dotfiles

Personal dotfiles for a WSL2/Linux environment built around tmux + Vim + zsh. One master branch is shared across two hosts (a WSL-local workstation and a remote droplet); host-specific bits are gated so nothing runs on the wrong machine.

The repo is rooted at $HOME. .gitignore ignores everything by default and whitelists tracked files explicitly, so a stray dotfile is never committed by accident.

Layout

File / dir	Purpose
.vimrc	Vim — Vundle plugins, keymaps, ALE LSP, per-filetype colorschemes
.zshrc	Shell — prompt, PATH, Go/rbenv, FZF, completion, claude wrapper
.alias.zsh	Aliases + functions (@, @pr, swo, rubylint)
.local.zsh	Tracked machine-local env (non-secret; empty by default)
.tmux.conf	tmux — Alt+hjkl pane nav, OSC52 clipboard, CSI u keys, TPM
.tmux-off.conf	Nested-tmux toggle target (outer bindings off via M-q)
.gitconfig	Git aliases and SSH-signing config
.claude/	Claude Code statusline + instructions
.vim/bundle/*	Vim plugins as git submodules (21, Vundle-managed)
docs/	Operational deep-dives (see below)

Install

Clone into $HOME with submodules:

git clone --recursive \
  git@github.com:wai-lau/configs.git ~/dotfiles

Because tracking is rooted at $HOME, either clone the work tree directly over your home directory or symlink the individual files. Then in Vim run :PluginInstall to populate any new plugins.

Secrets are never committed — .zshrc sources a gitignored ~/.secrets if present; tokens come from pass where available.

Highlights

Vim

• Linting/LSP via ALE (pylsp, solargraph, tsserver); Go via vim-go. ALE is the sole linter.
• jk -> Esc; ; / : swapped (; opens command mode).
• } / " / ? -> go-to-definition in tab / in place / in vsplit, language-aware.
• Ctrl-@ -> NERDTree toggle; Ctrl-n -> NERDTree find.
• Alt-hjkl -> seamless Vim/tmux pane navigation (N() function falls through to tmux select-pane).
• :GG <term> grep same filetype; :GGG grep all; :GGGG jump to #···· task markers.
• Per-filetype colorschemes (zenburn / sift / sialoquent) swap on BufEnter.

tmux

• Alt-hjkl pane nav forwarded to Vim when Vim is the active pane.
• Alt-; / Alt-' split; Alt-1..0 window select; Alt-z reorder.
• Drag-to-copy emits OSC52 straight to the client tty (reliable across nested tmux + WSL + SSH); see docs/.
• continuum auto-save/restore; windows/panes 1-indexed.

zsh

• Minimal prompt: time, ssh marker, 2-dir path, exit-status star.
• @ -> cd ~/src or fuzzy ~/src/<match>; @pr opens the current branch's PR (or compare page); swo recovers Vim swap files; rubylint runs rubocop -a on changed Ruby files.
• claude wrapper injects ~/.claude/private.md as an appended system prompt for interactive sessions only.

git aliases

Alias	Does
g ff	fetch + rebase origin default + force-push current branch
g f	add -A && commit --amend --no-edit
g fp	push --force-with-lease
g bb	checkout -b
g l	log --oneline --graph

Two-host gating

Config is mostly shared; divergence is gated so each line is inert on the wrong host:

Mechanism	Used for
[[ -d /mnt/c ]]	WSL/Windows interop (Windows $BROWSER, wslview)
[ -z "$SSH_CONNECTION" ]	outer-host-only tmux (M-q nested toggle)
command -v <tool>	optional tooling (pass, xdg-open)
~/.secrets	gitignored credentials, sourced if present

Paths are ~-relative, never hardcoded to /home/wai (the droplet home is /root).

Docs

• docs/clipboard-osc52.md — drag-copy / OSC52 through Windows Terminal + nested tmux + SSH.
• docs/shift-enter-csiu.md — Shift+Enter via CSI u through the same stack.

Adding a tracked file

.gitignore is an allowlist. Add an explicit rule:

!.newfile

For a directory, add the dir and recursive globs:

!.newdir
!.newdir/*
!.newdir/**/*