Dotfiles

EJ Fox Dotfiles Configuration

Personal terminal environment optimized for minimalist productivity and AI-enhanced workflows.

Overview

A comprehensive dotfiles configuration emphasizing geometric aesthetics, functional minimalism, and modern CLI tools. Built around the philosophy of distraction-free computing with intelligent automation.

Core Philosophy

• Geometric symbols throughout interface (◆ ◇ ○ ▪ ─)
• Theme-agnostic design (adapts to light/dark mode automatically)
• Zen mode for deep focus across all applications
• Modern CLI tools replacing legacy Unix commands
• AI integration for context-aware assistance

Shell Configuration

ZSH (.zshrc)

Primary shell configuration with modern enhancements:

Key Features:

• Oh My Zsh with Powerlevel10k prompt
• Ruby environment via rbenv (replaced RVM)
• Email workflow integration
• Modern CLI aliases (lsd, bat, dust, duf, btop)
• Lazy-loaded tools (conda, zoxide, atuin) for performance
• UV Python package management

Notable Aliases:

alias l='lsd -lah'           # Enhanced ls with icons
alias c='clear && refresh'   # Clear and refresh
alias m='neomutt'           # Email client
alias ei='email-insights'    # AI email analysis

CIPHER Morning Ritual (Dec 2025)

AI-powered daily planning system that runs on first terminal boot.

Location: ~/.dotfiles/bin/morning-ritual

What it does: CIPHER analyzes your entire context and suggests 12 pomodoros RANKED BY PRIORITY. Pick your top 3 via fzf multi-select.

Context gathered:

• Things.app tasks (Today + Anytime lists)
• Calendar events via icalBuddy
• Recent git activity across ~/code
• Command history patterns
• GitHub notifications, PRs awaiting review
• Obsidian week note + 5 recent docs
• Day/time energy state (weekend vs weekday)

Architecture:

.startup.sh runs on first boot
    ↓
Gather ALL context (Things, calendar, git, Obsidian, GitHub)
    ↓
Send to Claude CLI with CIPHER persona
    ↓
fzf with 12 ranked pomodoros (#01-#12)
    ↓
TAB to multi-select, Enter to accept
    ↓
Selected tasks added to Things inbox

CIPHER personality: Terse, insightful, William Gibson meets Unix philosophy. Dry wit with competence. Geometric symbols: ◆ ◇ ○ ●

Usage:

morning-ritual              # Force run
rm /tmp/morning_ritual/last_run && morning-ritual  # Reset today

AI-Powered Git Commits (Dec 2025)

Location: ~/.dotfiles/bin/ai-commit

Usage: In lazygit, press a key after staging files.

Flow:

Stage files in lazygit (space)
    ↓
Hit 'a' key
    ↓
ai-commit gathers: staged diff, branch name, recent commits
    ↓
Claude returns 3 conventional commit messages
    ↓
fzf with diff preview (60% right pane)
    ↓
Select message, commit executes

Lazygit config: ~/.config/lazygit/config.yml

customCommands:
  - key: "a"
    context: "files"
    description: "AI commit (fzf + Claude)"
    subprocess: true
    command: 'MSG=$(ai-commit) && git commit -m "$MSG"'

Terminal & Multiplexer

Tmux (.tmux.conf)

Minimalist terminal multiplexer configuration:

Visual Design:

• No colors (theme-agnostic)
• Geometric pane count indicators (⚌ ☰ ⚍ ⚏ ☷)
• Centered window list
• Prefix indicator: ◼ (when active)

Key Bindings:

Prefix: C-a
Windows: Alt+h/l (prev/next)
Panes: hjkl (vim-style)
Resize: HJKL (capital letters)
Split: - (horizontal), _ (vertical)

Tmux 2025 Popup Workflows (Nov 2025)

Modern popup workflows that float over your pane layout:

Popups:

• C-a g → Lazygit popup in current directory
• C-a K → Yazi file manager popup
• C-a S → Scratch terminal toggle (persistent)

Pane Capture:

• C-a C-y → Yank entire pane to clipboard
• C-a M-y → Yank last 200 lines to clipboard

Mermaid-ASCII Integration (Sept 2025)

Send ASCII diagrams to tmux panes.

Functions:

• send-mermaid <pane> - Send diagram to pane
• test-mermaid [pane] - Quick test (defaults to 0:6.2)
• setup-diagram-listener <pane> - Auto-refresh display

Critical rules:

• Use multiline syntax (not semicolons)
• Always use -a flag for ASCII-only mode

echo "graph TD
A[Start] --> B[Process]
B --> C[End]" | mermaid-ascii -a > /tmp/diagram.txt
tmux send-keys -t 0:6.2 "cat /tmp/diagram.txt" Enter

Development Environment

Neovim (0.11+)

LazyVim configuration with minimal aesthetics.

0.11 Features (Nov 2025):

• Built-in LSP auto-completion (opt-in)
• Async treesitter parsing
• Virtual lines for diagnostics
• Shell prompt jumping with and in terminal

Essential Plugins (Nov 2025)

oil.nvim - Filesystem as a buffer

-        Open parent directory
<CR>     Open file/directory
g.       Toggle hidden files

vim-tmux-navigator - Seamless navigation

Ctrl-h/j/k/l  Move between nvim splits AND tmux panes

tmux-thumbs - Vimium-style hints

prefix + Space  Show letter hints on visible text

nvim-dap - Debugging

<leader>db  Toggle breakpoint
<leader>dc  Start/continue
<leader>di  Step into
<leader>do  Step over

kulala.nvim - HTTP client

<CR>        Execute request under cursor
[r / ]r     Jump between requests
<leader>rc  Copy as cURL

git-conflict.nvim - Merge conflicts

co  Choose ours
ct  Choose theirs
cb  Choose both
[x / ]x  Jump between conflicts

Vulpes Shader System (Nov 2025)

Custom GLSL shaders for Ghostty terminal.

