Introduction

DotR is a dotfiles manager that is as dear as a daughter.

It keeps a repository of your configuration files (“dotfiles”) separate from where they’re actually used on disk, and manages copying — or symlinking — them into place. The repository is the source of truth; your ~/.bashrc, ~/.config/nvim/, and friends are deployments of it.

Why DotR?

• Plain files, not magic. Your dotfiles repository is just files and directories under dotfiles/, described by a single config.toml.
• Copy or symlink, your choice. Deploy as copies for a snapshot-based workflow, or as symlinks for live-editing.
• Environment-aware. Profiles let the same repository describe different machines — work, home, server — with different packages, variables, and destinations.
• Templated when you need it. Config files can embed Tera template syntax, compiled at deploy time with live variables, so the same template can render differently per machine or profile.
• Hooks for the messy parts. Pre/post actions run shell commands around deployment — installing dependencies, reloading a service, fixing permissions.
• Safe by default. Dry-run mode previews every operation, diff shows exactly what would change, and deploys only touch files that actually changed.

How it fits together

1. You import an existing file or directory into the repository: dotr import ~/.bashrc. DotR copies it into dotfiles/ and registers it as a package in config.toml.
2. On a new machine, you deploy: dotr deploy. DotR copies (or symlinks) every package from the repository to its destination.
3. After editing a deployed file, you update: dotr update. DotR copies the changed file back into the repository, so dotfiles/ always reflects what’s actually deployed.

Everything else in this book — profiles, variables, templating, actions, prompts, symlinks, clean mode, ignoring files, dependencies — builds on that loop.

Where to go next

• New to DotR? Start with Installation and Quick Start.
• Looking for a specific flag or config field? Jump straight to the CLI Reference or Configuration File Reference.