State

dots keeps local state in the dotfiles repo:

.dots/state.json

Do not commit this file. It belongs to one machine.

State is what lets dots remove things safely. When dots check or dots apply sees that a declared resource already matches the machine, it records that resource. If the declaration is later removed from dots.lua, dots check can show the matching remove without touching unrelated files.

List managed entries

Run:

dots state list

Example entries:

symlink:/home/me/.zshrc
package:paru:ripgrep
service:systemd:start:docker.service
font:/home/me/.local/share/fonts/dots/runcat.ttf
group:media
user-group:media

Forget an entry

Use forget when something should stay on the machine but stop being managed by dots:

dots state forget symlink:/home/me/.zshrc
dots state forget package:paru:ripgrep
dots state forget service:systemd:start:docker.service
dots state forget group:media

This only edits state. It does not remove files, uninstall packages, or stop services.