Audit

Dotfiles Audit

Full health check of the dotfiles setup. Run all steps in order — each takes seconds and together they give a complete picture.

Security check runs first: it's always highest priority.

Step 0: Security Scan

Scan for credentials before anything else.

# API keys, tokens, passwords in config files
grep -rE "(API_KEY|TOKEN|SECRET|PASSWORD)\s*=\s*['\"][^'\"]+['\"]" ~/.dotfiles/ 2>/dev/null
# Common token prefixes
grep -rE "(ghp_|sk-|AKIA|-----BEGIN.*PRIVATE KEY-----)" ~/.dotfiles/ 2>/dev/null

Flag any findings as CRITICAL — credentials in dotfiles can leak via git.

File permission check — these should be 600:

stat -f "%A %N" ~/.dotfiles/.gitconfig-work ~/.dotfiles/.gitconfig-personal 2>/dev/null

Git safety — verify .gitignore in the dotfiles repo includes:

• .env, *_token, *_secret, 99-local.zsh, **/*.local.*

Done when credential findings, sensitive-file permissions, and gitignore coverage are recorded as clean or listed as Critical findings with file paths.

Step 1: Shell Startup Time

time zsh -i -c exit

Target: <200ms. >500ms means something is blocking during interactive init.

If slow, isolate which zsh.d file is the culprit:

# Add timing to each zsh.d file temporarily
for f in ~/.zsh.d/*.zsh; do
  time zsh -c "source $f" 2>&1 | grep real
  echo "  ^ $f"
done

Done when one cold interactive startup measurement is recorded, the result is classified OK/SLOW against target, and any SLOW result names a likely zsh.d culprit or next profiling command.

Step 2: Zsh Plugins Audit

Check ~/.dotfiles/zsh/.zshrc and ~/.dotfiles/zsh/zsh.d/ for plugin loading (zinit, antigen, oh-my-zsh, etc.).

Flag heavy plugins:

• Large completion frameworks loaded synchronously
• nvm / rbenv / pyenv with eager shell integration (use lazy variants)
• Any plugin that makes network calls or spawns subprocesses at init

Done when each plugin/init integration is classified keep, lazy-load, remove, or needs profiling.

Step 3: Stow Symlink Health

# Find broken symlinks in home directory (depth 3 to avoid scanning everything)
find ~ -maxdepth 3 -type l ! -e 2>/dev/null

A broken symlink means the stow source file was deleted or moved without re-stowing. Fix: either restore the source file or stow -D <package> to remove the dead link.

Done when every broken symlink is listed with its expected source or the report states none found.

Step 4: Neovim Startup Time

nvim --headless --startuptime /tmp/nvim-startup.log +q && sort -k2 -n /tmp/nvim-startup.log | tail -20

Target: <150ms. >300ms needs investigation.

Check which plugins are loading eagerly: the top entries after sorting are the slowest. Cross-reference against the plugin list to find candidates for lazy-loading.

Done when startup time is recorded, classified OK/SLOW, and SLOW results name top slow entries. For targeted repair, stop and route to the neovim skill.

Step 5: Tool Inventory Check

Verify tools referenced in dotfiles are actually installed:

which sesh tmux yabai starship lazygit gh bat fd rg zoxide fzf

Any not found means either:

• The tool was uninstalled but its config is still in dotfiles (orphan config)
• The tool isn't installed yet on this machine (new machine setup)

Done when every referenced tool checked is listed as installed, missing-but-needed, or missing-and-orphaned.

Step 6: Orphan Config Detection

Cross-reference ls ~/.dotfiles/ (stow packages) against the tools found in Step 5. A package with no corresponding installed binary is an orphan.

ls ~/.dotfiles/

Review each package: if the tool it configures isn't installed and you're not planning to use it, consider archiving the package or adding a note.

Done when every package is classified active, setup-required, or orphan candidate.

Completion Gate

Do not produce the final report until each step has either a captured result or an explicit reason it could not run. Security issues rank first regardless of other findings.

Report Format

After running all steps, produce a report:

DOTFILES AUDIT REPORT
=====================

Security
  🔴 Critical: [N issues] / ✅ Clean
  [List any credential finds with file:line]
  [File permission issues]
  [Git safety gaps]

Startup Times
  Shell: Xms (target <200ms) — [OK | SLOW: investigate zsh.d/X.zsh]
  Neovim: Xms (target <150ms) — [OK | SLOW: top culprits: plugin1, plugin2]

Symlink Health
  Broken links: X found
  [list each broken link and its expected source]

Tool Inventory
  Installed: sesh, tmux, starship, ...
  Missing: [tool] — config exists at ~/.dotfiles/<package> (orphan or needs install)

Recommended Cleanups (priority order)
  1. [most impactful fix — security first, then startup time, then cosmetic]
  2. ...

References

Priority	Load when	Reference
High	Security scan finds issues or credential patterns need review	references/security-patterns.md
High	Shell startup is slow and needs profiling strategies	references/shell-performance.md
Medium	Auditing a specific package/component after the baseline identifies it	references/component-analysis.md
Low	Git config issues found: permissions, signing, aliases, or multi-identity	references/git-config.md