Location: ~/.config/ghostty/shaders/

Stack (order matters):

1. cursor-blaze-vulpes.glsl - Hot pink cursor trail (#ff268c)
2. bloom-vulpes.glsl - Red-selective glow effect
3. vignette-subtle.glsl - Subtle edge darkening
4. tft-subtle.glsl - LCD subpixel effect

Reload: Cmd+Shift+, in Ghostty

mini.animate (Nov 2025)

Location: ~/.config/nvim/lua/plugins/mini-animate.lua

Subtle animations:

• Cursor: 80ms cubic easing
• Resize: 60ms cubic
• Open/Close: 60ms cubic
• Scroll: DISABLED

Sketchybar

CIPHER Coach (Nov 2025)

Location: ~/.config/sketchybar/plugins/next_event.sh

When no calendar events in next 4 hours, shows CIPHER-selected task from Things.

Features:

• Shows next timed event with countdown
• Skips all-day events
• CIPHER mode picks most joyful task when calendar is clear
• Caches messages, updates when tasks change

Battery Fade Effect

Location: ~/.config/sketchybar/plugins/battery.sh

Smooth gradient from black to red as battery drains (20min → 0min).

Modern CLI Tools

Replacements for traditional Unix commands:

• lsd → ls (with icons and colors)
• bat → cat (syntax highlighting)
• dust → du (disk usage visualization)
• duf → df (disk free with graphs)
• btop → top (modern system monitor)
• zoxide → cd (smart directory jumping)
• atuin → history (encrypted shell history)

tips.txt - Videogame Loading Screen Vibes

Location: ~/tips.txt (symlinked from dotfiles) | View full tips.txt on GitHub Gist

All custom shortcuts organized by category. Type tip to see a random one.

What's in it:

• All nvim fuzzy finder aliases (v, n, vs, vg, o, r)
• Oil.nvim filesystem editing tricks
• Complete tmux keybindings (pane selection M-1 through M-9)
• LSP navigation shortcuts
• Merge conflict resolution keys
• Git/GitHub utilities (ghpub, ??, commit)
• Clipboard/JSON tools (pbjson, jcurl, showcase)
• Python uv commands
• IRC commands

Why it goes hard: Quick reference for commands you forget. CIPHER bot can read these for contextual suggestions.

CLI Nvim Fuzzy Finder Aliases

Single-letter commands that open nvim with fuzzy finding built in. Search happens at CLI level before nvim opens.

Alias	Command	Description
v	nvim	Just nvim
n	nvim .	Open current directory with oil.nvim browser
vs	fzf + bat preview	Fuzzy find files with syntax-highlighted preview
vg	ripgrep + fzf	Grep file contents, fuzzy find match, open file
o	fd + fzf (Obsidian)	Obsidian vault fuzzy finder, sorted by modification time
r	fd + fzf (~/code)	Recent files across ALL projects (the game changer)

The r command:

• Searches entire ~/code directory for recently edited files
• Includes: .js .ts .vue .md .jsx .tsx .css .scss .py .go .rs
• Excludes all build artifacts (node_modules, dist, build, etc)
• Shows clean paths: website2/components/Header.vue
• Jump back to ANY file across ANY project instantly

Why it goes hard:

• Search happens BEFORE nvim opens (faster workflow)
• Preview shows you what you're opening (no guessing)
• Uses tools already installed (fzf, bat, ripgrep)
• Single letter commands = muscle memory
• Ctrl-C out safely, nvim won't open empty

Email System

Neomutt + mbsync

Complete email workflow with AI enhancement:

Setup:

• mbsync for Gmail IMAP sync
• Neomutt as terminal email client
• Keychain integration for secure auth

AI Features:

• ei - Email insights and priority analysis
• S in neomutt - AI summarize current email
• Automatic categorization and spam filtering

Security

Secrets Management

• Secrets in ~/.env (gitignored)
• App passwords in macOS Keychain
• Wiki credentials in ~/.claude-secrets

Security Cleanup (Nov 2025)

9 API keys scrubbed from git history:

• Anthropic, OpenRouter, OpenAI keys
• Twitter OAuth tokens
• Supabase anon key

Installation

Repository: https://github.com/ejfox/dotfiles

git clone https://github.com/ejfox/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles
cd ~/.dotfiles
./sync-dotfiles.sh

The Philosophy

Minimalism as Cognitive Offloading

Every visual element that isn't essential is cognitive load. The monochrome approach keeps your visual cortex available for actual work.

Automation as Anxiety Reduction

AI handles triage. Email filtering removes uncertainty. The startup dashboard prevents "what did I forget?" anxiety.

Immediacy Over Perfection

Shortcuts prioritize immediate access over complete functionality. Small, frequent commits with "good enough" messages beat perfect commits that never happen.

Theme Agnosticism as Future-Proofing

Monochrome and geometric symbols remain functional regardless of OS design changes. Decoupled from aesthetic fashions.

Intelligence at the Edges

AI handles pattern recognition and filtering. Human decision-making stays human. The system never makes choices for you.

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