Reference: Template Variables

From .chezmoidata.toml

Flat top-level keys (values as shipped, before any chezmoi.toml override):

chezmoi init also writes .git_name, .git_email, .git_signingkey, .git_signingformat, .age_identity and .age_recipient into ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml.

From .theme-manifest/themes.toml

The theme manifest is not chezmoi data (it is too large to hand to every template), so a template loads it and resolves the active theme through the theme-name partial, which falls back to fallback-dark when .theme is missing:

{{- $themes := (include ".theme-manifest/themes.toml" | fromToml).themes -}}
{{- $themeName := includeTemplate "theme-name" (dict "theme" .theme "themes" $themes) -}}
{{- $t := index $themes $themeName -}}
{{ $t.mode }}              // "dark" or "light"
{{ $t.family }}            // "maui"
{{ $t.macos_accent }}      // 4 (integer)
{{ $t.term.bg }}           // "#0f1f21"
{{ $t.term.fg }}           // "#f1f6f7"
{{ $t.term.c0 }} .. {{ $t.term.c15 }}   // ANSI 0-15
{{ $t.ui.accent }}         // "#00d2e0"
{{ $t.ui.accent_text }}    // "#000000"
{{ $t.ui.panel }}
{{ $t.ui.border }}
{{ $t.app.nvim }}          // "tokyonight"
{{ $t.app.starship_palette }}

The example values are those of maui-dark.

From .chezmoidata/hardware.toml

.hardware holds the defaults and .machines the presets; a template picks the preset named by .machine, as defaults/dot_config/niri/config.kdl.tmpl does:

{{ $hw := .hardware -}}
{{- if and .machine (ne .machine "") -}}
  {{- $m := index .machines .machine -}}
  {{- if $m -}}{{- $hw = $m -}}{{- end -}}
{{- end -}}
{{ $hw.scale }}            // 2.0 on macbook-t2
{{ $hw.hidpi }}            // bool
{{ $hw.max_refresh }}      // 60
{{ $hw.keyboard_layout }}  // "us"
{{ $hw.output_name }}      // "eDP-1"
{{ $hw.profile }}          // "laptop" | "desktop"

From Feature Flags

Flags are read straight from .features; presets carry no flags of their own:

{{ if .features.niri }}
# Niri WM config
{{ end }}

{{- $linuxDesktop := or .features.linux_desktop .features.niri -}}

Built-in Chezmoi Variables

{{ .chezmoi.os }}                // "darwin" | "linux" | "windows"
{{ .chezmoi.arch }}              // "amd64" | "arm64"
{{ .chezmoi.kernel.ostype }}     // "Linux" (Linux only)
{{ .chezmoi.kernel.osrelease }}  // kernel release; contains "microsoft" on WSL (Linux only)
{{ .chezmoi.hostname }}          // host machine hostname
{{ .chezmoi.username }}          // current user
{{ .chezmoi.homeDir }}           // $HOME
{{ .chezmoi.sourceDir }}         // ~/.dotfiles/defaults (the .chezmoiroot)
{{ .chezmoi.workingTree }}       // git working tree root (~/.dotfiles)
{{ .chezmoi.executable }}        // chezmoi binary path
{{ .chezmoi.osRelease }}         // Linux /etc/os-release data

Built-in Chezmoi Functions

Functions the templates here use:

{{ output "hostname" }}
{{ include ".theme-manifest/themes.toml" | fromToml }}
{{ includeTemplate "theme-name" (dict "theme" .theme "themes" $themes) }}
{{ glob (joinPath .chezmoi.sourceDir ".chezmoitemplates/aliases/**/*.aliases.sh") }}
{{ decrypt "path/to/file.age" }}
{{ stat "/path" }}
{{ lookPath "command" }}           // returns path or empty

See the chezmoi template reference for the rest.

Helper Templates (in .chezmoitemplates/)

Named partials, included with template or includeTemplate:

{{ template "go-build-command" . }}
{{- $name := includeTemplate "theme-name" (dict "theme" .theme "themes" $themes) -}}

Available partials:

• theme-name: resolve the active theme name, with the fallback-dark fallback
• go-build-command: the build step shared by the run_onchange_24/25/26-build-* scripts (dot-ui, dot-ai-tui, dot-mcp)
• desktop/shell-theme.dconf.tmpl: GNOME Shell theme settings

The same directory holds the alias and function sources: aliases/<group>/*.aliases.sh are gathered by dot_config/shell/91-ux-aliases-lazy.sh.tmpl with glob, and functions/<group>/*.sh are listed in functions/groups.json for the fish and nushell function files.

Example: Using Theme in Ghostty Config

An excerpt of defaults/dot_config/ghostty/config.tmpl:

{{ $fontFamily := default "JetBrains Mono" .terminal_font_family -}}
{{- $fontSize := default 20 .terminal_font_size -}}
{{- $linuxDesktop := or .features.linux_desktop .features.niri -}}

{{ $themes := (include ".theme-manifest/themes.toml" | fromToml).themes -}}
{{- $themeName := includeTemplate "theme-name" (dict "theme" .theme "themes" $themes) -}}
{{- $t := index $themes $themeName -}}
background = {{ $t.term.bg }}
foreground = {{ $t.term.fg }}
cursor-color = {{ $t.term.cursor }}
palette = 0={{ $t.term.c0 }}
palette = 1={{ $t.term.c1 }}
# ... through 15

{{- if $linuxDesktop }}
gtk-tabs-location = top
copy-on-select = clipboard
{{- end }}

Example: Platform × Preset

An excerpt of the Niri template's output block:

{{- if and $hw.output_name $hw.output_mode }}
output "{{ $hw.output_name }}" {
    mode "{{ $hw.output_mode }}"
    scale {{ $hw.scale }}
{{- if gt (int $hw.max_refresh) 60 }}
    variable-refresh-rate
{{- end }}
}
{{- end }}

Template Testing

Render a template without applying (from ~/.dotfiles):

chezmoi execute-template < defaults/dot_config/ghostty/config.tmpl

Or test an expression:

chezmoi execute-template '{{ .chezmoi.os }}'
# linux

chezmoi execute-template '{{- $themes := (include ".theme-manifest/themes.toml" | fromToml).themes -}}{{- $n := includeTemplate "theme-name" (dict "theme" .theme "themes" $themes) -}}{{ (index $themes $n).term.bg }}'
# #0f1f21

Validation in CI

Every pull request to main, and every push to main, that touches shell scripts, templates or dot_* sources runs, on Linux and macOS (ci.yml):

chezmoi init
chezmoi apply --verbose --dry-run

If any template fails to render, the build breaks before merge.

See Also

• Chezmoi template reference
• Configuration Files
• Create a Profile tutorial