⚙️ dotfiles

macOS configuration, managed with GNU Stow

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Every top-level directory is a stow package whose contents mirror $HOME (zsh/.zshrc → ~/.zshrc), linked by a single interactive ./install. Assumes macOS with zsh; Homebrew is detected at both the Apple Silicon (/opt/homebrew) and Intel (/usr/local) prefixes. Everything is tuned for one specific machine — see Requirements.

• Leaf-only symlinks — stow runs --no-folding, so app-managed directories (~/.ssh, ~/.claude) stay real folders and only tracked files are linked; runtime state and secrets never land inside the repo
• One interactive installer — ./install prompts y/N before each step and is driven by a commented Brewfile that is the source of truth for packages
• Catppuccin Frappé everywhere — kitty, Neovim, bat, btop, lazygit, delta, fzf, SketchyBar and JankyBorders share one palette
• Tuned for one machine — a Mac Studio (M4 Max) driving a single 2560×1440 external; AeroSpace and SketchyBar assume exactly that
• Layout-aware keys — workspaces live on ctrl-<digit>, because alt-<digit> is where the Danish layout hides [ ] { } \
• Private by default — .zprofile opts out of every telemetry channel in the stack, and allowlist .gitignores keep credentials uncommittable

Requirements

macOS with zsh, and GNU Stow (installed by the Brewfile). The window-manager and status-bar configs assume a Mac Studio (M4 Max) driving one 2560×1440 external display — no battery, no built-in display, no notch. AeroSpace and SketchyBar are tuned for exactly that: no per-monitor gaps, no forced workspace-to-monitor assignment, no notch arithmetic. Reintroducing multi-monitor or laptop assumptions needs a second display actually present.

Install

git clone https://github.com/itsdanieldk/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles
cd ~/dotfiles
./install

install is a zsh script (it uses read -q, print and the *(/) glob qualifier), so shellcheck can't read it — syntax-check with zsh -n install. It prompts (y/N) before each step:

1. Xcode Command Line Tools
2. Homebrew
3. Brewfile packages (skips already installed)
4. .NET global tools (dotnet-ef, dotnet-outdated-tool; skips already installed)
5. Oh My Zsh
6. Oh My Zsh theme (powerlevel10k)
7. Oh My Zsh custom plugins (fzf-tab, zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-syntax-highlighting)
8. macOS defaults (Finder, Dock, menu bar, keyboard, launcher, screenshots, trackpad, misc power-user)
9. Stow dotfile linking (errors on conflict by default)

Step 8 includes a separate, individually-prompted step that disables the Gatekeeper "downloaded from the internet" warning (LSQuarantine). It is the one prompt that weakens a security control — answer N to keep the warning.

Flags:

• --yes / -y — non-interactive (auto-yes to all prompts)
• --adopt — allow stow to resolve conflicts by adopting $HOME files into the repo (destructive: overwrites tracked configs; review git diff after)

Stow Packages

Package	Contents
aerospace	AeroSpace tiling WM. Numeric workspaces on ctrl-1–ctrl-9 (not alt — that is where a Danish layout keeps [ ] { } \), focus/move on alt-hjkl. Launches borders and sketchybar at startup. Needs Accessibility permission
bat	bat config (Catppuccin Frappé theme)
borders	JankyBorders focus ring (bordersrc), Catppuccin Frappé mauve/surface1. Started by AeroSpace, not brew services, so it reads the stowed config
btop	btop Catppuccin Frappé theme (the install script seeds color_theme = "catppuccin_frappe" for you)
claude	Claude Code settings and statusline
git	.gitconfig with delta pager, global gitignore. Repos under ~/work/ commit with the work identity — the rule is inert until that directory exists
hushlogin	Suppresses the "Last login" message
kitty	Kitty terminal (Catppuccin Frappé, Fira Code Nerd Font Mono)
lazygit	lazygit config (Catppuccin Frappé theme, delta pager)
nvim	Neovim (lazy.nvim, Treesitter, Telescope, Catppuccin Frappé)
raycast	Raycast script commands. Raycast's own settings are not file-based, so only this directory is tracked — add it under Settings > Script Commands > Add Script Directory
sketchybar	SketchyBar status bar with plugins and Swift helpers. Driven by AeroSpace workspace-change events; lint with scripts/lint-sketchybar.sh
ssh	SSH config with macOS Keychain, hardened algorithms. Put machine-local hosts in ~/.ssh/config.local (included first, untracked)
zsh	.zshrc (Oh My Zsh + Powerlevel10k, fzf, zoxide, direnv, aliases), .p10k.zsh, .zprofile

Homebrew Packages

Installed from the Brewfile (step 3), which is grouped and commented — treat it as the source of truth. By group:

Formulae

• Core — stow, git, neovim
• Modern CLI replacements — ripgrep, fd, bat, eza, fzf, jq, zoxide, media-control
• Utilities — fastfetch, btop, dust, yq, tealdeer, tree, marp-cli
• Git & dev tools — gh, git-delta, lazygit, lazydocker, shellcheck
• Languages & runtimes — node, pnpm, elixir, elm, powershell, with direnv for per-project env
• Azure — azure-cli, azd, azure-functions-core-tools@4, azurite (Storage emulator), bicep
• Containers & Kubernetes — docker, docker-compose, kubectl, helm, k9s, and Azure's kubelogin for AKS/Entra ID auth
• Window management & bar — borders (JankyBorders), sketchybar, ical-buddy and macmon (both feed SketchyBar)
• AI — ollama

