Phantas0s dotfiles: an Arch Linux i3 setup you cherry-pick

A desktop configuration, not a distribution

The repository is described as the config for a Mouseless Development Environment, and the stack it targets is listed without ambiguity: Arch Linux, i3 with dmenu and dunst, Neovim, tmux, zsh with fzf, and git with diff-so-fancy. The description also names urxvt. That combination places the project firmly in the tiling window manager and keyboard-first camp, and the reasoning behind it is stated in the README, that switching between a keyboard and a mouse costs cognitive energy. This is a personal working environment that happens to be published, not a general purpose installer. The most telling line in the README is also a warning: there is no backup system, and if you install this on top of your own dotfiles you should expect a big mess. The author then says plainly that you should not use the install.sh script, and should only pick whatever you want and include it in your own config.

What the tree says about the scope of the setup

The top level listing is more informative than the README on how broad this environment is. Alongside the obvious directories for i3/, nvim/, tmux/, zsh/, urxvt/, X11/ and git/ sit application specific folders for a wide range of tools: compositor settings in compton/, notifications in dunst/, a wallpaper and image tool chain with feh/, sxiv/ and zathura/, media and design work in darktable/, digikam/ and gimp/, a deadbeef/ music player folder, terminal and shell add-ons such as kitty/, ghostty/, fzf-backed database clients litecli/, mycli/ and pgcli/, and command line helpers including newsboat/, vifm/ and taskell/, plus JavaScript, PHP, Clojure and Composer project folders. A second tier of tooling shows up in aliases/, colors.sh, theme/, fonts/, printer/, scanner/, redshift/ and default_app/. The primary language is listed as Scheme, which is worth noting for anyone who expects a shell-heavy repository, though the configuration content itself is dominated by shell, Vim script and Scheme-style Lisp files.

The install machinery and why the README disowns it

The repository does contain an installer, and reading it is the point. There is install.sh at the top level, an install/ directory, install_config.dist and install_functions.sh, plus a separate update.sh. The naming of install_config.dist as a dist file, meaning a template rather than a live configuration, suggests the installer expects a local config file that you supply. The README explains what is missing: all of the author's config files are in the repository except his development project configurations and his config install settings, and those are private, kept on his private cloud using Nextcloud. So the installer cannot be reproduced exactly by anyone else, which is the honest reason to copy files rather than run it. The author's own guidance to readers is to write your own installation scripts, and the linked book is offered as the way to learn that.

Reading the tree as documentation of a workflow

There is a documentation and reading stack in the tree as well, which shows what a working session looks like rather than only what a configured system looks like. joplin/ points at a note taking application, devdash/ at a development dashboard, taskell/ at a task manager, freemind/ and mind mapping notes for structuring ideas, and testomatic/ appears to be a test related helper. The comic reading and PDF directories sxiv/ and zathura/ pair with the reading workflow, and newsboat/ with terminal RSS. Combined with the README's own promotion of writing installation scripts, the picture that emerges is a workstation where the configuration is meant to be understood and edited by its owner, not treated as a black box applied by a script. The .gitmodules file at the root indicates that at least some components are pulled in as Git submodules rather than vendored.

Where this setup is the wrong choice

Several cases are excluded by the repository's own design. If you are not on Arch Linux, the package assumptions baked into the install scripts do not apply, and the tree is full of Arch-era application choices. If you want a fully working environment in one command, this is the opposite of that, since the author disowns the script. If you are a mouse-driven user, the whole premise, a keyboard-driven environment with i3, dmenu and tmux, is not what you are looking for. And if you need the author's specific application configuration, it is not here by design, since those files live on a private Nextcloud. The project also carries no GitHub releases, so there is no versioned artefact to install and no changelog to diff between versions; the repository history is the only record of change.

Licence is not stated, and the last push date is what you get

Two governance details are worth flagging before you copy files into your own repository. The licence for this repository is listed as unknown, so there is no explicit grant of reuse rights in the way most published code carries an MIT or GPL file, and copying configuration fragments into a work project means deciding that question yourself. The project is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-10-16, so the configuration is still being adjusted, which cuts both ways: it is alive, and it can change under you at any time. The tree also carries a .gitignore, which suggests some machine specific paths are excluded, and a theme/ plus colors.sh pair, which is where a look change would most likely land.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt this repository as a reference for a keyboard-driven Arch Linux desktop, or as a source of individual config files to copy into a setup of your own, rather than as something to install wholesale. Do not expect a working end to end environment from a clone, because the author states that the install script should not be used, that installation settings are private, and that no backup system exists. Before you copy anything, check the install.sh, install_config.dist and install_functions.sh files to see what the author's own installer would have touched, and decide which application configs in the tree you actually want to take.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. Phantas0s/.dotfiles on GitHub
3. Project website
4. README