dotfiles

Automation for setting up my OS

• manifest.yml is the main spec file
• Driven by manifest - a Rust binary from scottidler/manifest

How it works

The manifest tool reads manifest.yml and generates valid bash to provision the system: creating symlinks, installing packages, cloning repos, and running scripts. Pipe to bash to execute.

Run from the repo root:

cd ~/repos/scottidler/dotfiles
manifest | bash

Note: ~/.config/manifest/identity.txt is an age private key used for decrypting secrets. It is backed up in 1Password and must be restored manually on a new machine.

Example: link section

$> manifest -l
#!/bin/bash
# generated file by manifest
...

Example: apt section with pattern matching

$> manifest -a lib
#!/bin/bash
# generated file by manifest
...

Any section flag (-l, -a, -g, etc.) accepts glob patterns to filter items.

Sections in manifest.yml

Section	Description
link	Symlink mappings from HOME/ into $HOME (recursive)
ppa	PPAs to install on Debian systems
pkg	Package names valid for both DNF and APT
apt	Package names specific to APT
dnf	Package names specific to DNF
pip3	Items to install via pip3
uv-tool	Python CLIs to install via uv tool install
npm	Items to install via npm
flatpak	Items to install via flatpak
cargo	Rust crates to install via cargo
github	GitHub repos to clone, build, and link
git-crypt	Encrypted repos to clone and unlock
script	Installation scripts for software requiring custom steps