Environment variables
Complete reference for DF_* variables and the tool-standard ones this repo cares about. All DF_* flags are read in install/_lib.sh or bootstrap.sh. Set in your shell, prepend to a single command, or persist via chezmoi data.
Configuration
Section titled “Configuration”| Var | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
DF_NAME | (prompts) | Display name. Pre-seed to skip the chezmoi prompt on first run. |
DF_EMAIL | (prompts) | Email. Pre-seed to skip the chezmoi prompt on first run. |
DF_REPO | cadebrown/dotfiles | GitHub owner/repo slug used by curl-bootstrap. Override to fork. |
DF_PATH | (auto-detect) | Where the repo lives. Local runs use the script directory; piped runs clone to $HOME/dotfiles. |
DF_LINK | $HOME/dotfiles | Symlink in $HOME that points at DF_PATH. |
DF_DIRS | dev:bones:misc | Colon-separated list of subdirs created in $HOME by install/dirs.sh. |
Behavior toggles
Section titled “Behavior toggles”| Var | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
DF_USE_PLAT | 0 | Per-PLAT directory isolation. 1 enables $LOCAL_PLAT=$HOME/.local/$PLAT; 0 collapses to $HOME/.local. Accepts 1|true|yes|on (case-insensitive). See PLAT isolation. |
DF_BREW_UPGRADE | 0 | Whether to upgrade existing formulae/casks. Auto-set to 1 in upgrade mode on both platforms. |
DF_BREW_DOWNLOAD_CONCURRENCY | 4 | Maximum simultaneous Homebrew bottle/cask downloads. |
DF_BREW_UPGRADE_CASKS | auto | Upgrade greedy casks with a cached sudo ticket, maintained by interactive bootstrap; set 0 to skip or 1 to explicitly enable the upgrade path. |
DF_SUDO | auto | On macOS, authenticate once in an interactive terminal and maintain the sudo timestamp until bootstrap exits. Unattended runs only refresh existing authentication. Set 0 to disable the helper. Linux never uses it. |
DF_STRICT_UPGRADE | 1 | Run install/audit-versions.sh --strict after bootstrap.sh upgrade; set 0 for a report-only audit. |
DF_MCP_PROFILES | unset: all in Codex, core in other harnesses | Colon/comma/space-separated MCP profiles. * selects all; core or explicitly empty selects core only. Core servers are always selected. Codex’s ordinary sync enables all managed servers unless this variable explicitly narrows the set. |
DF_CURSOR_WORKER | 1 when Cursor setup runs on macOS | 0 bootouts and disables the My Machines computer-use LaunchAgent. |
DF_CURSOR_WORKER_NAME | hostname -s | My Machines worker name. Runtime-only so NFS templates stay identical. |
DF_CURSOR_WORKER_DIRS | empty | Extra colon-separated --worker-dir paths for df-cursor-worker. |
DF_DEBUG | 0 | Set to 1 for verbose [dbug] output with timing info on every run_logged command. |
DF_FORCE | 0 | Used by install/plat-decommission.sh to skip the deletion confirmation prompt. |
DF_CARGO_STRATEGIES | (unset) | Override cargo binstall --strategies. E.g. compile to skip GitHub release fetchers (useful behind a VPN). |
Scratch space
Section titled “Scratch space”| Var | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
DF_SCRATCH | (unset) | Path to scratch root. Setting this enables scratch mode (symlinks heavy $HOME dirs). |
DF_SCRATCH_LINK | $HOME/scratch | The $HOME symlink that points at scratch. Bootstrap creates this if DF_SCRATCH is set. |
DF_LINKS | ~/.local:~/.cache:~/.cass:~/.vscode:~/.vscode-server:~/.cursor-server:~/.nv:~/.npm:~/.oh-my-zsh:~/.oh-my-zsh-custom:~/kb:~/.computelab:~/.agent-browser:~/.gradle | Colon-separated top-level dirs to redirect to scratch. TinyTeX lives below $LOCAL_PLAT; ~/.cursor is chezmoi-owned. |
DF_CONFIG_LINKS | Code | Colon-separated ~/.config subdir names to redirect to scratch (never ~/.config itself — chezmoi owns it). |
DF_CURSOR_LINKS | projects:worktrees | Colon-separated ~/.cursor subdir names to redirect to scratch (never ~/.cursor itself — chezmoi owns it). |
DF_CLAUDE_LINKS | projects:plugins:file-history | Colon-separated ~/.claude subdir names to redirect to scratch (never ~/.claude itself — chezmoi owns it). Drop projects to keep history + memory on NFS. |
DF_CODEX_LINKS | sessions:generated_images:cache:plugins:attachments:shell_snapshots:log:backups:.tmp:tmp | Colon-separated ~/.codex subdir names to redirect to scratch (never ~/.codex itself). Top-level *.sqlite files ride along. Set empty to skip ~/.codex entirely. |
The five *_LINKS vars treat a set-but-empty value as “migrate nothing here”; unset restores the default.
See Scratch space.
Skip flags
Section titled “Skip flags”Each DF_DO_* flag defaults to 1 (run) except where the table says otherwise.
