chezmoi-workflows_skill

This skill helps you back up and sync dotfiles with chezmoi across machines, ensuring drift-free configurations and effortless templated management.

TypeScript

14

GitHub Stars

1

Bundled Files

2 months ago

Catalog Refreshed

4 months ago

First Indexed

Readme & install

Copy the install command, review bundled files from the catalogue, and read any extended description pulled from the listing source.

Installation

Preview and clipboard use veilstrat where the catalogue uses aiagentskills.

npx veilstrat add skill terrylica/cc-skills --skill chezmoi-workflows

SKILL.md5.9 KB

Overview

This skill provides a practical chezmoi workflow for backing up, tracking, and syncing dotfiles across machines using a Git-backed chezmoi source. It codifies common commands and sequences for status checks, adding files, pushing changes, pulling updates, and resolving conflicts. The goal is predictable cross-machine configuration management and safe recovery of personal config state.

How this skill works

The skill inspects the chezmoi source directory, the managed target files in the home directory, and the Git remote used for cross-machine sync. It sequences core chezmoi commands (status, add, update, apply, verify) and Git operations to capture edits, push commits to a remote repo, and pull/apply updates on other machines. It also covers initialization, changing source location or remote, and conflict resolution workflows.

When to use it

Backing up local dotfiles to a Git repository
Syncing shell, editor, and app configs between machines
Onboarding a new machine with your curated dotfiles
Tracking templated configurations managed by chezmoi
Diagnosing and resolving drift between source and deployed files

Best practices

Keep the chezmoi source in a private Git repo for sensitive configs
Run chezmoi status and chezmoi diff before commits or pushes
Use chezmoi add immediately after editing important config files to record intent
Automate periodic pushes or CI checks to ensure remote backups are fresh
Run chezmoi verify after major updates to confirm target matches source

Example use cases

Quickly add a changed ~/.zshrc to source, commit, and push for cross-machine availability
Clone your dotfiles repo on a new laptop and run chezmoi apply to deploy your environment
Bulk-sync modified tracked files after a maintenance session using re-add and git push
Recover from accidental local edits by running chezmoi update and verify to restore source state
Resolve merge conflicts in chezmoi source, commit the resolution, and apply changes to the home directory

FAQ

Install via your platform package manager (example: brew install chezmoi on macOS) and then initialize or clone a source repo.

How do I move the source directory to a custom location?

Move the directory, update sourceDir in ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml, and verify with chezmoi source-path.

How do I handle secrets in dotfiles?

Avoid plain-text secrets. Use chezmoi templates with a secret manager (1Password, Doppler) or encrypted storage and validate with secret-detection tooling.