Dotfiles

Personal macOS development environment configuration files with an interactive installation script.

What's Included

• Shell configurations: bash, zsh (with Oh-My-Zsh)
• Editor configs: Neovim (with lazy.nvim), Vim, MacVim
• Terminal: Ghostty configuration
• Development tools: rbenv, Volta, Docker, LM Studio integrations

Features

• 🔄 Non-destructive symlinking - Symlinks dotfiles from this repo to your home directory
• 💬 Interactive conflict resolution - Prompts for conflicts with skip/diff/overwrite/quit options
• 🔍 Diff support - View differences between existing and new files before overwriting
• 💾 Automatic backups - Creates timestamped backups when overwriting (e.g., .zshrc.backup.20251030_143022)
• 🧪 Dry-run mode - Preview changes without making them
• 📁 Directory preservation - Only symlinks files, creates necessary parent directories automatically

Quick Start

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/jaylaney/dotfiles.git ~/Development/dotfiles
cd ~/Development/dotfiles

# Preview what would be installed (recommended first step)
./install.sh --dry-run

# Install with interactive prompts
./install.sh $HOME

# Or see all options
./install.sh --help

Usage

./install.sh                    # Show help
./install.sh --help             # Show detailed help message
./install.sh $HOME              # Install to $HOME with interactive prompts
./install.sh /path              # Install to custom directory
./install.sh --dry-run          # Preview changes without making them

Interactive Mode

When the installer detects a conflict (file already exists or symlink points elsewhere), you'll be prompted:

• [s]kip - Leave existing file as-is and continue
• [d]iff - Show unified diff between existing and new file, then re-prompt
• [o]verwrite - Create timestamped backup and replace with new symlink
• [q]uit - Exit installation immediately

How It Works

The installation script:

1. Reads configuration files from dotfiles/ subdirectory
2. Symlinks files to target directory (default: $HOME)
3. Files are prefixed with a dot (e.g., dotfiles/zshrc → ~/.zshrc)
4. Subdirectories maintain structure (e.g., dotfiles/config/nvim/init.lua → ~/.config/nvim/init.lua)
5. Creates parent directories as needed
6. Skips files already correctly symlinked

Repository Structure

/
├── dotfiles/           # Configuration files
│   ├── bash_profile
│   ├── bashrc
│   ├── profile
│   ├── zshrc
│   ├── zprofile
│   ├── vimrc
│   ├── gvimrc
│   ├── tmux.conf
│   ├── claude/        # Claude Code custom commands
│   │   └── commands/
│   └── config/        # Application configs (nvim, ghostty)
├── install.sh         # Installation script
├── CLAUDE.md          # Developer documentation
└── README.md          # This file

Notes

• Backups are saved with format: filename.backup.YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS
• The script automatically skips: .git, .DS_Store, documentation files
• See CLAUDE.md for detailed architecture and configuration information