# A new Mac in one command

> Keep your machine's config in its own repo, then set up a new Mac from it with bootstrap.sh.

zc-workstation is the tool; your machine’s setup lives in a second repo, a _config repo_, which you can keep private. A new Mac then needs one command.

## The config repo

A config repo holds a `zc-workstation.yaml` and the files its targets point at. Paths in the config are relative to it, so the repo works wherever it is cloned. A layout that works well:

```
zc-workstation.yaml   targets: packages, home, theme, runtimes, look
Brewfile              every app and command-line tool
mise.toml             runtimes
home/                 chezmoi source for ~, with run_onchange_ scripts
apps/, scripts/       data and scripts the run scripts use
```

```yaml
version: 1
targets:
  - name: packages
    provider: packages
    os: [darwin]
    file: Brewfile
  - name: home
    provider: dotfiles
    source: home
  - name: theme
    provider: dotfiles
    source: ../zc-workstation/assets/theme
  - name: runtimes
    provider: tools
    file: mise.toml
  - name: look
    provider: desktop
    os: [darwin]
    wallpaper: ../zc-workstation/assets/wallpaper/zc-workstation-laptop-dark.png
    screensaver: ../zc-workstation/assets/screensaver/index.html
    accent: blue
```

The packages come first, so the targets after them find chezmoi and mise.

### Setup steps that are not files

Some setup is a command, not a file: loading a launch agent, writing macOS defaults, creating a signing key. Put each one in a chezmoi [run script](https://www.chezmoi.io/user-guide/use-scripts-to-perform-actions/) in `home/`, named `run_onchange_after_NN-name.sh.tmpl`. chezmoi runs it after the files are written, and again only when its content changes. To rerun it when a data file changes, put the file’s hash in a comment:

```bash
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# macos.sh {{ include "../scripts/macos.sh" | sha256sum }}
"{{ .chezmoi.sourceDir | dir }}/scripts/macos.sh"
```

`{{ .chezmoi.sourceDir | dir }}` is the config repo itself. The plan shows each pending script as an `UPDATE` with chezmoi’s `R` status. Scripts run attached to your terminal, so they can ask a question, such as the git identity.

### The runtimes config

mise reads its global config from `~/.config/mise/config.toml`. Link it to the repo’s `mise.toml` with a chezmoi symlink template, `home/dot_config/mise/symlink_config.toml.tmpl`, holding `{{ .chezmoi.sourceDir | dir }}/mise.toml`. Then a tool you add with `mise use -g` lands in the repo.

## bootstrap.sh

On a new Mac, in Terminal.app:

```console
$ curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ZoolCoder/zc-workstation/main/bootstrap.sh | bash -s -- OWNER/CONFIG-REPO
```

It:

1.  installs Homebrew, which also installs the Xcode command line tools
    
2.  installs git, gh, go, chezmoi and mise
    
3.  logs you in to GitHub, so git can clone a private config repo
    
4.  clones zc-workstation and the config repo into `~/Developer/Tools`, keeping either if it is already there
    
5.  builds zc-workstation with `make install` into `~/.local/bin`
    
6.  trusts the config’s `mise.toml`
    
7.  shows the plan, applies it, and applies again if anything is left, such as runtimes planned before mise arrived
    

It is safe to run again. `ZC_TOOL_FROM` and `ZC_CONFIG_FROM` clone from somewhere else, such as a local copy in a VM test.

## Keeping Macs in step

Change the config repo, `zc-workstation plan`, `zc-workstation apply`, commit and push. On another Mac, pull and apply. A shell function that pulls both repos, rebuilds zc-workstation when it changed, and applies keeps this to one word.