dotfiles

Personal dotfiles deployed via a small hand-rolled symlinker (see Layout). A single script installs everything, including configs and binaries, to ~/.local/ with no system-wide changes (beyond two narrow exceptions: mosh, and upgrading git itself via PPA when it's too old).

Stack

Layer	Tool
Terminal	Alacritty
Shell	zsh
Prompt	Starship
Multiplexer	Zellij (+ zjstatus status bar)
Editor	Neovim (LazyVim)
Theme	Catppuccin Mocha everywhere
Font	JetBrainsMono Nerd Font (NF/NFM/NFP — not the NL/no-ligature variant)

Quick start

git clone https://github.com/myah-mitchell/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles
cd ~/dotfiles
./install.sh

That's it. The script downloads all binaries and symlinks configs into ~. On WSL2, opening this distro through Windows Alacritty also needs ./install.sh --windows to install Alacritty and the font on the Windows side — see What install.sh does.

Set GITHUB_TOKEN in your environment first if doing a fresh install — unauthenticated GitHub API requests are capped at 60/hr, and this script checks 25+ tools' latest releases.

What install.sh does

1. Downloads pre-built binaries for all tools into bin/.local/bin/ (gitignored)
2. Downloads Starship, Zellij, and Neovim binaries (zsh itself must be pre-installed — see Notes)
3. Symlinks (or, with --copy, copies) every package directory into ~, one file at a time
4. Prunes any dangling symlinks left behind by files that were renamed/removed from the repo
5. Downloads the zsh plugins (autosuggestions, syntax highlighting, alias reminders) and runs a headless :Lazy sync for Neovim
6. Generates init scripts for atuin, starship, zoxide, and carapace
7. Installs Yazi's Catppuccin flavor and plugin set
8. Downloads the Zellij plugins that back the status bar and navigation (zjstatus, zellij-autolock, zellij-newtab-plus), builds zjstatus-hints from source, and pre-approves their Zellij permissions
9. WSL2 + --windows/--full only: installs Alacritty via winget, installs the Nerd Font per-user, and creates a Windows symlink for the Alacritty config — off by default even under WSL2, since not every WSL box is opened through Windows Alacritty. On native Linux/macOS it downloads the font directly instead (unconditionally, no flag needed).

Re-run at any time to apply config changes:

./install.sh              # full run: binaries + config links
./install.sh --update     # force re-download/rebuild all tools to latest, even if current
./install.sh --link       # skip binary downloads, only re-link configs (fast)
./install.sh --copy       # copy configs instead of symlinking (useful on NTFS or shared servers)
./install.sh --remove     # remove all deployed symlinks from $HOME and exit (binaries untouched)
./install.sh --cargo      # build Rust tools from source via cargo instead of downloading (slow)
./install.sh --windows    # install Windows-side integration under WSL2: Alacritty, the font, and the
                           # config symlink — off by default, no-op outside WSL2; implied by --full
./install.sh --claude     # install the Claude Code stack: Claude Code itself, Node.js, ccstatusline,
                           # and claude-swap — off by default, since none of them are useful without
                           # Claude Code; implied by --full
./install.sh --full       # everything --claude and --windows install, plus PowerShell and Neovim's
                           # heavier LSPs (html/css/emmet/bash/php/pyright/powershell_es, ~460MB of
                           # Mason packages) — off by default; skip on servers that just need the shell
./install.sh --nushell    # install Nushell (nu) as an optional secondary shell; zsh stays the
                           # default either way; off by default, not implied by --full
./install.sh --cleanup    # remove rustup/cargo (unless --cargo), orphaned binaries/plugins/npm globals
                           # left behind by removed tools, node/ccstatusline if not --claude/--full,
                           # pwsh + full-only Mason LSPs if not --full, nu if not --nushell, and old
                           # Claude Code version binaries left by its own self-updater

Layout

Each top-level directory is a package. install.sh walks it and symlinks every file into the matching path under $HOME — files mirror the home directory layout:

dotfiles/
├── zsh/.zshenv, .zshrc          → ~/.zshenv, ~/.zshrc
├── zsh/.config/zsh/             → ~/.config/zsh/
├── nushell/.config/nushell/     → ~/.config/nushell/   (only deployed with --nushell)
├── starship/.config/            → ~/.config/
├── zellij/.config/zellij/       → ~/.config/zellij/
├── nvim/.config/nvim/           → ~/.config/nvim/
├── alacritty/.config/alacritty/ → ~/.config/alacritty/
├── git/.gitconfig               → ~/.gitconfig
├── bash/.bashrc, .bash_profile  → ~/.bashrc, ~/.bash_profile
├── bin/.local/bin/              → ~/.local/bin/   (binaries)
└── ssh/.ssh/config              → ~/.ssh/config

A package can drop a .linkignore file in its root (one glob per line) to exclude files that shouldn't be symlinked — e.g. yazi/.linkignore excludes the flavors/plugins directories, since those are managed at runtime by ya pkg instead.

