, ensure you've run step 3 and that Oh My Zsh is installed.

Icons show as boxes (□)

Your terminal font isn't a Nerd Font. See the Nerd Font section above.

Ghostty's global Ctrl+` hotkey does nothing

The Ghostty config registers a global (system-wide) hotkey to toggle its quick terminal. On macOS, Ghostty needs Accessibility permission to capture global hotkeys. On first launch after applying dotfiles, macOS should prompt you — grant permission in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility. If it doesn't prompt, toggle Ghostty's entry off and on again there.

Ghostty ignores the config in this repo

Print what Ghostty actually loaded:

/Applications/Ghostty.app/Contents/MacOS/ghostty +show-config --default=false

If the values don't match ~/.config/ghostty/config.ghostty, a second config is winning at ~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config.ghostty. Delete it — see step 5. A running Ghostty keeps its old config in memory, so reload with Cmd+Shift+, or restart it afterwards.