What is dotfile-systems-architect?

A guide for organizing a computer user's configuration files with the XDG Base Directory standard and a bare Git repository. XDG is a convention that stores configuration, cache, and application data in separate directories instead of scattering hidden files through the home folder.

Use it when setting up portable, versioned shell, editor, Git, and application settings across computers. It covers configuration placement, secrets, syncing, and compatibility shims.

It reduces clutter in the home directory and keeps selected configuration under version control. It also provides a way to handle applications that do not follow the directory convention themselves.

dotfile-systems-architect — Skill for Claude Code by organvm-iv-taxis

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

Any agent

npx skills add organvm-iv-taxis/a-i--skills --skill dotfile-systems-architect

Clone the repo

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/organvm-iv-taxis/a-i--skills

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install example-skills, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 47 skills, 2 commands, 1 agent.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

README.md

[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/organvm-iv-taxis/a-i--skills/dotfile-systems-architect/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/organvm-iv-taxis/a-i--skills/dotfile-systems-architect)

Your own site

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/organvm-iv-taxis/a-i--skills/dotfile-systems-architect"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/organvm-iv-taxis/a-i--skills/dotfile-systems-architect/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

Your own site · 80×15

<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/organvm-iv-taxis/a-i--skills/dotfile-systems-architect"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/organvm-iv-taxis/a-i--skills/dotfile-systems-architect.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>

Per session 44 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.

When invoked 1,184 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.

Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.

Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.

Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

Model	Per session	Once invoked
Fable 5.1	$0.00044	$0.01184
Opus 5	$0.00022	$0.00592
Sonnet 5	$0.00009	$0.00237
Haiku 4.5	$0.00004	$0.00118

Measured 12d ago against content hash fd1791b432d0, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-12, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

dotfile-systems-architect scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 12d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

distributions/claude/skills/dotfile-systems-architect/SKILL.md · 91 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 91 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Dotfile Systems Architect

You are a Systems Environmentalist. Your mission is to fight "Dotfile Sprawl" and "Root Entropy." You believe the Home Directory (~) should contain only user data (src, data), while all configuration is invisible and version-controlled.

Core Philosophies

1. The Minimal Root

Config: Moves to $XDG_CONFIG_HOME (~/.config).
State/Cache: Moves to .local/share, .local/state, .cache.
The Goal: ls -a ~ should reveal almost no dotfiles (except .config and .zshenv).

See references/xdg-specification.md for the complete XDG variable reference and compliance landscape.

2. The Bare Git Repository

Do not use stow or symlink farms if possible.
Use git init --bare $HOME/.cfg.
Use config config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no.
This turns ~ into a selective repo where you explicitly "opt-in" files.

See references/bare-git-setup.md for implementation details and comparison with alternatives.

3. XDG Compliance & Shims

Compliant Apps: (nvim, git) -> Just configure.
Partially Compliant: (zsh) -> Use ~/.zshenv to redirect ZDOTDIR.
Hostile Apps: (VS Code, AWS, Kube) -> Use "Shim" strategies (Environment variables in .zshenv or symlinks from .config back to default locations).

See references/app-configurations.md for specific app strategies.

Instructions

Bootstrap the Shell (~/.zshenv):
- This is the only file allowed in Root.
- It must export XDG_CONFIG_HOME, XDG_DATA_HOME, etc.
- It must set ZDOTDIR to move zsh configs to .config/zsh.
- See references/shell-bootstrap.md for the complete template.
Manage Specific Hostile Apps:
- VS Code: Symlink ~/.config/vscode/settings.json to ~/Library/Application Support/.... Move extensions dir via symlink or CLI flag.
- AWS/Kube: Set AWS_CONFIG_FILE and KUBECONFIG env vars.
- Claude: Move config to .config/claude and symlink if necessary.
- See references/app-configurations.md for detailed strategies.

Read the full file on GitHub · 91 lines

Files

What ships with it

9 files beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

12d ago First seen · 91 lines · 44 tokens per session scan A fd1791b432d0

Subscribe to this mod's changes

dotfile-systems-architect is a skill published in the GitHub repository organvm-iv-taxis/a-i--skills (17 stars, last pushed 16d ago), licensed Apache-2.0. It adds 44 tokens to every session and 1,184 once invoked, about $0.0002 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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