dotfiles

GNU Stow-based dotfiles (macOS + Linux). One source of truth across machines.

• Setup: cd ~/dotfiles && sh bootstrap/install.sh — builds tools into ~/.local (stow, fzf, rg, nvim, uv, try, …).
• Update: cd ~/dotfiles && sh bootstrap/update.sh

Machines

• nala (lionssrv3, /raid, local A100s) — the editing machine.
• clariden (CSCS Alps, account a0201) — run-only compute. Dotfiles are stow-symlinked there too, so git -C ~/dotfiles pull updates live config.
• ridilab (Raspberry Pi, tailnet) — hosts the ki knowledge base.

Env vars — caches & data homes

Keep tool caches/data out of $HOME so it stays clean:

• Machine-agnostic relocations → .config/shell/profile (e.g. NLTK_DATA=~/.cache/nltk_data).
• Machine-specific big stores → ~/.dotfiles.local (untracked, sourced from profile): KI_SERVER, and HF_HOME (/raid/users/ppol on nala, $SCRATCH/... on clariden).

try — experiments

try (tobi/try-cli) is wired in .config/shell/functions; base dir is ${TRIES_DIR:-$HOME/src/tries}. Override per machine in ~/.dotfiles.local (clariden → $SCRATCH/tries).

Gotchas

• CSCS cert: cscs-sign mints ~/cscs-key-cert.pub, but ssh reads ~/.ssh/cscs-key-cert.pub — cp it there after each re-sign or clariden auth fails with the stale cert.
• nala is a GPU box — never apt autoremove / blind-purge. It will sweep stale-looking but load-bearing packages. The active driver is nvidia-*-535-server; system CUDA is unused (research CUDA comes from uv/conda envs). Always purge with an explicit package list and read apt's "REMOVED" list before confirming.