.Sloth

Dotfiles for laziness

Original idea by Rafa Gomez — Based on Dotly Framework by CodelyTV

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• What you can do
• Installing
  • One-liner install
  • Migration from Dotly
• Getting Started
• Configuration
• Packages & Recipes
  • Install any package in one command
  • Create custom recipes
  • Dump & import packages per machine
• Custom Scripts
• Init Scripts
• Symlinks
• Auto Update
• Restorer
• Testing
• Contributing
• Roadmap

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What you can do

.Sloth is a full dotfiles framework with its own CLI. Here are the most useful things you can do with it:

# 📦 Install a package (uses package manager or builds from source via recipes)
dot package add zsh
dot package add nix

# 📖 List all installed packages for this machine
dot package dump

# 🐚 Configure your shell (bash, zsh, or both)
dot core install --shell

# 🔗 Apply symlinks (dotbot YAML, platform-aware)
dot symlinks apply

# 📝 Create a new custom script from a template
dot script create

# 🔄 Update .Sloth to the latest stable version
dot core update

# 🚀 Check that everything was installed correctly
dot self core

Shell prompt with git status

.Sloth ships with configurable shell prompts for Bash and Zsh that show your current Git branch, whether your working tree is clean or dirty, untracked files, and whether you're behind/ahead of the remote:

[main|📝]  →  your current branch + dirty state indicator
[v2.0.0|↑2] →  tag + 2 commits behind

Init scripts — modular, lazy loading

Init scripts are loaded at shell startup on demand. Enable the ones you need:

dot init status          # See all available scripts and their enabled state
dot init enable nvm      # Enable NVM to load Node/npm/npx on shell startup
dot init enable autoupdate  # Check for .Sloth updates asynchronously

Custom init scripts go in ${DOTFILES_PATH}/shell/init.scripts/ — perfect for per-host configuration, loading secrets, or setting environment variables.

Restore your dotfiles on any machine

Use the built-in restoration script to rebuild your dotfiles on a fresh machine. It supports GitHub, Keybase, iCloud, or any Git URL:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gtrabanco/dotSloth/HEAD/restorer)

Installing

One-liner install

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gtrabanco/dotSloth/HEAD/installer)

or

bash <(wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gtrabanco/dotSloth/HEAD/installer)

Supported on Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD.

.Sloth can be installed standalone or as a git submodule inside your dotfiles repository.

Migration from Dotly

If you're currently using Dotly, migrate with:

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gtrabanco/dotSloth/HEAD/dotly-migrator)

Getting Started

1. Restart your terminal after installation.

2. Check the installation: dot self core — shows what was configured and what failed.

3. Create your dotfiles repository to back up your custom configuration:

   cd "$DOTFILES_PATH"
   git init
   git remote add origin git@github.com:${GITHUB_USER}/${GITHUB_DOTFILES_REPOSITORY}.git
   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial commit"
   git push origin main

4. Customise your config files in $DOTFILES_PATH/shell/exports.sh and $DOTFILES_PATH/shell/paths.sh.

Important

If you make your dotfiles repository public, be careful not to expose secrets, tokens, or passwords. You are responsible for this, not .Sloth developers.

Configuration

Personalise your installation by editing files inside $DOTFILES_PATH:

File	Purpose
$DOTFILES_PATH/shell/exports.sh	Environment variables for your machine (.Sloth update period, active theme, etc.)
$DOTFILES_PATH/shell/paths.sh	Additional directories in $PATH
$DOTFILES_PATH/shell/aliases.sh	Custom shell aliases
$DOTFILES_PATH/shell/functions.sh	Custom shell functions
$DOTFILES_PATH/shell/bash/themes/	Bash prompt themes
$DOTFILES_PATH/shell/zsh/themes/	Zsh prompt themes

Edit them all at once:

code "$DOTFILES_PATH"

.Sloth automatically loads JAVA_HOME, Python, Ruby, Go, Homebrew, MacPorts, Nix, and other common paths. For anything else, use a custom recipe or an init script.

