dotfiles

macOS configured declaratively with nix-darwin and home-manager. One repo, one command, and a fresh Mac ends up configured the same way every time.

Forked from kunchenguid/dotfiles.

What it configures

• System - dark mode, key repeat, dock, Finder, trackpad
• Packages - Nix user packages, plus Homebrew for the few things it does better
• Shell - zsh with autosuggestions, syntax highlighting, and a starship prompt
• Editor - Neovim (rose-pine moon, clangd LSP for C/C++)
• Terminal - WezTerm (rose-pine moon, dimmed unfocused windows)
• Dev environments - direnv + nix-direnv, loading each project's own flake devShell
• Agents - Claude, Codex and opencode share one AGENTS.md

Requirements

Apple Silicon Mac. On Intel, set nixpkgs.hostPlatform = "x86_64-darwin"; in configuration.nix.

Install

git clone https://github.com/kienthuynh/dotfiles.git
cd dotfiles

Review Adapting this repo first - in particular the Homebrew warning, which uninstalls undeclared packages on the first switch.

./bootstrap.sh

This installs Determinate Nix, symlinks the repo to ~/.dotfiles, reconciles the configured username with yours, and runs the first darwin-rebuild switch.

Daily use

Edit the config, then apply:

./rebuild.sh

Files under home/ are symlinked into place and take effect immediately, with no rebuild. Everything else - package lists, macOS defaults, flake.nix - needs a switch.

Validate without applying:

nix flake check --no-build
nix build .#darwinConfigurations.mac.system --dry-run

Roll back a bad switch with sudo darwin-rebuild rollback.

Layout

Path	Purpose
flake.nix	Entry point. Inputs, and the mac machine definition.
configuration.nix	System scope: macOS defaults, Homebrew.
home.nix	User scope: packages, shell, prompt, symlinks.
home/	Config files symlinked into ~. Edited in place.
bootstrap.sh	Fresh-machine setup. Run once.
rebuild.sh	Apply changes. Run for every later change.
MAINTENANCE.md	Updates this config does not do for you.

home.nix uses mkOutOfStoreSymlink so paths like ~/.config/nvim point straight at home/.config/nvim in this repo, and the two cannot drift.

Adapting this repo

Warning

configuration.nix sets homebrew.onActivation.cleanup = "zap". Every switch removes any Homebrew package or cask not listed in brews/casks. On a machine with existing Homebrew installs, the first switch will uninstall them. Read those lists and add anything you want to keep before running either script.

• Username - bootstrap.sh detects it, or change the single user line in flake.nix. Everything else threads from that variable.
• Host label - "mac" appears in flake.nix, rebuild.sh, and bootstrap.sh. All three must match.
• Git identity - home.nix sets a name and email under programs.git.settings.user. Change it, or your commits are authored as me.
• Agent policy - home/AGENTS.md is installed for Claude, Codex and opencode. Fork without editing it and you inherit my instructions.
• Agent CLIs - claude-code and codex are casks. herdr's pane-state integration for each is installed out-of-band with herdr integration install <agent>, not by a switch. Claude's settings.json is declared here; Codex's config.toml is not, because Codex writes runtime state into it rather than keeping it separate.
• herdr - a public homebrew-core formula. Remove it from brews if unused.

Contributing

Public so it can be read, learned from, and forked. Pull requests are auto-closed and feature requests are not accepted; fork it and make it yours instead. Bug reports are welcome through GitHub Issues.

License

MIT No Attribution. See LICENSE.