A Go-based bootstrap tool that provisions a development environment across
macOS, Debian/Ubuntu, RHEL/Fedora, and Arch Linux on x86_64 and aarch64.
It installs:
- System packages via
dnf,apt-get,pacman, orbrew(macOS) - Flatpak GUI apps from Flathub (Linux only, opt-in with
--gui) - Custom third-party tools fetched and verified directly:
Go, Neovim, Zig, Firecracker (Linux), NVM, pyenv, pip, oh-my-zsh,
agy, claude, codex, copilot, playwright, and the
gh-repo-bootstrapextension
| OS | Architecture | Package manager |
|---|---|---|
| Linux (Debian/Ubuntu) | x86_64 | apt-get |
| Linux (RHEL/Fedora) | x86_64 | dnf |
| Linux (Arch) | x86_64 | pacman |
| macOS | arm64 | brew |
Note: Linux arm64 (
aarch64) binaries are cross-compiled but not yet tested in CI.
| Workflow | Trigger |
|---|---|
Unit Tests — go test -v ./... + go vet ./... |
Pull requests to main / dev |
| Integration Tests — full run on Debian, Arch, Fedora, Ubuntu (Dagger) and macOS (native) | Push + pull requests to main / dev |
Build from source:
git clone https://github.com/JMR-dev/bootstrap_dev_env.git cd bootstrap_dev_env make build # builds ./bootstrap_environment for the host
Cross-compile all supported targets at once:
make build-all # writes dist/bootstrap_environment-{linux,darwin}-{amd64,arm64,...}Or download a pre-built binary from the Releases page.
# Linux (do NOT use sudo on macOS — Homebrew refuses to run as root) sudo ./bootstrap_environment [flags] # macOS ./bootstrap_environment [flags]
| Flag | Description |
|---|---|
--only system|flatpak|custom |
Restrict to a single section |
--gui |
Include GUI applications and the Flatpak section (default: headless — both skipped) |
--no-vm |
macOS only: skip provisioning the Fedora-on-QEMU VM that backs the firecracker() zsh wrapper |
--no-ai |
Skip AI/LLM CLI tools (agy, claude, codex, copilot) |
# Full headless install (typical CI / server) sudo ./bootstrap_environment # Desktop workstation — include GUI apps and Flatpaks sudo ./bootstrap_environment --gui # Install only system packages, skipping AI tools sudo ./bootstrap_environment --only system --no-ai # macOS, no VM provisioning ./bootstrap_environment --gui --no-vm
Package lists live in packages.go. Edit the SystemPackages,
FlatpakPackages, or customPackages() slices and rebuild.
Platform-specific name mappings (e.g. docker-ce-rootless-extras →
skipped on Arch, ffmpeg-free → ffmpeg on apt-get) live in the
packageOverrides map in pkgmgr.go. Third-party repository setup
(Docker, GitHub CLI, Temurin, lazygit COPR, etc.) lives in repos.go.
make test # go test ./... make vet # go vet ./... make fmt # gofmt -w . make build # build host binary