A developer recounts migrating his dotfile management across three Macs from GNU Stow to Chezmoi. The switch stemmed from Stow's symlink approach, which caused automatic write-throughs leading to merge conflicts and inconsistent machines. Chezmoi uses a source-of-truth model with real files instead—changes only land in git when intentional. The post walks through the setup, bootstrapping workflow for new machines, and an unexpected bonus: using Chezmoi to track agent skills for AI coding assistants across multiple tools.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton