Dotfiles — g0dots chezmoi

My personal dotfiles managed with chezmoi. This post walks through the install process, the directory layout, and how each piece fits together — useful if you're considering chezmoi for your own setup, or just curious how a Wayland-focused Linux desktop hangs together.

Install

./install.sh

The script does five things, in order:

1. Updates the system with paru (Arch-based AUR helper).
2. Installs the rest of the dependencies through paru.
3. Installs the SilentSDDM login theme.
4. Installs zed and opencode from their respective sources.
5. Applies the dotfiles tracked in this repo.

That's it. No Ansible, no Puppet, no custom DSL — just chezmoi apply and a thin bash entrypoint that calls it after the package layer is ready.

Architecture overview

Everything lives under private_dot_config/, which chezmoi templates straight into ~/.config/. The directory map roughly mirrors the system it configures:

private_dot_config/
├── niri/              # Window manager
├── ghostty/           # Terminal + themes
├── waybar/            # Status bar
├── rofi/              # App launcher + scripts
├── mako/              # Notification daemon
├── hypr/              # Screen locker + idle
├── fastfetch/         # System info
├── gtk-3.0/           # GTK3 theme
├── gtk-4.0/           # GTK4 theme
├── zed/               # Editor config + theme
└── systemd/user/      # User services

The split between hypr/ (locker) and niri/ (compositor) is unusual — most setups using niri would store everything under niri/. The reason is that hyprlock and hypridle are still used here even though the compositor is niri, because nothing equivalent has matured yet for scrollable-tiling Wayland compositors.

Window manager — niri

niri is a scrollable tiling Wayland compositor — think i3 semantics with a horizontal scroll axis instead of a tree. Config lives at private_dot_config/niri/config.kdl.

The keymap I'm using:

Key	Action
Mod+Return	Open terminal (ghostty)
Mod+Space	Open app launcher (rofi)
Mod+V	Open clipboard manager
Mod+B	Change wallpaper
Mod+Shift+Escape	Power menu
Mod+1-9	Switch workspace
Mod+Q	Close window
Mod+F	Maximize column
Print	Screenshot

Two services start automatically with the session: waybar for the bar, and wl-paste --watch clipvault store for clipboard history.

Terminal — ghostty

Ghostty is the daily-driver terminal here. Config lives at private_dot_config/ghostty/config.

Three themes cycle through the rotation:

• panda — the default, dark
• stardust — warmer dark
• catppuccin-macchiato — pastel dark

Font is JetBrainsMono Nerd Font, which provides the icons that waybar, rofi, and prompt glyphs all depend on.

Splits use ctrl+h/j/k/l for navigation, cmd+h/l for tabs, and super+ctrl+h/j/k/l to resize.

Status bar — waybar

waybar is a 24px bar pinned to the top of the screen. The config is split across three files for clarity: config.jsonc (modules and layout), style.css (geometry and typography), color.css (palette tokens — same colors as the GTK themes so the whole UI stays consistent).

The current setup only ships the clock module. Adding more (network, battery, audio) is a matter of enabling modules in config.jsonc — their styling is already routed through color.css.

Launcher — rofi

rofi does more than launch apps here. It also handles:

Script	Purpose
rofi-launcher	App drawer (drun mode)
rofi-clipboard	Clipboard history via clipvault
rofi-bgselector	Wallpaper selector
rofi-powermenu	Shutdown / reboot / lock / logout
rofi-confirm	Generic confirmation dialog

Each script has its own .rasi theme — appdrawer.rasi, powermenu.rasi, clipboard.rasi, bgselector.rasi, confirm.rasi — so the visual language can shift per context without rewriting rofi calls.

Editor — Zed

zed is configured under private_dot_config/zed/, including a custom theme at themes/aura-blur.json (Vesper Blur base with a darker overlay).

Two integrations worth noting:

• yaak MCP server for remote AI assistance.
• opencode agent server for in-editor coding workflows.

Both are wired through Zed's settings, not external scripts.

Lock + idle — hyprlock + hypridle

hyprlock config sits at private_dot_config/hypr/hyprlock.conf, hypridle at hypridle.conf. The lock script lockbg.sh picks a random wallpaper from ~/.config/niri/walls and shows a face icon sourced from the SDDM theme.

Idle behavior:

• 5 minutes idle → lock screen
• 10 minutes idle → monitors off

On wake, niri is configured to bring monitors back up so the session isn't stranded on a black screen.

Notifications — mako

mako is a tiny Wayland notification daemon. The config sets JetBrainsMono as the font, positions notifications at bottom-center, and styles them with rounded corners on a dark surface. Volume / mute notifications route through the same daemon so audio events get the same visual treatment.

Systemd user services

Two services are enabled per-user:

• clipvault-watcher.service — watches clipboard changes and writes them to clipvault's store. This is what makes Mod+V (or the rofi clipboard script) show actual history.
• awww-daemon.service — the wallpaper daemon. Waybar and the rofi bgselector both rely on it being up.

Both services live at ~/.config/systemd/user/ and can be enabled with systemctl --user enable --now <name>.service.

Why chezmoi

chezmoi was picked over alternatives for a few reasons:

• Plain files: dotfiles stay readable, diffable, and reviewable on GitHub. No special DSL to learn.
• Cross-machine templating: the same repo can target different hosts via chezmoi init + .chezmoi.toml overrides.
• Secrets handling: secrets stay out of the repo, sourced from environment variables or pass at apply time.

The trade-off is that anything too dynamic (live workspace state, ephemeral tokens) doesn't fit the model and stays out of the repo.

Where to look next

If you're curious about a specific piece, the most self-contained ones to read first are:

• private_dot_config/rofi/ — small, scoped scripts with their own themes. Good template for adding a new rofi mode.
• private_dot_config/hypr/lockbg.sh — short bash glue between hypridle and aww / random wallpapers.
• private_dot_config/zed/themes/aura-blur.json — a custom theme on top of an existing one, useful as a starting point for your own.