Alankrit's Dotfiles

Declarative configuration for Darwin (macOS) and Linux systems using chezmoi, nix and home-manager.

Prerequisites

macOS

• Xcode Command Line Tools (required for building packages):

  xcode-select --install

Quick Setup

sh -c "$(curl -fsLS get.chezmoi.io)" -- init --apply alankritjoshi

This will:

1. Install chezmoi and setup dotfiles in ~/.local/share/chezmoi
2. Run chezmoi apply -> run the .chezmoiscripts and sync dotfiles
3. Install Nix and, if a Mac, setup nix-darwin
4. Install common nixpkgs + brew and mas for Mac packages
5. Run home manager for some configs that are more nix-like

Daily Usage

Modifying existing config

For changes to chezmoi-tracked files:

• Option 1
  • Make changes to the synced config e.g., ~/.config/nvim/init.lua. Test it out
  • chezmoi re-add
• Option 2
  • Make changes and save+push on exit with chezmoi edit ~/.config/nvim/init.lua

Recommended for

1. Small changes to exiting configuration files tracked by chezmoi
2. Non-nix related changes

Applying/removing new config

• For additions/removals of files, previous workflow will become annoying as those commands do not work on untracked files
• Previous workflow doesn't run chezmoi scripts that are sometimes necessary
• chezmoi add <new file> and chezmoi destroy will have to be used in confunction with chezmoi re-add

Instead, do:

1. chezmoi cd - to cd into ~/.local/share/chezmoi which is source of truth from remote and includes all the scripts
2. Make any changes - add, delete, edit. Note that it won't be effective in the system yet
3. Sync to system and make the changes effective with chezmoi apply

Recommended for

1. Large changes to Neovim configuration, including addition/removal of plugins
2. Any changes to nix configuration, as those changes typically require execution of scripts

Update

If dotfiles remote is ahead of configuration on the device, run chezmoi update to pull and apply the remote changes

Update nix packages

nix flake update

Apply without scripts

Sometimes, especially when debugging, script execution may need to be excluded

chezmoi apply --exclude scripts

Architecture

~/.local/share/chezmoi/           # Dotfiles repo
├── private_dot_config/
│   ├── nix/                                          # System configuration
│   │   ├── flake.nix                                 # Main flake
│   │   ├── devshell.nix                              # Dev shells
│   │   ├── machines/                                 # Machine configs
│   │   └── modules/                                  # Modular configs
│   ├── fish/                                         # Fish shell
│   ├── aerospace/                                    # Window manager
│   └── nvim/                                         # Neovim config
├── key.txt.age                                       # Rage `passphrase` encrypted key
├── private_dot_ssh/
│   └── encrypted_private_id_ed25519_*.age            # Rage `Key` encrypted SSH Keys
├── .chezmoiscripts/                                  # Bootstrap scripts
└── CLAUDE.md                                         # AI assistant guide

SSH Key Management

How encryption was done

1. Main key.txt was generated with rage-keygen -o key.txt and rage encrypted with passphrase as key.txt.age
2. SSH Key pair was generated for each machine
3. Main key.txt was used to rage encrypt SSH keys in .private_dot_ssh

How decryption works

1. First time setup script run by chezmoi prompts user for passphrase to rage decrypt key.txt.age
2. Once decrypted in ~/.config/chezmoi/key.txt, chezmoi automatically uses it to rage decrypt the ssh keys and puts them in ~/.ssh

Troubleshooting

Nix conflicts

# Move conflicting files
sudo mv /etc/nix/nix.conf /etc/nix/nix.conf.before-nix-darwin
chezmoi apply

Build failures

# Detailed error trace
darwin-rebuild build --flake ~/.config/nix#$(hostname -s) --show-trace

Nix store corruption (missing .drv files)

If you get errors like error: opening file '/nix/store/...-user-dbus-services.drv': No such file or directory:

# 1. Find what references the missing derivations
sudo nix-store --query --referrers /nix/store/missing-file.drv

# 2. Delete the chain of problematic derivations
sudo nix-store --delete --ignore-liveness \
  /nix/store/problematic-derivation-1.drv \
  /nix/store/problematic-derivation-2.drv

# 3. Clean up the nix database
sudo sqlite3 /nix/var/nix/db/db.sqlite \
  "DELETE FROM ValidPaths WHERE path LIKE '%missing-derivation%';"

# 4. Clear caches and rebuild
rm -rf ~/.cache/nix/*
sudo rm -rf /tmp/nix-*
chezmoi apply

Rollback

sudo darwin-rebuild rollback

Important Notes

• Always use chezmoi apply - never run darwin-rebuild directly
• Unknown hostname: Script will prompt to select configuration

License

MIT