dotfiles

As advised by Christof Marti at microsoft/vscode-remote-release#8436 (comment) VSCode has support for cloning a repo of dotfiles.

And, related docs > https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/devcontainers/containers#_personalizing-with-dotfile-repositories

Secrets Management

The .zshrc automatically sources ~/.zshrc.secrets if it exists. This allows you to keep sensitive credentials (API keys, tokens, etc.) out of version control.

Setup

1. Copy the example template:

   cp .zshrc.secrets.example ~/.zshrc.secrets

2. Make it secure:

   chmod 600 ~/.zshrc.secrets

3. Edit ~/.zshrc.secrets and add your actual credentials

Important: Never commit .zshrc.secrets - only the .zshrc.secrets.example template should be in git.

Machine-Specific Git Config

.gitconfig automatically includes ~/.gitconfig.local if it exists. Use this for anything that should differ per machine — a different email on a work vs. personal laptop, a signing key, a proxy — without forking .gitconfig itself.

Setup

1. Copy the example template:

   cp .gitconfig.local.example ~/.gitconfig.local

2. Edit ~/.gitconfig.local and uncomment/fill in whatever overrides you need.

Important: Never commit .gitconfig.local - only the .gitconfig.local.example template should be in git.

ZSH History Management

The .zshrc includes automatic corruption detection and repair for history files in devcontainers.

Quick Fix for Corrupted History

If you see a corrupted history file error:

# Option 1: Auto-fix (built into .zshrc, runs on next shell restart)
exec zsh

# Option 2: Manual fix
fix-history

# Option 3: Start fresh
echo "# Fresh history $(date)" > ~/.zsh_history

For detailed information about history management, see HISTORY_SETUP.md.