chezmoi-check

name	chezmoi-check
description	Validate chezmoi templates render correctly and check for common template issues. Use when editing home/ templates or after changing .chezmoi.toml.tmpl.

Chezmoi Template Validator

Validates all .tmpl files in home/ render without errors and checks for consistency.

Quick Validation

# Test all templates render with current data
chezmoi execute-template < home/.chezmoi.toml.tmpl

# Verify managed files match templates
chezmoi verify --verbose 2>&1 | head -20

# Diff what would change
chezmoi diff

Multi-machine discrimination — use the built-in chezmoi.os fact

This repo targets Mac host and Linux devcontainer only. The canonical discriminator per the chezmoi docs (https://www.chezmoi.io/user-guide/manage-machine-to-machine-differences/) is the built-in chezmoi.os runtime fact:

Environment	chezmoi.os	Renders mise overlay?
Mac host	darwin	NO (gated out by .chezmoiignore)
Devcontainer / Linux runner	linux	YES

Do not introduce a custom is_container data variable or env-var-based detection. We tried that and it caused real bugs — see .claude/rules/use-tool-builtins.md and memory feedback_use_tool_builtins.md.

Template Variables (custom user-defined)

.chezmoi.toml.tmpl defines these custom data variables (no built-in chezmoi equivalent exists for them):

Variable	Type	Source	Default
is_dev_computer	bool	Interactive prompt on darwin / true on linux	false
is_personal	bool	Interactive prompt on darwin	false
is_ephemeral	bool	Interactive prompt on darwin / true on linux+CI	eq .chezmoi.os "linux"
is_ci	bool	Auto-detected from CI env var	false

is_container was removed in the C10 refactor — use eq .chezmoi.os "linux" directly instead.

Interactive vs non-interactive

Templates skip prompts when not interactive. Precedence:

Interactive: chezmoi.os == "darwin" AND not CI AND stdinIsATTY

On non-interactive runs (CI, devcontainer, scripted): no prompts, safe defaults.

Full Validation Workflow

Run these checks in order:

# 1. Check template syntax (each .tmpl file)
for f in home/*.tmpl; do
  echo "--- $f ---"
  chezmoi execute-template < "$f" > /dev/null 2>&1 && echo "OK" || echo "FAIL: $f"
done

# 2. Check external sources are reachable
chezmoi managed --include=externals 2>&1

# 3. Check for undefined variables (grep for .chezmoi.data references)
grep -rn '\.chezmoi\.data\.' home/*.tmpl | grep -v 'is_dev_computer\|is_personal\|is_ephemeral\|is_ci'

# 3a. Sanity-check: NO references to the removed is_container variable.
# If anything turns up, replace with `eq .chezmoi.os "linux"` per use-tool-builtins.md.
grep -rn 'is_container' home/ && echo "FAIL: is_container reintroduced" || echo "OK"

# 4. Verify platform-specific blocks reference valid chezmoi functions
grep -rn 'eq .chezmoi.os' home/*.tmpl

Common Issues

• Template changes require chezmoi init --init on existing machines to re-run prompts
• .tmpl files are NOT linted by ruff/shellcheck — hk.pkl uses type-based matching, and .sh.tmpl files have type text not shell
• Container environments skip prompts — always test templates with both interactive and non-interactive paths
• scriptEnv.PATH in .chezmoi.toml.tmpl must include mise shims for run_once/run_after scripts