Habitat

Provisions an Ubuntu laptop (or Raspberry Pi) from a fresh install using Ansible.

Quick start

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git
git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/gaileyleseman/habitat.git
cd habitat
./setup.sh

setup.sh installs the prerequisites, detects the machine type (asking you to confirm), then asks whether to use the default component profile or pick components interactively. It installs the Ansible collections and runs the playbook. It does not apply dotfiles.

What gets installed

setup.sh asks whether to use the default profile for the machine type. Accept it and the committed group_vars profile is used as-is. Decline and a whiptail picker opens, listing every available component (each names a role under ansible/roles/); your selection is written to the gitignored ansible/host_vars/localhost.yaml.

The picker is pre-ticked from the current selection: a previous host_vars/localhost.yaml if one exists, otherwise the committed machine-type profile. Edit those profiles to change the defaults a fresh machine starts from:

# ansible/group_vars/laptops.yaml
components:
  - vscode      # IDE
  - python      # language toolchain
  - docker      # tool
  - claude      # AI CLI

Re-running the playbook

After setup.sh has run once (it generates ansible/inventory), re-apply changes — e.g. after editing a component profile — without re-running setup:

cd ansible
ansible-playbook site.yaml -K

Flags: --check (dry run), --tags base|dev (run part), --syntax-check.

Dotfiles

Dotfiles live in the gaileyleseman/dotfiles chezmoi repo and are managed separately — the playbook does not install chezmoi or apply dotfiles. Install chezmoi and apply them after provisioning:

sh -c "$(curl -fsLS get.chezmoi.io)" -- init --apply gaileyleseman
chsh -s $(which zsh)