Set a flag to 0 to skip it.
| Var | Step | Skips |
|---|---|---|
DF_DO_SCRATCH | 0 | Scratch space symlink setup (auto-0 in update/upgrade modes) |
DF_DO_DIRS | 0.1 | ~/dev, ~/bones, ~/misc creation |
DF_DO_PACKAGES | 4 | Homebrew + brew bundle |
DF_DO_LLDB | 4 | LLDB debugger and lldb-dap adapter |
DF_DO_MACOS_SERVICES | 5 | Colima service registration (macOS) |
DF_DO_MACOS_SETTINGS | 5.5 | Dock/Finder/keyboard/etc. defaults (macOS) |
DF_DO_MACOS_QUICK_ACTIONS | 5.6 | Finder Quick Actions install (macOS) |
DF_DO_ZSH | 3 | oh-my-zsh + plugins |
DF_DO_PYTHON | 6 | uv + per-tool isolated venvs |
DF_DO_NODE | 6 | nvm + Node.js + global npm packages |
DF_DO_RUST | 6 | rustup + cargo tools |
DF_DO_GO | 6 | Go CLI tools from go.txt |
DF_DO_JULIA | 6 | Juliaup release channel and PLAT-isolated depots |
DF_DO_LEAN | 6 | Lean 4 toolchain (elan + the pinned default toolchain) |
DF_DO_LATEX | 6 | TeX distribution (MacTeX verify on macOS, TinyTeX on Linux) |
DF_DO_QUARTO | 4 | Quarto cask verification on macOS or rootless release install on Linux |
DF_DO_CLAUDE | 6 | Claude Code binary + plugins + MCP servers + overlay skills |
DF_DO_CODEX | 6 | Codex CLI binary + managed config + hooks |
DF_DO_CLAUDE_DESKTOP | 6 | Claude Desktop tracked preferences (macOS) |
DF_DO_CODEX_DESKTOP | 6 | Codex desktop app tracked preferences (macOS) |
DF_DO_LINEARMOUSE | 6 | LinearMouse tracked settings (macOS) |
DF_DO_CURSOR | 6 | Cursor settings, MCP, CLI merge, extensions, and My Machines worker. Defaults to 1 on macOS and 0 on Linux; set 1 explicitly when a Linux Cursor CLI is installed. |
DF_DO_VSCODE | 6 | VS Code settings + extensions. Defaults to 1 on macOS and 0 on Linux; set 1 explicitly when a Linux code CLI is installed. |
DF_DO_CMAKE | 6 | CMake toolchain file deployment |
DF_DO_LOCAL_LLM | 6.5 | Local LLM tooling (HuggingFace cache + binary checks). Defaults to 0 for DF_PROFILE=core, 1 for full; explicit overrides are retained. |
DF_DO_OPENCODE | 6.5 | OpenCode config reconciliation, independent of local inference. Defaults to the value of DF_DO_NODE (normally 1). |
DF_DO_MEMORY | 6.6 | Agent memory stack (cass + qmd + ~/kb + daemons) |
DF_DO_SKILLS | 6.65 | Agent skills from agent-skills.txt |
DF_DO_BLENDER_MCP | 6.7 | Default 1 on macOS, 0 on Linux. Set to 0 to skip the Blender MCP addon. |
DF_DO_AUTH | 7 | Default 0. Set to 1 to run interactive token setup. |
DF_DO_OVERLAYS | 8 | Skip all overlay bootstrap scripts |
Internal (set by _lib.sh, not user-facing)
Section titled “Internal (set by _lib.sh, not user-facing)”These are exported by _lib.sh for install scripts to consume — don’t override unless you know why.
| Var | Source | Value |
|---|---|---|
OS | _lib.sh | darwin or linux |
ARCH | _lib.sh | x86_64 or aarch64 (normalized) |
PLAT | _lib.sh | Detected platform name (e.g. plat_Darwin_arm64); empty if no spec matches |
LOCAL_PLAT | _lib.sh | Install root: $HOME/.local (flat) or $HOME/.local/$PLAT (PLAT-on) |
ARCH_BIN | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/bin |
RUSTUP_HOME | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/rustup |
CARGO_HOME | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/cargo |
CARGO_TARGET_DIR | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/cargo-build (workaround for macOS Sequoia ar/ld in /var/folders/) |
NVM_DIR | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/nvm |
ELAN_HOME | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/elan (Lean toolchains — arch-specific, ~1.5 GB each) |
JULIAUP_DEPOT_PATH | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/julia/juliaup |
JULIA_DEPOT_PATH | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/julia/depot (compiled per-arch artifacts) |
UV_TOOL_BIN_DIR | _lib.sh | $ARCH_BIN (where uv tool entrypoints land) |
UV_TOOL_DIR | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/uv/tools (per-tool venvs) |
UV_PYTHON_INSTALL_DIR | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/uv/python (uv-managed Python) |
PYTHON_ENV | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/python (small environment behind plain python, including packages/python.txt) |
CONAN_HOME | _lib.sh | $LOCAL_PLAT/conan2 |
DF_ROOT | _lib.sh | The dotfiles repo root (parent of install/) |
DF_PACKAGES | _lib.sh | $DF_ROOT/packages |
DF_OVERLAYS | _lib.sh | Bash array of discovered dotfiles-*/ overlay paths |
DF_INSTALL_DIR | bootstrap.sh | $DF_ROOT/install |
DF_MODE | bootstrap.sh | install, update, or upgrade |
GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL | _lib.sh | Forced to /dev/null so install scripts aren’t affected by SSH-rewriting gitconfig |
Pre-seeding chezmoi
Section titled “Pre-seeding chezmoi”These get cached in ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml on first init and don’t re-prompt:
| chezmoi data key | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|
name | DF_NAME env or interactive prompt | Used in templates as {{ .name }} |
email | DF_EMAIL env or interactive prompt | Used in templates as {{ .email }} |
use_plat | DF_USE_PLAT env or false default | Used in templates as {{ .use_plat }} to gate PLAT-isolated paths |
Edit ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml directly to change these without re-running chezmoi init.