Introducing dotme: A Tiny CLI to Apply Dotfiles from Any Git Repo

When starting a new project, I often find myself copying over the same dotfiles — things like .vscode/, .editorconfig, or .prettierrc. It's a small step, but it adds friction. So I built a CLI tool to automate it.

Meet dotme — a simple, cross-platform command-line utility that applies dotfiles from any Git repository directly into your current working directory.

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✨ What Is dotme?

dotme is a small utility written in Go that clones a Git repository and copies only the files and folders from the root that start with a dot (.) into your current folder.

💡 Example use case: You maintain a personal dotfiles repo on GitHub with folders like .vscode, .editorconfig, and .prettierrc. With dotme, you can apply those settings to a new project instantly:

dotme https://github.com/your-user/dotfiles

🔧 Features

• ✅ Apply dotfiles from any Git repo with one command

• 🕵️ Only files and folders starting with a . are copied

• 📁 Dotfolders are copied recursively, even if inner files don’t start with .

• 🧼 Temporary clone directories are cleaned up automatically

• 🖥️ Cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows)

• 🧾 Terminal output shows exactly what was copied or ignored

📦 Installation

You can download the latest binary for your system from the releases page.

On Linux / macOS:

curl -L https://github.com/rsvinicius/dotme/releases/download/v0.1.0/dotme-linux-amd64 -o dotme
chmod +x dotme
sudo mv dotme /usr/local/bin/

On Windows:

1. Download dotme-windows-amd64.exe

2. Rename it to dotme.exe (optional)

3. Add it to your PATH

Or you can build from source:

git clone https://github.com/rsvinicius/dotme.git
cd dotme
go build -o dotme

⚙️ How It Works

Under the hood, dotme does the following:

1. Clones the specified Git repo into a temp directory

2. Filters the root directory for files/folders starting with .

3. Recursively copies those items into your current working directory

4. Prints a summary of actions (copied/ignored)

5. Cleans everything up

That’s it. No magic. No dependencies.

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📓 Changelog

v0.1.0 – April 4, 2025

• ✅ Initial release

• 🛠️ CLI built using Cobra

• 🧹 Temporary directory cleanup

• 🧪 Basic filtering and copying logic

• 📚 Complete documentation, license, contribution guide

• 🖥️ Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows

See full changelog → CHANGELOG.md

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🤝 Open Source & Contributions Welcome!

dotme is open source under the MIT License. I'm maintaining the project in public and welcoming ideas, contributions, bug reports, and feedback!

• ✅ Well-documented

• 🔖 Uses semantic versioning

• 📚 Has CONTRIBUTING.md, CHANGELOG.md, and MAINTAINING.md

If you like the idea, I’d love your help shaping it! Even opening an issue with feedback is already awesome. 🙏

→ GitHub: rsvinicius/dotme

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🙌 Thanks for Reading!

I built this tool to scratch my own itch, but I believe it can help others streamline their dev workflow too. Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

→ Download dotme

→ Star the repo if you find it useful ❤️