Matt Rose's dotfiles

Setup

Clone into your home directory:

cd ~ && git clone https://github.com/mattdrose/dotfiles.git && cd dotfiles

For initial install, run:

bin/dotfiles

Commands

dotfiles

Symlinks all dotfiles from the repo into your home directory. Existing files are backed up with a .old extension. Since files are symlinked (not copied), edits in ~ are reflected back in the repo.

Note: .zshrc and .gitconfig are not symlinked. Instead, dotfiles writes a real file at ~/.zshrc / ~/.gitconfig that sources or includes the repo version. This way, machine-specific tools (e.g. nvm, credential helpers) can append to those files without dirtying the repo.

dotfiles brew

Installs Homebrew (if needed) and all packages defined in the Brewfile, including modern CLI tools like ripgrep, fd, bat, fzf, and eza. Also installs nvm for Node.js version management.

dotfiles symlinks

Creates symlinks for app-specific configs (VS Code settings, Karabiner) into their expected locations.

dotfiles reload

Re-sources all dotfiles in the current shell, picking up any changes without replacing the shell process.

dotfiles macos

Configures macOS system defaults (Finder, Dock, keyboard, trackpad, etc.).

dotfiles default-apps

Configures macOS default app associations from ~/.duti using duti. Run dotfiles brew first to install duti, and run dotfiles first so .duti is symlinked into your home directory.

File Structure

File	Purpose
.zshrc	Entry point — sources all other dotfiles
.path	PATH modifications and tool initialization (Homebrew, nvm, pyenv, bun, etc.)
.exports	Environment variables (editor, locale, colors)
.aliases	Shell aliases
.functions	Shell helper functions
.zsh	Zsh-specific options (history, completion)
.prompt	Custom Zsh prompt with git status
.gitconfig	Git config with extensive aliases
.editorconfig	Editor formatting defaults
.duti	Default app associations applied by bin/dotfiles default-apps
.tmux.conf	Tmux configuration
Brewfile	Declarative Homebrew package list
config/	App configs symlinked by bin/dotfiles symlinks
commands/	Scripts invoked by bin/dotfiles <command>

Customization

Create a ~/.extra file for machine-specific settings you don't want committed (it's gitignored). It will be sourced automatically if present.

Git commit signing

Commit and tag signing are enabled by default in .gitconfig using SSH signing (gpg.format = ssh).

Use ~/.gitconfig to define your machine-local signing key, for example:

[user]
	signingkey = ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_github_personal.pub