Multi-machine portability — any Mac, any username

How every shell rc, keybinding, launchd plist, and NAS template resolves the right path at runtime, with zero /Users/<name>/ baked into the repo.

No /Users/<your-name>/ baked anywhere. Clone, install, done — whether your home folder is /Users/alice, /Users/work-laptop, or anything else. Every shell config, keybinding, and launchd plist resolves the right path at runtime.

The rule

No config file in this repo may contain /Users/<username>/ or any other absolute path that bakes in the author’s environment. Use $HOME / ~ / fish_add_path $HOME/... instead.

Why it matters. The repo is cloned across multiple Macs with different usernames. A hardcoded /Users/prometheus/... PATH entry silently resolves to nothing on a fresh machine — the failure is invisible (the binary just isn’t on $PATH) and painful to track down.

How each file stays portable

File	How portability is achieved
`zsh/.zshrc`	`$HOME` in every `export PATH=...`, `fpath=...`, and `source ...`
`fish/config.fish`	`$HOME` in every `fish_add_path` and `set -gx`
`aerospace/*.toml`	`exec-and-forget $HOME/.local/bin/aerospace-sync` — AeroSpace runs the value through `bash -c`, so the env var expands at fire time. No `sed`-templating needed.
`launchd/*.plist`	`__HOME__` placeholder. `install.sh` runs `sed "s\|__HOME__\|$HOME\|g"` when writing into `~/Library/LaunchAgents/` (plists don’t expand env vars natively).
`install.sh`	Resolves its own location via `${BASH_SOURCE[0]}`; uses `$HOME` and `$DOTFILES` for every destination. Never assumes the repo lives at `~/dotfiles`.

NAS values: same rule, different mechanism

NAS_HOST, NAS_USER, NAS_SHARE_*, GIT_USER_* were previously hardcoded in committed files. They now live ONLY in ~/.config/dotfiles/local.env — per-machine, gitignored, mode 0600.

nas/truenas-media.inetloc.template uses __NAS_USER__ / __NAS_HOST__ / __NAS_SHARE_MEDIA__ placeholders. install.d/60-symlinks.sh sed-substitutes them at install time, writes the rendered file to ~/Library/Application Support/dotfiles/nas-media.inetloc, and registers it as a hidden Finder Login Item via osascript.
Public docs (/configuration/backup, /configuration/nas) use <USER> / <NAS-IP> text placeholders so the live site never quotes a real address.
Git identity flows the same way: the wizard writes ~/.gitconfig.local from GIT_USER_NAME / GIT_USER_EMAIL. The committed git/.gitconfig has an [include] block that picks it up — so no personal name/email is in the repo.

See Configuration for every supported local.env key.

What about the `com.prometheus.*` label?

The launchd Label namespace is com.prometheus.* — that’s a personal reverse-DNS prefix, not a path, so it works on any account. It only affects how processes appear in launchctl list.

Bottom line

If you’ve cloned this on a brand-new Mac with a username that’s never been prometheus, every script, keybinding, alias, and plist should still work the first time. If something doesn’t — a path that fails to resolve, a ~/dotfiles reference that needed to be $DOTFILES — that’s a portability bug. Open an issue.

Where to go next

Quick install — the one-liner.
Manual install — git clone + ./install.sh with all the flags.
Your local.env — every per-machine key, what it defaults to, how it flows through the system.
Asking important questions — the first-run wizard that writes that file.