Casks

• Fonts — Fira Code Nerd Font, Fira Sans
• Terminal & editors — Kitty, VS Code, JetBrains Toolbox
• Dev tooling — .NET SDK 10, Docker Desktop, Yaak
• AI — Claude, Claude Code, Codex, Copilot CLI
• Notes & productivity — Obsidian, Raycast
• Browsers & media — Chrome, IINA, Discord
• Remote access — TeamViewer
• Window management — AeroSpace
• System & hardware — MonitorControl, macs-fan-control, logi-options+, Focusrite Control 2, OnyX, Philips Hue Sync
• Games — Steam

Several packages come from third-party taps (isen-ng, Azure's, nikitabobko, FelixKratz). Homebrew 6+ refuses to load from an untrusted tap, so the install script grants each declared tap trust as it adds it.

Zsh Plugins

Built-in (ship with Oh My Zsh): git, macos, sudo, extract, copypath, copyfile, colored-man-pages, docker, dotnet, aliases

External (cloned during install):

Plugin	What it does
fzf-tab	Replaces zsh tab completion with an fzf-powered fuzzy menu (with bat/eza previews)
zsh-autosuggestions	Fish-like suggestions from history; press → to accept
zsh-syntax-highlighting	Colors valid commands green, invalid red

macOS Defaults

The install script can configure:

• Finder — show hidden files, extensions, path/status bar, list view, folders on top, search current folder, unhide ~/Library, no .DS_Store on network/USB
• Dock — minimize to app icon, hide recent apps, no space rearranging, icon size, faster animations (auto-hide timings are tuned, but auto-hide itself is left to you)
• Menu bar — optionally auto-hide it (offered only if SketchyBar starts at login, so the two bars don't stack)
• Keyboard — fast key repeat, below what System Settings can express (KeyRepeat=1.5, InitialKeyRepeat=12, in 15 ms ticks — the slider bottoms out at 2 and 15). Also disables auto-correct, smart quotes and smart dashes, and enables full keyboard access. Takes effect after logout/login
• Launcher — disables the Spotlight (⌘Space) and Finder-search (⌘⌥Space) shortcuts so Raycast can take the key. ⌥Space is deliberately not used: kitty runs macos_option_as_alt left, so it would swallow zsh's expand-history
• Screenshots — save to ~/Pictures/Screenshots, PNG format, no shadow
• Trackpad — three-finger drag
• Misc — expanded save/print panels by default

Privacy

.zprofile opts out of telemetry for every tool in this setup that collects it:

Variable	Tool
DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT=1	dotnet CLI
FUNCTIONS_CORE_TOOLS_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT=1	Azure Functions Core Tools
AZURE_CORE_COLLECT_TELEMETRY=0	azure-cli
AZURE_DEV_COLLECT_TELEMETRY=no	azd
HOMEBREW_NO_ANALYTICS=1	Homebrew

These reach anything launched from a shell that sourced .zprofile, which includes VS Code's integrated terminal but not apps launched from Finder. For a setting that holds regardless of environment, brew analytics off writes Homebrew's own persistent config.

Ignore files

Two, with different scopes:

• .gitignore — this repo only. Mostly allowlists: the ssh and claude packages ignore everything and re-include just the tracked configs, so app runtime state and credentials can't be committed.
• git/.config/git/ignore — stowed to ~/.config/git/ignore and applied to every repo on the machine. Git finds it there automatically; no core.excludesfile needed.

Note that gitignore has no trailing-comment syntax — pattern # note silently stops matching. Keep comments on their own lines.

Gotchas

Each of these has been rediscovered more than once. Some fail silently.

A new file in an existing package needs a re-stow. Because stow runs --no-folding, directories are real and only tracked leaf files are symlinked. Editing an existing file takes effect immediately; adding a new one does not until you re-stow that package.

Workspaces are on ctrl, not alt — leave them there. On the Danish layout [ ] { } \ live on the Option layer of the digit row, so binding alt-<digit> makes them untypable system-wide. cmd is not an escape (cmd-alt-8 → [). The same holds for Norwegian/Swedish/Finnish/German.

.zshrc load order is load-bearing. Powerlevel10k's instant prompt must come first — nothing may print to stdout before it — and in plugins=() fzf-tab must precede zsh-autosuggestions and zsh-syntax-highlighting, or completion and highlighting silently break.

SketchyBar fails silently. An item that hides itself with drawing=off must also set updates=on or it never runs again; new plugin scripts need chmod +x; and a plugin has less TCC access than your terminal, so a read that works by hand can EPERM in the bar. scripts/lint-sketchybar.sh catches the first kinds.

The installer reads the Brewfile from FD 3. ask()'s read -q consumes stdin, so the package loop uses ... <&3; done 3< Brewfile. Converting it to a plain < Brewfile makes every prompt eat the next line, silently skipping packages.

Re-stow

stow -d ~/dotfiles --no-folding -R <package>

License

Released into the public domain under The Unlicense. Take any of it.