dotfiles

Personal dotfiles for macOS. Configuration for zsh, tmux, Ghostty, AeroSpace, and more.

Prerequisites

• macOS
• Homebrew
• A Nerd Font (for powerline glyphs and icons)
• Ghostty terminal (or any terminal with light/dark theme support)
• GNU Stow (brew install stow)

Installation

Clone

git clone git@github.com:<user>/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles

Zsh

Install Oh My Zsh:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Install zsh-appearance-control (automatic light/dark mode switching):

git clone https://github.com/alberti42/zsh-appearance-control.git \
  ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-appearance-control

Install zsh-autosuggestions:

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions \
  ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

Install zsh-syntax-highlighting:

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git \
  ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

Symlink config files:

cd ~/.dotfiles && stow zsh

Starship Prompt

Install Starship:

brew install starship

Two config files handle light/dark theming. They are selected automatically by zsh-appearance-control. No symlinks needed; .zshrc points to them directly via STARSHIP_CONFIG.

• zsh/starship-dark.toml - Nord color palette
• zsh/starship-light.toml - Doom Tomorrow Day color palette

Tmux

Install tmux:

brew install tmux

Install TPM (Tmux Plugin Manager):

git clone https://github.com/tmux-plugins/tpm ~/.tmux/plugins/tpm

Symlink the config:

cd ~/.dotfiles && stow tmux

Start tmux and install plugins:

Ctrl-Space I

This installs:

• nordtheme/tmux - Dark theme
• tmux-battery - Battery status
• tmux-cpu - CPU/RAM status
• tmux-resurrect - Session persistence
• tmux-continuum - Automatic session saving/restoring

Tmux Light Theme (Doom Tomorrow Day)

A custom light theme for tmux that mirrors the Nord dark theme structure, using colors from the doom-tomorrow-day Emacs theme. Located at tmux/themes/:

• doom-tomorrow-day.conf - Base colors, panes, messages
• doom-tomorrow-day-status.conf - Status bar with powerline glyphs
• doom-tomorrow-day.tmux - Loader script (sources both files)

The theme is loaded automatically by the appearance switching system. To load it manually:

bash ~/.dotfiles/tmux/themes/doom-tomorrow-day.tmux

Appearance Switching (Light/Dark Mode)

Automatic theme switching across the terminal stack when macOS toggles between light and dark mode.

How it works:

1. A launchd agent watches ~/Library/Preferences/.GlobalPreferences.plist for changes
2. When macOS appearance changes, it runs zsh/bin/appearance-watcher.sh
3. The watcher calls zsh-appearance-control (zac) dispatch
4. zac triggers zsh/bin/appearance-tmux-switch.sh (via ZAC_IO_CMD) to switch tmux themes
5. zac triggers the deferred callback in .zshrc to switch the starship prompt config
6. Ghostty handles its own switching via theme = light:doom-tomorrow-day,dark:doom-nord

Install the launchd agent:

ln -sf ~/.dotfiles/launchd/com.dotfiles.appearance-switch.plist \
  ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.dotfiles.appearance-switch.plist
launchctl load ~/Library/LaunchAgents/com.dotfiles.appearance-switch.plist

Note: The launchd plist uses a manual symlink since it needs to go into ~/Library/LaunchAgents/, not the home directory.

Verify it's running:

launchctl list | grep appearance

Key files:

File	Purpose
launchd/com.dotfiles.appearance-switch.plist	launchd agent, triggers on appearance change
zsh/bin/appearance-watcher.sh	Reads current appearance, calls zac dispatch
zsh/bin/appearance-tmux-switch.sh	Switches tmux between Nord and doom-tomorrow-day
tmux/themes/doom-tomorrow-day.*	Custom light theme for tmux
zsh/starship-dark.toml	Starship prompt, Nord palette
zsh/starship-light.toml	Starship prompt, Tomorrow Day palette

Tmux Key Bindings

The prefix key is Ctrl-Space.

Binding	Action
Ctrl-Space I	Install TPM plugins
Ctrl-Space r	Reload tmux config
Ctrl-Space v	Split pane vertically
Ctrl-Space s	Split pane horizontally
Ctrl-Space h/j/k/l	Navigate panes (vim-style)
Shift-Left/Right	Switch windows
Alt-1..9	Jump to window by number
Ctrl-Space Enter	Enter copy mode
Ctrl-Space Ctrl-Space	Toggle last window

Directory Structure

~/.dotfiles/
  aerospace/       AeroSpace window manager config
  bash/            Bash config (legacy)
  docs/            Design specs and implementation plans
  gnupg/           GPG agent config
  launchd/         launchd agents (symlinked to ~/Library/LaunchAgents/)
  tmux/
    .tmux.conf     Tmux config (symlinked to ~/.tmux.conf)
    themes/        Custom tmux themes (doom-tomorrow-day)
  vim/             Vim/Neovim config
  warp/            Warp terminal config
  zsh/
    .zshrc         Zsh interactive config (symlinked to ~/.zshrc)
    .zshenv        Zsh environment variables (symlinked to ~/.zshenv)
    bin/            Helper scripts (appearance switching)
    starship-dark.toml   Starship prompt config (dark)
    starship-light.toml  Starship prompt config (light)