Dotfiles Management

If you SSH into many boxes, or work across laptop / desktop / dev VM, you want your dotfiles in a repo and applied automatically.

The candidates

• ★ chezmoi — Go binary; templating + secrets + per-machine variations + diffs. The default in 2026.
• ★ GNU Stow — symlink manager; minimal; old-school. Default for "I just need symlinks."
• yadm — bare git repo for $HOME; simple.
• dotbot — Python; declarative YAML; popular.
• rcm — Thoughtbot's dotfile manager.
• homemaker — Go; YAML config.

What chezmoi does well

• Templates — same ~/.gitconfig template, different user.email per machine.
• Encrypted secrets — gopass / age / 1Password / Bitwarden integration.
• Per-machine — config differs by hostname / OS / arch.
• Dry-run + diff — see what would change before applying.
• One install command to bootstrap on a new box.

What Stow does well

• Tiny, no dependencies. Just symlinks.
• Per-package management — stow vim symlinks ~/dotfiles/vim/.vimrc into ~.
• No templating — pure mirroring.
• Best for small, single-user setups.

What yadm does well

• Just bare git — no learning curve if you know git.
• Encrypts files with age or gpg.
• OS / hostname detection for conditional behavior.

What to put in dotfiles

• .zshrc / .bashrc / .profile / .config/fish/config.fish
• .gitconfig / .gitignore_global
• .tmux.conf / .config/zellij/
• .config/starship.toml
• .config/nvim/ / .vimrc
• .config/helix/
• .ssh/config (without keys)
• .config/ghostty/ / Alacritty / kitty configs
• ~/.config/git/
• Brewfile / mise.toml / Homebrew bundle for installed packages

What NOT to put

• Private keys — use age / gpg encryption or 1Password integration if you must.
• Long-lived API tokens — same.
• Things specific to one project — those belong in the project repo.

Common bootstrap pattern

# Install chezmoi + apply your dotfiles in one command
sh -c "$(curl -fsLS get.chezmoi.io)" -- init --apply your-github-username

The repo's chezmoi.toml then handles per-machine variations on every chezmoi apply.

Tooling that pairs well

• mise / asdf — runtime versions per-project; pair with dotfiles for shell init.
• Homebrew Bundle / brew bundle — install packages declaratively.
• apt-list / dnf history + Ansible — for system-level packages.
• devbox / nix-darwin — for declarative dev envs.

Patterns to adopt

• ★ Public dotfiles repo. Public-by-default forces you to keep secrets out and is a great form of "knowledge sharing." Famous engineers' public dotfiles teach a lot.
• Templates over conditionals. {{ .email }} per machine is cleaner than if hostname == "work-laptop".
• Auto-sync on shell start — some folks chezmoi update weekly via cron.
• Document non-obvious entries. Future-you will appreciate.
• Don't dotfile what mise / Homebrew already manages. tool-versions and Brewfiles are the right place for those.

Pick this if…

• Default modern dotfiles: chezmoi.
• Minimal, just symlinks: GNU Stow.
• You only know git: yadm.
• Already managing a Mac fleet: chezmoi + Brewfile + mise.