tcarlsen dotfiles

My personal dotfiles setup for macOS. Forked from holman/dotfiles with my own customizations and optimizations.

A huge thanks to Zach Holman for the excellent foundation and philosophy behind this project!

This is a modular, topic-based dotfiles repository designed to be easy to maintain and extend. Everything is organized by topic (node, maven, ruby, etc.), so adding or removing tools is straightforward.

• Shell configuration: Zsh with customized aliases, functions, and key bindings
• Version managers: Node (NVM), Java (SDKMAN), Ruby (chruby)
• Build tools: Maven, Yarn, Docker
• Git configuration: Git aliases and helper scripts
• Homebrew setup: Apps and dependencies via Brewfile
• Useful bin scripts: Custom utilities for common tasks

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/tcarlsen/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles
cd ~/.dotfiles

# Run the bootstrap script (creates symlinks)
script/bootstrap

# Install all Homebrew apps and dependencies
brew bundle

# (Optional) Install any system defaults
# script/install

The bootstrap script will:

• Symlink dotfiles to your home directory
• Set up your .zshrc
• Link all configuration files (.symlink files)

If you make changes to your dotfiles:

cd ~/.dotfiles
# Your changes are already active (most .zsh files are sourced directly)
# Or reload your shell:
source ~/.zshrc

# Commit and push your changes
git add .
git commit -m "Update configuration"
git push

Everything is organized by topic:

zsh/              # Shell configuration
├── config.zsh    # Zsh options and history
├── aliases.zsh   # General shell aliases
└── zshrc.symlink # Main shell config (symlinked to ~/.zshrc)

git/              # Git configuration
├── aliases.zsh   # Git aliases and shortcuts
└── gitconfig.symlink

node/             # Node.js & NVM
maven/            # Maven build tool
sdkman/           # Java & SDKMAN
chruby/           # Ruby & chruby
system/           # System utilities
docker/           # Docker configuration
bin/              # Custom scripts (added to PATH)

• *.zsh: Automatically sourced into your shell environment
• path.zsh: Loaded first - use for PATH setup
• completion.zsh: Loaded last - use for autocomplete
• *.symlink: Gets symlinked to $HOME when you run script/bootstrap
• install.sh: Executed when you run script/install

Some of my most-used custom commands in bin/:

• git-up - Update all git branches
• git-undo - Undo last commit
• git-nuke - Delete branches safely
• git-wtf - Show a fancy branch tree
• git-rank-contributors - See who's committed most

• dot - Run system setup/maintenance
• c - Jump to a project directory (with tab completion)
• extract - Extract any archive file (.zip, .tar.gz, etc.)
• battery-status - Show battery percentage
• set-defaults - Configure macOS defaults

For machine-specific or sensitive settings (API keys, personal tokens, etc.), use ~/.localrc:

# ~/.localrc (not in version control)
export GITHUB_TOKEN="your-token-here"
export DB_PASSWORD="your-password"

This file is sourced automatically by zshrc if it exists.

• Shell aliases: Edit system/aliases.zsh or topic-specific files
• Git config: Edit git/gitconfig.symlink for global, git/gitconfig.local.symlink for local
• Shell options: Edit zsh/config.zsh

Your dotfiles are how you personalize your system.

This structure makes it easy to:

• Keep things organized - Each tool has its own directory
• Version control - Everything is tracked and can be synced
• Avoid conflicts - Local config stays in ~/.localrc
• Fork and customize - Take what you need, modify what you don't

For more on why dotfiles matter, check out Zach's original post.

Big thanks to:

• Zach Holman - For the original dotfiles structure and philosophy
• Ryan Bates - Original inspiration for bash/zsh customization