Key bindings

Zellij

Keys	Action
`	Enter prefix (tmux) mode
` + \	Vertical split
` + -	Horizontal split
` + hjkl	Navigate panes
` + H/J/K/L	Move pane
` + c	New tab (floating picker, zoxide-aware)
` + p / n	Prev / next tab
` + [ / ]	Prev / next tab (alternate)
` + 1-9	Jump to tab N
` + x	Close pane
` + z	Fullscreen pane
` + f	Toggle floating panes
` + ,	Rename tab
` + d	Detach session
` + s	Scroll mode
` + /	Search
` + o	Session mode
Ctrl+hjkl	Move between Zellij panes (or Neovim splits)
Ctrl+g	Emergency toggle into/out of locked (full-passthrough) mode

The status bar (bottom, via zjstatus) shows the current mode, open tabs, weather/system/battery info, and the datetime; a second bar shows context-sensitive keybinding hints (via zjstatus-hints).

Unified pane/split navigation

Ctrl+h/j/k/l navigates seamlessly between Zellij panes and Neovim splits:

• In a normal terminal pane, Ctrl+hjkl moves Zellij focus
• When nvim, fzf, zoxide, or atuin is focused, zellij-autolock switches Zellij to passthrough mode so the app receives the keys
• In Neovim, zellij-nav.nvim handles the keys: navigates splits internally, and moves to adjacent Zellij panes at the edge

Clipboard

• Mouse highlight → auto-copies to Windows clipboard
• In Zellij scroll mode, Ctrl+C copies the selection
• Neovim uses unnamedplus clipboard (WSL2 → clip.exe)
• Alacritty Ctrl+Shift+C/V for explicit copy/paste

Packages included

Core tools (binaries downloaded by install.sh)

starship · zellij · nvim · nu (only with --nushell; optional secondary shell, zsh stays the default)

CLI tools

Tool	Alias	Purpose
bat	cat	Syntax-highlighted cat
fd	find	Fast find
ripgrep	grep	Fast grep
ripgrep-all	—	Grep PDFs, archives, etc.
eza	ls	Modern ls replacement, Catppuccin Mocha themed
fzf	—	Fuzzy finder (also bound to Ctrl+F in zsh)
zoxide	cd	Smart cd
yazi	y	File manager
lazygit	lg	Git TUI
serpl	—	TUI search-and-replace across files
difftastic	diff	Structural diff (also GIT_EXTERNAL_DIFF)
delta	gdd/gdds	Syntax-highlighting pager for unified diffs (git dd; difftastic stays the default)
diffnav	gdn/gdns	File-tree diff browser built on delta (git dn)
procs	ps	Process viewer
tailspin	tail	Syntax-highlighted tail
viddy	watch	Watch TUI
bottom	btm	System monitor TUI (standalone, not a top alias)
gping	gping	Graphical ping
trippy	trip	Network tracer
sd	—	Intuitive find-and-replace (standalone, not a sed alias)
choose	—	Human-friendly cut/awk alternative
ouch	—	Universal archive tool
7-Zip (7zz)	—	Archive tool
jq	—	JSON processor
glow	—	Markdown renderer in the terminal
mdcat	—	Markdown renderer with inline images and clickable links (x86_64 only)
carapace	—	Multi-shell argument completions
atuin	—	Shell history (SQLite-backed, per-session isolated)
tealdeer	tldr	Fast tldr pages
presenterm	—	Terminal slideshows
asciinema	—	Terminal recording

command — call native system binaries

When you need the original system tool instead of the Rust replacement, zsh's builtin command bypasses an alias:

command ls -la          # /usr/bin/ls
command du -sh .        # /usr/bin/du
command rm -rf /tmp/x   # /usr/bin/rm

Notes

• zsh: must be pre-installed (apt install zsh / brew install zsh) — install.sh checks for it and exits with instructions rather than installing it, since (unlike mosh below) it's not treated as an exception to the "no system package installs" rule.
• Nushell: optional, via --nushell. zsh is always the default shell; nu is just made available to launch manually. Its config package (~/.config/nushell/) is only deployed when the flag is passed, so a plain install.sh never leaves anything nu-related behind.
• mosh: installed via apt-get if available (no GitHub release binaries). Usually pre-installed on servers.
• git: on Ubuntu/Debian with git older than 2.35, install.sh upgrades it via the git-core PPA — the only other exception to the "no system package installs" rule, needed for zdiff3 merge style.
• zjstatus-hints: has no usable upstream release, so install.sh builds it from source (requires cargo + the wasm32-wasip1 target) off a temporary community fork branch rather than upstream main. See install.sh for details if the hints bar stops building.
• SSH sockets: ~/.ssh/sockets/ is created by install.sh but not tracked in git.

First-time Neovim setup

install.sh already runs a headless :Lazy sync automatically. If plugins didn't finish installing (e.g. it timed out on a slow connection), finish manually:

nvim
# Inside nvim:
# :Lazy sync

Plugins include LazyVim base, Catppuccin theme, zellij-nav.nvim (unified navigation), and opencode.nvim (<leader>ao to toggle).

License

Copyright (c) 2026 Myah Mitchell. Licensed under the MIT License.