Profiles and Machine Setup

Profile System

You can set up each machine differently using a profile name, a hardware preset and feature flags.

Setting Your Profile

chezmoi init prompts for profile (default laptop) and writes it to the [data] section of ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml. Add machine there by hand to pick a hardware preset:

[data]
profile = "laptop"
machine = "macbook-t2"    # optional: a key under [machines.*] in defaults/.chezmoidata/hardware.toml

chezmoi init regenerates chezmoi.toml from defaults/.chezmoi.toml.tmpl. It carries over profile, theme, the git identity, theme_family, theme_mode and the age settings, but not keys you added by hand such as machine or [data.features]: re-add them after a re-init.

What the Profile Changes

The profile is a free-form name, not a bundle of features. Features are switched by the [features] flags (see FEATURES.md). Today the profile name is read in these places:

dot config profile show prints the profile (from ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml, else the source .chezmoidata.toml) and the [features] block from the source. dot config profile set <name> writes profile under [data] in ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml, which takes precedence over the source file (chezmoi init always writes one).

Per-Machine Overrides

Add keys to the [data] section of ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml on each machine to override the defaults in defaults/.chezmoidata.toml:

[data]
profile = "laptop"
machine = "macbook-t2"
default_shell = "zsh"

[data.features]
linux_desktop = false
zellij = true

Hardware Presets

defaults/.chezmoidata/hardware.toml holds the default [hardware] table (scale, HiDPI, touch, refresh rate, GPU, keyboard and touchpad settings, display output) and one [machines.<name>] table per preset:

• macbook-t2: Intel MacBook with T2 chip running Linux
• surface-pro: Microsoft Surface Pro (Linux)
• geekom-a9: AMD mini PC (Linux desktop)

When machine names one of these, the niri config uses that preset in place of [hardware]. You can also override single values with [data.hardware] in chezmoi.toml.

The kanshi config picks a display profile for each preset (macbook-t2, surface-pro, geekom-a9), and also accepts the older names the example files below use (surface-pro-7p, mac-t2-linux).

Starter Feature Sets

templates/chezmoi-data/ has example values for common hardware:

• mac-m1.toml.example: Apple Silicon MacBook
• geekom-a9.toml.example: AMD mini PC (Linux)
• surface-pro-7p.toml.example: Microsoft Surface (Linux)
• mac-t2-linux.toml.example: Intel Mac running Linux

Each holds a profile line and a [features] table. They are not complete config files: do not copy one over ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml, which would discard your age identity, git identity and theme settings. Copy the values into your existing config instead, profile under [data] and the [features] entries under [data.features], then preview and apply:

chezmoi diff
chezmoi apply

Environment Variables

You can change zsh startup for a single session without editing any files:

DOTFILES_PROFILE is exported by ~/.zshrc from the chezmoi data, so setting it before starting a shell does not change the profile.