Dotfiles (powered by pyinfra + chezmoi)

Personal macOS development environment.

Currently migrating from Ansible to pyinfra + chezmoi.

Quick install (new machine)

Requires uv. Then:

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/andreoliwa/dotfiles/master/install.sh | sh

Installs dotf and pyinfra globally. No need to clone the repo first.

dotf CLI

dotf is the provisioning wrapper. It lives in src/dotf/ and is installed via the install.sh script above.

dotf --help

Internally calls pyinfra and chezmoi. Source is pulled directly from this repo's master branch — not published to PyPI.

Decisions

• pyinfra over Ansible: gradual migration, Ansible roles remain in place until fully replaced.
• chezmoi for dotfiles: manages ~/ files; source directory is ~/dotfiles/chezmoi/.
• uv as installer: uv tool install gives pyinfra and dotf a shared isolated venv with both CLIs on PATH.
• Git-only distribution: dotf is installed from git+https://github.com/andreoliwa/dotfiles.git, not PyPI.
• Two-repo setup: ~/dotfiles/ (public) + private repo for machine-specific config. The public repo has zero references to private machines or paths.

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Legacy Ansible setup

The sections below describe the original Ansible-based setup. They remain accurate but are progressively being replaced by the pyinfra + chezmoi workflow above.

A few neat features

• xonsh (Python-powered shell)
• zsh configured with prezto.
• nice fonts for the terminal and coding.
• iterm2 profile (w/ hotkey, themes, etc.)
• a tmux.conf that's pretty neat.
• tmuxp for tmux session management
• Mac packages installed with homebrew. Mac apps installed with homebrew-cask.
• Useful git aliases
• Optional git commit signing with GPG

Prerequisites

• macOS: upgrade to the latest version possible
• HomeBrew: macOS requirements first (e.g.: xcode-select --install)
• Install HomeBrew
• ansible >= 2.4: brew install ansible
• If you're installing a new computer, copy or create these files/directories:
  • GPG config: ~/.gnupg/
  • Ansible Vault password: ~/.config/dotfiles/vault_password.txt

Install

• Clone the repo to ~/dotfiles.
• Update variables in group_vars/local (git identity, github username, email).
• Run:

  ~/dotfiles/bin/dotfiles-setup --galaxy --bootstrap

Updating

dotfiles-setup
# or with specific roles:
dotfiles-setup git python macos

Architecture

• roles/ — Custom Ansible roles (each role = one tool/concern)
• roles_galaxy/ — Third-party roles from Ansible Galaxy
• group_vars/all.yml — Central config: package lists, tool versions
• group_vars/local — Machine-specific overrides
• playbook_local.yml — Main playbook; roles are tagged for selective execution
• chezmoi/ — Chezmoi-managed dotfiles (dot_ prefix convention)
• bin/ — Scripts on $PATH

Package lists in group_vars/all.yml use a common / personal_laptop / company_laptop / remove structure, maintained in alphabetical order within # keep-sorted markers.

Notes

iterm2: go to preferences → enable "Load preferences from custom folder" → select misc/iterm2/.

macOS keyboard: manually set key repeat to max and map Caps Lock to Ctrl.

Troubleshooting

If you get an error about Xcode command-line tools:

sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

License

MIT Licensed.