dotship

A cli-based tool for managing dotfiles. Browse any public GitHub repository, pick the config files you need, and save them exactly where they belong on your machine.

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18 or later

Installation

Global install

npm install -g dotship@latest

Then run it anywhere:

dotship

One-off execution

npx dotship@latest

How it works

1. Paste a GitHub repo URL (e.g. https://github.com/user/dotfiles)
2. Browse the repository's files and folders
3. Select a file you want
4. Enter the destination path on your machine (supports ~ expansion)
5. Confirm — dotship downloads the file and saves it

If a file already exists at the destination, you'll see a warning before anything is overwritten.

Manifest file (for repo authors)

If a repository contains a .dotship.yml at its root, dotship will detect it automatically and offer to install all files at once — no manual browsing required.

Example .dotship.yml

files:
  ghostty/config: ~/.config/ghostty/config
  .zshrc: ~/.zshrc
  starship.toml: ~/.config/starship.toml
  nvim/init.lua: ~/.config/nvim/init.lua

• Keys are paths relative to the repo root
• Values are destination paths on the user's machine (~ is expanded to the home directory)

When a user runs dotship on your repo, they'll see a summary of all file mappings with an option to install everything in one go. Files that would overwrite existing files are marked with a warning.

Controls

| Key | Action | | ----------- | ---------------- | | ↑ ↓ | Navigate items | | Enter | Select / confirm | | Backspace | Go back | | Esc | Exit |

Contributing

1. Fork the repo and clone it
2. Install dependencies:

npm install

3. Start the dev watcher (recompiles on file changes):

npm run dev

4. In a separate terminal, run the CLI:

npm start

5. Run tests:

npm test

Project structure

source/
  cli.tsx              Entry point
  app.tsx              Main app state machine
  theme.ts             Color tokens for theming
  components/
    Header.tsx         Gradient ASCII header
    CommandInput.tsx   GitHub URL input
    RepoBrowser.tsx    File/folder browser
    DestinationInput.tsx  Save path input
    FileConfirm.tsx    Single file confirmation
    ManifestReview.tsx Manifest batch install review
    ManifestDone.tsx   Batch install results
    Spinner.tsx        Loading animation
    StatusBar.tsx      Keyboard shortcut hints
  utils/
    github.ts          GitHub API, manifest parsing, file system helpers

Submitting changes

1. Create a branch for your change
2. Make sure npm test passes
3. Open a pull request against develop

License

MIT