dotfiles

Public, non-sensitive dotfiles for a repeatable macOS development environment.

This repository uses chezmoi for dotfiles and Homebrew Bundle for software. It has a shared private layer plus separate work and personal machine profiles. The public Brewfile intentionally contains only common baseline tools.

Layout

~/Development/
├── dotfiles/           # public baseline
├── dotfiles-private/   # shared private configuration and apps
├── dotfiles-work/      # work-only configuration and apps
└── dotfiles-personal/  # personal-only configuration and apps

All four repositories use the conventional filename Brewfile. Their paths make the layers unambiguous.

Bootstrap

New machine

The public bootstrap is the unauthenticated entry point. It installs Homebrew when needed, installs Git, gh, and chezmoi, authenticates GitHub, and clones the shared private repository plus the selected profile. It then hands control to bootstrap.sh in the public clone, making the repositories the source of truth for the rest of the setup.

# Work computer
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mikejoyceio/dotfiles/main/bootstrap.sh \
  | sh -s -- --work

# Personal computer
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mikejoyceio/dotfiles/main/bootstrap.sh \
  | sh -s -- --personal

Add --macos after the profile to apply the macOS preferences too.

Existing machine

Run the repository copy directly. Before installing anything, it updates all three repositories used by the selected profile with fast-forward-only merges:

~/Development/dotfiles/bootstrap.sh --work
# or
~/Development/dotfiles/bootstrap.sh --personal

The bootstrap stops if a repository has uncommitted changes, is ahead of or has diverged from its upstream branch, or is not currently on a branch. It never discards local work to match the remote.

The work profile installs public + private + work. The personal profile installs public + private + personal. The selected profile is saved locally so .zshrc sources only its matching shell configuration.

Review changes before applying them manually with:

chezmoi -S "$HOME/Development/dotfiles" diff

Worktree tmux sessions

wtmux and agents manage persistent tmux sessions for Git worktrees, so long-running tools keep working after a disconnect and can be reattached locally or over SSH.

# Enter or create a tmux session for the current worktree
wtmux

# Create the session and start Claude Code
wtmux claude

# Create the session and start Cursor CLI
wtmux agent

# Pass arguments to Claude Code
wtmux claude --resume

# Pass arguments to Cursor CLI
wtmux agent resume

# List and attach to running worktree sessions
agents

# Attach directly to a named session
agents repository--branch-name

The command runs only when the session is first created. Running wtmux again for the same worktree, with or without a command, reattaches to the existing session and never starts a second agent on top of the running one. To switch agents, exit the running agent and start the other one from the shell inside the same session (exit, then agent or claude).

Recent Cursor CLI installations expose the command as agent; older installations may use the backward-compatible alias cursor-agent.

Detaching (Ctrl+b, then d) leaves the session and anything running in it, such as Claude Code, alive.

Security boundary

Do not commit credentials, tokens, employer/client details, private hostnames, or a revealing software inventory here. Put shared sensitive configuration in dotfiles-private, employer/client tooling in dotfiles-work, and personal-only apps in dotfiles-personal. Secrets themselves should come from a password manager or another dedicated secret store, not Git.

The split reduces future exposure; it does not erase information from an older repository's Git history.