Packages & Recipes

.Sloth uses recipes (like installers) to handle software that needs special setup steps. Each recipe knows how to install, check, update, and uninstall a package.

Install any package in one command

dot package add bun      # Bun runtime (downloads from GitHub)
dot package add nix      # Nix package manager
dot package add z        # z directory jumper
dot package add nvm      # Node Version Manager

Under the hood, .Sloth tries each recipe in turn. If a recipe matches, it uses it. Otherwise it falls back to your default package manager.

Supported package managers

Platform	Package managers
Linux	apt, brew, snap, dnf, pacman, yum, cargo, pipx, pip, gem, volta, npm
macOS	mas, brew, cargo, pipx, pip, volta, npm

Create custom recipes

Add your own recipes in ${DOTFILES_PATH}/package/recipes/. See deno.sh as an example — it can be installed via a package manager or built from source, supports updates, and shows version info.

Create your own package manager wrapper

If your package manager isn't built in, or you want to replace how one works, add your wrapper in ${DOTFILES_PATH}/package/managers/. See brew.sh for a complete example — it handles dump, install, update, and backup.

Dump & import packages per machine

Save which packages you have installed on each host, then restore them elsewhere:

dot package dump       # Export → creates a file per machine
dot package import     # Import → restores from a previous dump

Custom Scripts

The framework encourages creating lightweight scripts rather than loading thousands of Bash functions:

dot script create
dot script install_remote <github-url>

.Sloth scripts are included (not executed separately), so they start ~10ms faster than Dotly-compatible scripts.

Init Scripts

Init scripts are modular pieces of code loaded at shell startup. They reduce the number of functions loaded in every shell session.

dot init status           # Show all available scripts and their enabled state
dot init enable           # Interactive fzf picker — enable multiple scripts at once
dot init enable nvm       # Enable a specific script
dot init disable nvm      # Disable a script

Custom scripts go in ${DOTFILES_PATH}/shell/init.scripts/.

Symlinks

.Sloth uses dotbot YAML files for symlink management, with platform-aware configs:

dot symlinks apply                  # Apply all symlinks
dot symlinks apply core             # Apply only core symlinks
dot symlinks apply conf.macos.yaml  # Apply a specific file

Backup modes: --backup, --interactive-backup, --ignore-backup.

Auto Update

Keep .Sloth itself up to date:

dot core update              # Update now (sync mode)
dot core update --async      # Non-blocking background update

Configure auto-updates in $DOTFILES_PATH/shell/exports.sh:

Variable	Default	Description
SLOTH_AUTO_UPDATE_MODE	auto	silent | info | prompt | auto
SLOTH_AUTO_UPDATE_PERIOD_IN_DAYS	7	Days between update checks
SLOTH_UPDATE_VERSION	stable	stable | latest | pinned semver tag

dot self update --disable   # Temporarily disable updates
dot self update --enable    # Re-enable updates

Restorer

The restorer rebuilds your entire dotfiles setup on a new machine. It clones your repo, updates .Sloth, installs packages, and applies symlinks — with validation, rollback, and progress logging.

bash <(curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/gtrabanco/dotSloth/HEAD/restorer)

Add restoration_scripts/ to your dotfiles repo for post-install automation (scripts that run automatically during restoration).

Testing

.Sloth has a comprehensive test suite using BATS-core:

bats tests/                    # All tests
bats tests/core/git.bats       # A single test file
bats --recursive tests/        # Recursive run

Currently 158+ tests covering core libraries, package managers, the update system, and integration paths.

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Contributing

PRs, issues, and feature suggestions are welcome. All contributions that respect our Code of Conduct are appreciated. See the Roadmap if you want to know where to focus your efforts.

Roadmap

Check the project's issue tracker for upcoming features and tracked issues.

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