Troubleshooting

Quick reference for when things go wrong. Check here before digging into scripts.

Tool not found after bootstrap

echo "$_PLAT"                         # confirm which platform the shell resolved
ls ~/.local/$_PLAT/bin/               # chezmoi, uv, claude should be here
ls ~/.local/$_PLAT/cargo/bin/         # fd, sd, zoxide, etc.
which fd                              # should point into ~/.local/$_PLAT/

If $_PLAT is empty or wrong, .zprofile wasn’t sourced. Open a new login shell (zsh -l) or source it:

source ~/.zprofile

nvm or node not available in a script

nvm.sh is lazy-loaded in interactive shells only. Non-interactive shells get node/npm via the PATH entry .zprofile adds from the highest installed version. If node is missing in a script, either:

# Option 1: source zprofile at the top of your script
source ~/.zprofile

# Option 2: use the full path
NODE="$NVM_DIR/versions/node/$(ls $NVM_DIR/versions/node | sort -V | tail -1)/bin/node"

Homebrew on Linux: Docker/Podman not found

linux-packages.sh requires a container runtime. Options:

# Rootless Docker
curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com/rootless | sh

# Podman (Debian/Ubuntu)
apt install podman

# Skip packages entirely and install manually
INSTALL_PACKAGES=0 ~/dotfiles/bootstrap.sh

See Bootstrap → Linux for full setup instructions.

chezmoi keeps prompting for name/email

The cached values live in ~/.config/chezmoi/chezmoi.toml. To reset:

chezmoi init --data=false

To pre-seed without prompting:

CHEZMOI_NAME="Your Name" CHEZMOI_EMAIL="you@example.com" chezmoi init

chezmoi diff shows unexpected changes

Another program modified a managed file (e.g. Claude Code updated ~/.claude/settings.json). Options:

chezmoi diff                          # see what changed
chezmoi apply                         # overwrite with repo version
chezmoi add ~/.claude/settings.json   # pull the live version into the repo

PATH order is wrong — wrong binary is resolving

Expected priority (highest to lowest):

~/.local/$PLAT/venv/bin      Python venv
~/.local/$PLAT/cargo/bin     Rust tools (fd, sd, zoxide, etc.)
~/.local/$PLAT/nvm/.../bin   Node.js
~/.local/$PLAT/bin           chezmoi, uv, claude (Linux)
~/.local/bin                 arch-neutral scripts
/opt/homebrew/bin            Homebrew (macOS)
/usr/bin                     system

Diagnose with:

which <tool>                  # where it's resolving from
type -a <tool>                # all locations on PATH
echo $PATH | tr ':' '\n'      # full PATH in order

If a Homebrew tool is shadowing a cargo tool, check packages/cargo.txt and packages/Brewfile for duplicates — remove the one you don’t want.

Cloudflare Pages build failing

Check the build log via the API:

ACCOUNT="5afb385ba43e1a082b138554dfdb141c"
TOKEN="..."
# List recent deployments
curl -s "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT/pages/projects/dotfiles/deployments" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" | python3 -m json.tool | grep -E '"id"|"status"'

# Get logs for a specific deployment
DEPLOY_ID="..."
curl -s "https://api.cloudflare.com/client/v4/accounts/$ACCOUNT/pages/projects/dotfiles/deployments/$DEPLOY_ID/history/logs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $TOKEN" | python3 -c "
import sys, json
for e in json.load(sys.stdin)['result']['data']: print(e['line'])
"

Common causes:

• cargo-binstall: command not found — /opt/buildhome/.cargo/bin not on PATH; check infra/cloudflare/build.sh
• mdbook: command not found — binstall failed; check network or fall back to cargo install mdbook --locked
• Build output not found — confirm destination_dir = "docs/book" in infra/cloudflare/main.tf

Two machines fighting over dotfiles on a shared home

This happens when a template renders differently on each machine (e.g. using {{ .chezmoi.arch }}). The rule: templates must be arch-neutral. Arch-specific logic belongs in shell runtime code, not templates.

Check which template is causing the conflict:

chezmoi diff        # shows what chezmoi wants to change vs what's on disk

The fix is almost always to replace a template variable with a shell runtime expression. See Managing dotfiles → Shared home safety.