dotfiles

Configuration for my computer, managed by mise, chezmoi, homebrew and nix-darwin.

Fresh machine setup

1. Xcode command-line tools

Provides git, which everything else depends on.

xcode-select --install

2. Bootstrap mise

Install the binary and activate it for the current session.

curl https://mise.run | sh
eval "$(~/.local/bin/mise activate zsh)"

We'll chsh to fish later on: this is just here for bootstrapping.

3. Install prerequisites

We need gh and chezmoi so that we can fetch and apply the dotfiles from this repo:

mise use --global gh@latest chezmoi@latest

4. Authenticate with GitHub

gh auth login will offer to generate an SSH key and upload it to GitHub. Pick SSH so we can clone (and push to) this dotfiles repo over SSH.

gh auth login

5. Clone the dotfiles

init without --apply clones the repo to ~/.local/share/chezmoi but doesn't run any scripts — we need fish (from homebrew) installed first so the run_onchange fisher/hydro script can fire on the eventual apply.

chezmoi init samstarling --ssh

When prompted for a GPG signing key, enter anything — we'll regenerate it in step 11.

6. Install homebrew and the Brewfile

Provides fish, gnupg, pinentry-mac.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
/opt/homebrew/bin/brew bundle --file ~/.local/share/chezmoi/Brewfile

7. Install Nix

nix-darwin sets the Dock and system settings from nix/configuration.nix, and it needs Nix. The installer asks for your password and for a yes to its plan. Ignore its suggestion to use the macOS package instead.

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf -L https://install.determinate.systems/nix | sh -s -- install

8. Set fish as the default shell

echo /opt/homebrew/bin/fish | sudo tee -a /etc/shells
chsh -s /opt/homebrew/bin/fish

Then, start a fresh terminal to switch to fish.

9. Apply chezmoi

The first apply sets up nix-darwin: it asks for your password, downloads about 4 GB and takes a few minutes. Fish has no mise on its path until this apply installs config.fish, so call it by its full path.

~/.local/bin/mise exec chezmoi -- chezmoi apply

10. Install remaining mise tools

The applied ~/.config/mise/config.toml pins everything else (bat, btop, delta, eza, fzf, helix, jq, ripgrep, zoxide, fd, etc).

mise install

11. Generate a GPG signing key

ECC / ED25519:

gpgconf --kill gpg-agent
gpg --full-generate-key

Take the key ID (after the slash in the sec line) and add the GitHub no-reply email as a UID:

gpg --edit-key KEY_ID
adduid
save

Tell chezmoi the new key ID and re-apply the gitconfig:

chezmoi edit-config        # update signingKey
chezmoi apply ~/.gitconfig

Then copy the public key and add it to GitHub:

gpg --armor --export KEY_ID | pbcopy

Dock and system settings

Edit nix/configuration.nix, then run chezmoi apply. Deleting a line doesn't undo a setting that has already been applied: set the opposite value instead.

To remove nix-darwin and Nix:

sudo /run/current-system/sw/bin/darwin-uninstaller
/nix/nix-installer uninstall