dotfiles

Configures fresh VMs (RHEL-family or Debian-family) with a consistent environment. Run ./bootstrap.sh (or curl-pipe it) to apply everything; each module also runs standalone and is safe to re-run.

Quick start

On a fresh box, apply everything with one command:

curl -fsSL https://git.nic-oconnor.com/public/dotfiles/raw/branch/main/bootstrap.sh | sh

When piped like this (no local checkout), bootstrap.sh clones the repo to ~/.dotfiles and runs from there, so git must be installed first. Re-running the command updates the checkout (git pull) and re-applies every module. Override the destination or source with DOTFILES_DIR / DOTFILES_REPO.

Already have a clone? Just run it directly:

./bootstrap.sh

Modules

• zsh/ — installs zsh + oh-my-zsh, drops a managed ~/.zshrc (robbyrussell theme, git plugin), and sets zsh as the login shell. The managed rc sources ~/.zshrc.local last for per-machine customizations (see below).

• git/ — sets git user.name/user.email and configures credential.helper store (plaintext ~/.git-credentials, 0600) for HTTPS auth.

• docker/ — installs full (rootful) Docker Engine from Docker's upstream package repo (get.docker.com on Debian-family; the docker-ce repo wired up directly on RHEL-family, since the convenience script rejects EL rebuilds like Oracle Linux by name), enables the service (systemd hosts), and adds the invoking user to the docker group (takes effect at next login). No-ops where a rootless Docker daemon is already running (e.g. Kasm) so it never fights that setup. Uses sudo.

• bin/ — installs userland devops CLIs as self-contained, statically linked release binaries into ~/.local/bin: jq, kubectl, helm, k9s, kubectx/kubens, stern, yq, OpenTofu, terragrunt, task (go-task, the Taskfile runner), the 1Password CLI op for secrets storage, the opencode coding agent, zarf (DevSecOps for Offline and Airgapped Kubernetes), and packer (HashiCorp's infrastructure build tool). kind is installed only when full (non-rootless) Docker is available — it doesn't work against rootless Docker, so it is skipped on Kasm. No sudo, nothing outside $HOME, so tools persist across Kasm redeploys with no reinstall. Idempotent: each tool records its version under ~/.local/bin/.versions and is skipped when the pinned version is already present. zsh/zshrc puts ~/.local/bin on PATH.

  opencode is configured by mcp-config/: it points at the covert-gpt LiteLLM gateway (https://llm.covert-gpt.com/v1) for models. MCP tools do NOT come from the gateway — it hosts no MCP servers, deliberately; they run client-side under your own credentials (see mcp-config/README.md). Run mcp-config/install.sh once to store your LiteLLM key and enable config sync — without it, opencode installs but can't reach the gateway.

• ansible/ — installs Ansible into a virtualenv at ~/.local/opt/ansible (it's Python, not a single binary) and symlinks its CLIs into ~/.local/bin. Persists across redeploys; only rebuilt when the venv is missing or broken. Building it may install python3/python3-venv via the system package manager (the one place this module uses sudo).

• docker-rootless-cgroup/ — on systemd-less hosts (e.g. Kasm), hand-delegates cgroup v2 controllers to the rootless Docker daemon so per-container cgroups work (rootless Docker otherwise comes up with CgroupDriver=none). Uses sudo for host cgroup writes and restarts the daemon; no-ops on systemd or non-rootless hosts. Re-run at each bootstrap (the cgroup layout resets on redeploy); its PATH shim lives in $HOME.

• mcp-config/ — shared MCP gateway config sync for laptops (LiteLLM / opencode). Run by bootstrap.sh, and standalone too. The config and skills are read from the local checkout, not re-downloaded from Gitea, so this repo does not have to be public for a shell to work; see its own README.

Per-machine customizations and secrets

~/.zshrc is managed — bootstrap overwrites it, so never hand-edit it. Per-machine settings and secrets go in ~/.zshrc.local, which the managed rc sources last (so it can override anything) and bootstrap never touches:

cp zsh/zshrc.local.example ~/.zshrc.local && chmod 600 ~/.zshrc.local

Variables modules look for:

• GITEA_KEY — personal access token for git.nic-oconnor.com. Used for API/CLI work, and by bootstrap.sh/mcp-config/ to read this repo when it is private and there is no checkout yet. With a checkout on disk nothing here needs it; HTTPS git auth otherwise goes through git/'s credential helper.

• LITELLM_KEY — covert-gpt gateway key used by opencode. Normally you don't set this by hand: run mcp-config/install.sh once and its shell hook exports it from ~/.config/mcp-sync/key. Set it in ~/.zshrc.local only on a box without mcp-sync.

• OP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN — 1Password service-account token for non-interactive op read / op run.

• GITEA_KEY, PROXMOX_TOKEN_ID, PROXMOX_TOKEN_SECRET — your own credentials for the client-side MCP servers in mcp-config/. opencode reads them from your environment ({env:VAR}) and passes them to the MCP server it spawns, so the tools act as you. Keep them in ~/.zshrc.local; they are never written into any config file.

  These are NOT used by ai-k8s-iac / task up: the LiteLLM gateway hosts no MCP servers and stores no MCP credentials. See mcp-config/README.md.

• hermes/ — installs Hermes Agent (Nous Research's self-improving AI agent) via npm. Hermes uses npx to spawn and downloads the Python hermes-agent from PyPI. Everything under $HOME, so it survives Kasm redeploys.

  It then merges hermes/gateway.yaml into ~/.hermes/config.yaml, wiring Hermes to the covert-gpt LiteLLM gateway as a named custom provider. The merge is idempotent and touches only that provider entry, so the rest of your personal config is left alone; model.default / model.provider are seeded only on a fresh box. Unlike mcp-config/, this deploys at BOOTSTRAP time, not per-shell — re-run hermes/install.sh to pick up a gateway.yaml change.

  Depends on mcp-config/install.sh having run: gateway.yaml names the key (key_env: LITELLM_KEY) but never contains it, and mcp-config/sync.sh is what exports LITELLM_KEY into your shell. Without it Hermes 401s.

Secrets never go in this repo or in zsh/zshrc — that file is shared config applied to every box.

lib/os-detect.sh provides shared package-manager detection (dnf/yum vs apt); lib/fetch.sh provides arch detection and binary-download helpers. Both are used by module install scripts.