You’ll forget. Your homebot won’t.
Built for ADHD brains. Works for every busy one.
A dotfiles manager for people who won’t remember to run it. It keeps your dotfiles, secrets and install lists in one git repo, does the chores on its own, and tells you what still needs you.
Pick the robot that inspires you the most
Your homebot talks in its robot’s voice. A voice changes the sentences and nothing else: the items, paths, commands and counts stay the same. The voices come with the first release; the lines below are drafts.
Your install line works from the first release
$ curl -fsSL https://homebot.sh/install | bashNot released yet. There is nothing to install today. The docs describe how it works.
It comes to you
You don’t have to remember to check. When something needs you, a new shell says so in one line. Type homebot and you get one short list, most urgent first, and every item ends with the command that fixes it.
The hourly helper does the rest: it seals secrets, commits, pushes and repairs links while you work, and tells you what it did.
homebot works too. The name is a second way to call it.
Last login: Mon Oct 13 09:12 on ttys002
homebot: 3 things need you (1 urgent), run: homebot
$ homebot
homebot · laptop · 3 things need you3 chores waiting, hon. Sleeves up.Ooh. 3 things. Found them for you.3 things need you. I’d fix them, but nobody ever asks.Dweet-bwoo-wee! [3 things need you]3 things need you! Already read them twice. Wonderful!I’ve noticed 3 things that need you. There’s no need to worry.3 things need you, sugar, and the clock’s a-tickin’! (1 urgent)
1 ! The commit guard is not installed
→ homebot setup
2 • 1 file is in the way of links
~/.zshrc
→ homebot link
3 • 2 new things to sort: track, ignore or snooze
~/.config/zed, ~/.config/ghostty
→ homebot triage
Done for you since you last looked:
sealed 1 secret, committed 4 files, pushed 1 commit
Do the first one now: homebot nextBehind homebot
Saulo Vallory
Senior software engineer and architect. Maker of homebot.
I have ADHD. I needed a system that organizes itself, or at least puts what it needs from me right in front of my face. homebot is that system.
ADHD pushed me to work out how I learn from a very young age. It is part of why I learn fast, and why I actually enjoy reorganizing complex systems. It is also why the chores that depend on remembering never got done on my own machines. So every rule in homebot is something I needed first: at most five items, the fix printed under each one, and decide once, never be asked again.
I have been writing software for 21 years, about a third of them leading teams: architect at Truebill (now Rocket Money), product chief architect at Crossover, and co-founder and CTO of Toki Labs, a software house that picks its projects by their social impact. During the pandemic I started a free mentorship program and helped more than 50 people become developers by teaching them how to learn. Away from the keyboard: poetry, music composition, cooking and dancing.
What it takes off your mind
Each of these started as something that kept slipping. homebot handles the remembering, so you only handle the decisions.
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It comes to you
Out of sight, out of mind.
A line when a shell opens, a count in your prompt, and a desktop notification when something urgent appears. The shell line and the prompt count are zsh only for now.
-
Start without planning
“Where do I even start?”
At most five items, most urgent first, each ending with the command that fixes it.
homebot nextruns the first one. -
Chores happen anyway
The things that only happen when you remember them.
Every hour a background helper seals secrets, refreshes package lists, commits, pushes and repairs links. A step that fails becomes an item in your list.
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Decide once
The same question, every week.
New files in your home folder get asked about once: track, ignore or snooze, one key each. The answer lives in your repo, so every machine knows it.
-
Safe when you’re distracted
Half a command, then a meeting.
It never overwrites a file.
--dry-runshows the steps first. Ctrl-C leaves nothing half done, and the commit guard refuses to commit a leaked secret. -
Pick up where you left off
Coming back after three weeks away.
“Done for you since you last looked” lists what the helper did while you were gone, and the list still shows only what needs you now.
What the helper never does
It runs while you aren’t watching, so it only does what is safe to do unwatched.
- It never overwrites a real file.
- It never commits a file git doesn’t already track, except sealed secrets and package lists. New files wait for you.
- It never decrypts anything. That needs your passphrase.
- It never resolves a conflict for you.
And the dotfiles part, done properly
Your home repo is one folder in git, ~/.home. The folder a file is in is its configuration.
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Links
Everything in
autolink/is linked into$HOME, so editing the repo edits the live file. When a real file is in the way, homebot stops and says so. Nothing is deleted. -
Secrets
Files in
private/are linked like the rest, but git only ever sees them encrypted with age. Sealing needs no passphrase, so it happens before every commit. -
Profiles
A profile lists what a machine gets, in order: brew, apt and flatpak lists, fonts, your own scripts. A laptop and a server share a base and differ in the rest.
How it compares
Only on the remembering. On everything else, the others are older and broader.
| What it does | homebot | chezmoi | yadm | stow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One list of what needs you, each item with its fix | Yes | No | No | No |
| Commits and pushes without you running anything | Yes, hourly | Only when you run a chezmoi command (autoCommit) | With the AutoYADM add-on | No |
| Asks once about new files and remembers the answer | Yes | Lists them when you run unmanaged; remembers nothing | No | No |
| Comes to you: shell line, prompt count, notification | Yes | No | No | No |
Need templates, Windows, or your password manager? chezmoi does those well, and homebot doesn’t try to. yadm and stow win on simplicity. Checked against their docs in October 2026.
Where it stands
homebot isn’t released yet. Every dotfiles command is built and tested, and it already runs one of its maker’s machines. The robots’ voices and the name you give your homebot are being built now. The first release ships with both, along with the install line above.