chezmoi

I’ve been using chezmoi for ages to manage my dotfiles. It’s one of those tools that, once you set it up, you wonder how you ever lived without it. It handles the complexity of keeping my configuration files in sync across my MacBook, my home workstation, and various servers, while also allowing for machine-specific differences through its templating system.

One of the standout features for me is its secure handling of secrets. I can integrate it with password managers or use encryption to keep sensitive information safe while still being able to version control my configurations.

In my remote development workflow, chezmoi plays a critical role in provisioning “instant” dev VMs. My cloud-init scripts automatically initialize the chezmoi repository, and once I authenticate with 1Password, I can instantly apply my dotfiles to configure the Zsh shell, install Homebrew packages, and get right to work.

I’ve documented my specific setup in my chezmoi-dotfiles project.