Reference: Environment Variables

User-Settable

Variables you can set in your shell to change behaviour.

Variable	Default	Effect
`DOTFILES_VERBOSE`	unset	Verbose output from `dot` commands
`DOTFILES_NONINTERACTIVE`	unset	Skip interactive prompts (for CI)
`DOTFILES_SILENT`	unset	Suppress non-error output
`DOTFILES_DEBUG`	unset	Print shell-init timing to stderr
`DOTFILES_SOURCE_DIR`	`~/.dotfiles`	Override the source directory
`DOTFILES_WALLPAPER_DIR`	`~/Pictures/Wallpapers`	Custom wallpaper directory
`DOTFILES_CACHE_DIR`	`~/.cache/dotfiles`	Override cache location
`DOTFILES_STATE_DIR`	`~/.local/state/dotfiles`	Override state directory
`DOTFILES_TUNING`	`0`	Enable OS tuning (`dot tune`)
`EDITOR`	`nvim`	Editor used by `dot edit` and `sops`
`PAGER`	`less`	Pager used by `dot manual text`

Auto-Populated

Variables the dotfiles set in your shell for tool consumption.

Variable	Value	Source
`XDG_CONFIG_HOME`	`~/.config`	`dot_zshenv` / `dot_config/fish/conf.d/env.fish.tmpl`
`XDG_CACHE_HOME`	`~/.cache`	ditto
`XDG_DATA_HOME`	`~/.local/share`	ditto
`XDG_STATE_HOME`	`~/.local/state`	ditto
`PATH`	managed order	`dot_config/shell/00-core-paths.sh.tmpl`
`BUN_INSTALL`	`~/.bun`	`env.fish.tmpl`
`PIPX_HOME`	`~/.local/share/pipx`	ditto
`PIPX_BIN_DIR`	`~/.local/bin`	ditto
`BUILDS_TMPDIR`	`/tmp/builds`	`dot_zshenv` (created on shell init)
`CARGO_TARGET_DIR`	(from `~/.cargo/config.toml`)	`target-dir = "/tmp/builds/cargo"`
`GOCACHE`	`/tmp/builds/go-cache`	`mise [env]`
`GOTMPDIR`	`/tmp/builds/go-tmp`	`mise [env]`
`PIP_CACHE_DIR`	`/tmp/builds/pip-cache`	`mise [env]`
`UV_CACHE_DIR`	`/tmp/builds/uv-cache`	`mise [env]`
`ZIG_LOCAL_CACHE_DIR`	`/tmp/builds/zig-cache`	`mise [env]`
`ZIG_GLOBAL_CACHE_DIR`	`/tmp/builds/zig-global-cache`	`mise [env]`
`HOMEBREW_PREFIX`	`/opt/homebrew` or `/usr/local`	`dot_zshenv` (macOS)
`MANPATH`	homebrew-adjusted	ditto
`MISE_EXPERIMENTAL`	`1`	`~/.config/mise/config.toml`
`GITHUB_TOKEN`	from `gh auth token`	`~/.config/mise/config.toml`

Read by Tools

Variables set by upstream tools and respected by .dotfiles.

Variable	Used for
`SHELL`	Detect default shell
`TERM`	Terminal capabilities (e.g. `xterm-256color`)
`COLORTERM`	True-color detection (`truecolor`)
`LANG` / `LC_ALL`	Locale (must be UTF-8)
`HOME`	User home directory
`USER`	Username
`SSH_AUTH_SOCK`	ssh-agent socket
`GPG_TTY`	GPG pinentry TTY

CI-Specific

Variables relevant in GitHub Actions.

Variable	Purpose
`CI`	Set to `true` in CI; disables prompts
`GITHUB_ACTIONS`	GHA-specific; enables step summary output
`CHEZMOI_VERSION`	Pinned chezmoi version for CI
`COVERAGE_THRESHOLD`	Executable module-mapping threshold (100 in enforced CI; not line coverage)
`DOTFILES_TEST_MODE`	Skip network-dependent tests

Variable	Purpose
`SOPS_AGE_KEY_FILE`	Override `~/.config/age/keys.txt` path
`SOPS_AGE_RECIPIENTS`	Override recipients for new encryption
`CHEZMOI_AGE_IDENTITY`	Override age identity for chezmoi decrypt

Warning: never set these to values stored in plaintext config. Use a password manager or ephemeral injection.

Startup Order

Shell-loaded variables follow this precedence (later wins):

System defaults (/etc/environment, /etc/profile)
Homebrew shellenv (macOS)
~/.zshenv (earliest user-level file; sets XDG + PATH bootstrap)
~/.zprofile or ~/.config/fish/conf.d/*.fish
~/.zshrc or ~/.config/fish/config.fish
mise activate — injects tool-specific env
Per-project .envrc via direnv (opt-in)

To debug: DOTFILES_DEBUG=1 zsh -i -c exit prints timing for each stage.

Unsetting

To clean up environment pollution:

# Show current dotfiles-set vars
env | grep -E '^(DOTFILES_|XDG_|BUILDS_)'

# Unset one
unset DOTFILES_DEBUG

# Reset to defaults (restart shell)
exec $SHELL -l