| name | home-manager-maintainer |
| description | Maintain `home-manager/home.nix` safely and consistently for packages, Home-Manager program settings, session variables, and stable aliases. Use when adding/removing Home-Manager-managed packages or program options, adjusting stable shell aliases, or refactoring `home.nix` while preserving repository conventions. |
Home Manager Maintainer
Overview
Edit home-manager/home.nix with minimal, convention-preserving changes. Keep ownership boundaries clear with nix-darwin, Chezmoi, and Mise.
Workflow
- Read current
home-manager/home.nix sections before editing.
- Identify the smallest section to modify:
home.packages, programs.*, home.sessionVariables, or home.shellAliases.
- Apply the change with existing ordering and comment style.
- Check for ownership conflicts with Mise and nix-darwin.
- Provide apply commands for macOS and Linux paths.
Scope Boundaries
| In scope for this skill | Out of scope for this skill |
|---|
home.packages entries | macOS Homebrew settings in nix-darwin/configuration.nix |
| HM program options (zsh/fzf/starship/home-manager) | dev runtime version management in chezmoi/dot_config/mise/config.toml |
stable aliases in home.shellAliases | fast-changing personal aliases in chezmoi/dot_config/shell/*.sh |
| environment variables suitable for HM | secret values that belong in Chezmoi templates |
Guardrails
- Preserve
home.stateVersion unless explicitly requested with migration context.
- Keep bootstrap-critical tooling already documented in place unless the request explicitly migrates ownership.
- Prefer additive edits over broad reformatting.
- Preserve compatibility with both darwin-embedded HM and standalone Linux HM usage.
Completion Checklist
- State exactly what changed in
home-manager/home.nix.
- Flag any attempted cross-layer misplacement and the corrected layer.
- Provide relevant apply command:
- macOS:
darwin-rebuild switch --flake ~/dotfiles/nix-darwin#default
- Linux:
nix run home-manager -- switch --flake ~/dotfiles/home-manager
