dotfiles

Personal dotfiles managed with GNU Stow.

Structure

dotfiles/
├── agent-rules/        # Source of truth for portable agent instructions
├── .claude/
│   └── rules/         # Generated Claude Code instructions
├── .codex/
│   └── AGENTS.md      # Generated Codex global instructions
├── .copilot/
│   └── copilot-instructions.md  # Generated GitHub Copilot CLI instructions
├── .config/
│   ├── fish/          # Fish shell
│   ├── ghostty/       # Ghostty terminal
│   ├── mcphub/
│   ├── nvim/          # Neovim
│   ├── starship.toml  # Starship prompt
│   ├── stylua.toml
│   ├── tmux/          # tmux
│   └── wezterm/       # WezTerm terminal
├── windows/           # Windows-specific configs
│   ├── PowerShell/
│   ├── WindowsTerminal/
│   ├── install.ps1
│   └── Invoke-Stow.ps1  # stow-equivalent linker
├── .gitconfig
├── brew.sh            # Homebrew packages
├── install.sh         # macOS setup script
└── .stow-local-ignore

Git-tracked files and renderer-generated instruction files are managed by Stow. Other untracked files (history, cache, secrets) remain as real files in ~/.config/.

Agent instructions

agent-rules/ is the single source of truth for portable coding-agent guidance. The renderer creates tool-specific files for Claude Code, Codex, and GitHub Copilot CLI:

./scripts/render-agent-rules
stow -R .

install.sh and windows/install.ps1 run the Bash renderer before linking files. The generated files are intentionally ignored by Git; edit agent-rules/, not .claude/rules/, .codex/AGENTS.md, or .copilot/copilot-instructions.md.

GitHub Copilot CLI discovers the generated instructions at its standard user-level path, ~/.copilot/copilot-instructions.md. Other Copilot surfaces use different instruction locations, so add a renderer target for the specific IDE or GitHub feature when needed.

Stow does not replace an existing real instruction file. If a machine already has local guidance at ~/.codex/AGENTS.md or under ~/.claude/rules/, merge or move it first, then rerun the render and Stow commands.

Setup

macOS

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

install.sh runs the following steps:

1. Install Xcode Command Line Tools
2. Install Homebrew packages (brew.sh)
3. Render agent instructions and apply dotfiles via stow .
4. Set Fish as default shell
5. Install Rust, Volta, and other tools

Windows

git clone https://github.com/keinstn/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles
cd ~/dotfiles/windows
./install.ps1

install.ps1 installs Chocolatey/winget packages and then runs the Bash renderer followed by Invoke-Stow.ps1, which is the Windows equivalent of stow .. Git Bash is required; the installer invokes C:\Program Files\Git\bin\bash.exe or C:\Program Files (x86)\Git\bin\bash.exe directly, rather than resolving bash from PATH.

It links every top-level entry in the repository into $HOME as a symbolic link, honoring the same .stow-local-ignore file used on macOS, and follows GNU Stow's "folding" rule: a directory is linked as a single symlink when no directory of the same name already exists in $HOME; otherwise links are created per-file inside the existing directory.

Prerequisites:

• Developer Mode must be enabled (Settings → Privacy & security → For developers), or the script must be run as Administrator. Without either, file symlinks cannot be created.
• Directory links fall back to junctions when symbolic-link creation is rejected.

Manual usage:

# Sync (idempotent; existing real files are skipped with a warning)
./windows/Invoke-Stow.ps1

# Remove links previously created by this script (stow -D equivalent)
./windows/Invoke-Stow.ps1 -Mode Unstow

# Sync into a custom location (mainly for testing)
./windows/Invoke-Stow.ps1 -Target C:\tmp\fake-home

Terminal splits mode

terminal-splits resolves keybinding conflicts between ghostty/wezterm and tmux, both of which use Ctrl+Q as a leader/prefix and Ctrl+H/J/K/L for pane navigation.

Mode	Who handles splits and navigation
ON	ghostty / wezterm (Ctrl+Q leader, Ctrl+H/J/K/L movement)
OFF	tmux (Ctrl+Q passes through as tmux prefix)

terminal-splits on      # ghostty/wezterm handles splits
terminal-splits off     # tmux handles splits
terminal-splits toggle  # switch between modes
terminal-splits status  # show current mode

Available in fish, and PowerShell.

First-time setup (run once after stow .):

terminal-splits on   # or off

• wezterm: reloads automatically when the marker file changes
• ghostty: requires a manual reload via Shift+Cmd+, or Ghostty > Reload Configuration

Mode state is tracked by ~/.config/terminal-splits-on (file exists = ON). The ghostty keybinding file (~/.config/ghostty/splits.ghostty) is a runtime symlink managed by the toggle command and is excluded from git.

Managing dotfiles

# Add a new config file
git add .config/sometool/config
git commit -m "[sometool] add config"
./scripts/render-agent-rules
stow -R .

# Remove symlinks
stow -D .

# Re-apply symlinks
stow -R .

On Windows, use Invoke-Stow.ps1 instead of stow:

# Re-apply links after pulling changes
bash ./scripts/render-agent-rules
./windows/Invoke-Stow.ps1

# Remove links
./windows/Invoke-Stow.ps1 -Mode Unstow