What's in My Terminal

This repo is my daily driver. It’s an opinionated, macOS-only terminal IDE built for keyboard-driven development with AI coding agents. Everything is managed through Homebrew, symlinked from a single git repo, and reproducible on a fresh machine with one command.

It’s opinionated in the sense that it doesn’t try to be portable. It assumes macOS, iTerm2, and a specific set of tools that I’ve settled on after years of tweaking. If that matches your setup, you can clone it and run make install. If not, treat it as a reference.

Getting started

git clone --recursive https://github.com/alepeh/dotfiles.git
cd dotfiles
make install

The install script handles everything: installs Homebrew if missing, runs brew bundle to pull all dependencies, initializes git submodules, symlinks configs into place, and backs up anything it would overwrite with timestamped copies. Machine-specific settings like your git identity and signing key get extracted into ~/.gitconfig.local before the global config is replaced.

What you get out of the box

Shell

The shell is Zsh with Oh My Zsh and Powerlevel10k — both pinned as git submodules so the setup is reproducible regardless of upstream changes. The prompt is a classic two-line powerline style with directory, git status, and contextual segments like Java version or execution time.

Plugins are deliberately minimal:

• zsh-autosuggestions — ghost text completions from history
• zsh-syntax-highlighting — real-time command coloring
• zsh-completions — extended completion definitions
• fzf — wires Ctrl+R for history, Ctrl+T for files, Alt+C for directories
• zoxide — frecency-based cd that learns your habits

All plugin repos are submodules. No plugin manager.

Terminal utilities

Homebrew installs a set of modern CLI replacements that get aliased automatically:

fzf ties it all together. File search uses fd as the backend, history search is Ctrl+R, and previews render through bat (for files) and eza (for directories). There are also two shell functions — ff for fuzzy-finding a file and opening it in Helix, and fgr for interactive grep with a bat preview.

iTerm2

A dynamic profile ships with the repo and gets symlinked on install. It sets Meslo LG Nerd Font at 12pt, enables Powerline glyph rendering, unlimited scrollback, and a dark color scheme. Left Option is mapped to send +Esc so Alt keybindings work in Zellij and Helix.

Git

Git is configured with delta for side-by-side diffs with syntax highlighting, Helix as the default editor, and rerere enabled so resolved merge conflicts are remembered and reapplied automatically. Common operations have short aliases: st, co, br, lg for a pretty graph log, and amend for a quick no-edit amend. Pull defaults to rebase, and first push auto-tracks the remote.

lazygit provides a full TUI for staging, committing, and branch management. It’s available as lg from anywhere or in a dedicated tab in the Zellij layouts.

File management

Yazi is a terminal file manager configured with no preview pane to maximize the file list. In the Zellij file browser tab, it’s wired to open files directly in the adjacent Helix pane via a custom script — so you browse on the left and edit on the right.

The IDE: Zellij + Helix

The core of the setup is Zellij as a terminal multiplexer and Helix as a modal editor. Both use the Catppuccin Mocha theme — and so does iTerm2, delta, and bat, so everything looks consistent.

Helix

Helix is a post-vim modal editor with built-in LSP support, tree-sitter syntax highlighting, and multiple cursors. No plugin ecosystem needed — language intelligence works out of the box once you install the language servers.

The config enables relative line numbers, inline inlay hints, indent guides, soft wrap, and a ruler at column 100. Buffer navigation uses H/L to flip between open files, Ctrl+hjkl jumps between splits, and jk exits insert mode.

Language servers are configured for:

• Python — pyright + ruff (type checking, auto-import, formatting)
• TypeScript/JavaScript — typescript-language-server + prettier
• Java — jdtls (Eclipse JDT, pointing at Temurin 21)
• JSON — prettier

Zellij layouts

Zellij replaces tmux with a friendlier keybinding model and built-in layout files. The leader key is Ctrl+Space, with Alt+hjkl as direct shortcuts for pane navigation.

There are six layouts, but two are the core daily drivers:

dev — the full IDE layout, launched with dev from any shell:

Three tabs: Claude Code paired with Helix on the main tab, a stacked shell below for quick commands. The git tab has lazygit for staging and branch work. The files tab pairs Yazi with Helix for browsing.

devmin — the minimal layout for vibe coding sessions, launched with devmin. Just Claude and a shell. No editor, no file browser — let the agent drive. This is the layout I reach for when I’m iterating on a well-defined task and want Claude to handle the editing directly.

There are also review layouts (editor-focused, with Claude and a shell below) and cursor-* variants that swap Claude Code for Cursor’s agent CLI.

Everything else

A few more things that round out the setup:

• jenv manages Java versions across Temurin 17, 21, and 24. Shell aliases (j17, j21, j24) switch the global version instantly.
• MCP servers connect Claude Code to external tools — Obsidian for notes, Todoist for tasks, GitHub for repos, and Google Workspace for email and calendar. Credentials live in ~/.env.mcp (gitignored) and are injected via wrapper scripts.
• Conventional commits are enforced through Claude Code’s global instructions (~/.claude/CLAUDE.md), which also set expectations for branching, testing, and PR format.
• make doctor runs a quick sanity check that all expected tools are installed and configs are in place.

Reproducing it

git clone --recursive https://github.com/alepeh/dotfiles.git
cd dotfiles
make install
make doctor

That gets you from a fresh Mac to a working terminal IDE. Add your credentials to ~/.env.mcp, run make doctor-mcp to verify, and you’re set.