Quick Start

This guide will get you from zero to a fully synced development environment.

Overview

Pact works like git — it creates a .pact/ folder in your project directory that contains all your configuration files. Your GitHub token is stored globally in your OS keychain.

1. Install Pact

brew install cloudboy-jh/tap/pact

2. Navigate to your project

cd my-project

3. Initialize Pact

pact init

This will:

1. Open your browser for GitHub authentication
2. Create a my-pact repo in your GitHub account (if it doesn't exist)
3. Clone it to ./.pact/ in your current directory
4. Create a default pact.json configuration

4. Add your configurations

Edit your pact configuration:

pact edit                 # Opens pact.json in your $EDITOR
pact edit shell           # Edit shell configs
pact edit web             # Open web editor in browser

5. Sync your configs

pact sync

This will show an interactive module picker:

Found 6 modules in pact.json:

  [1] shell        2 files
  [2] editor       12 files (nvim, vscode)
  [3] git          2 files
  [4] ai           3 files (prompts, agents)
  [5] tools        1 file
  [6] theme        4 files (colors, wallpaper)

Select modules: 1,2,6

6. Check status

pact

This shows an interactive status display with quick actions.

On a New Machine

When you're setting up a new machine or a new project:

cd my-project
pact init                 # Clones your existing pact repo to ./.pact/
pact sync                 # Applies all configs

Changes sync through GitHub — edit on one machine, pull on another.

Common Commands

Example Workflow

Here's a typical workflow for managing your development environment:

# Start a new project
cd new-project
pact init

# Add some shell customizations
pact edit shell/zshrc     # Edit your shell config
pact push -m "Add custom aliases"

# On another machine
cd new-project
pact init                 # Clones same pact repo
pact sync shell           # Apply shell configs

Use pact edit web to edit your configurations in a beautiful web interface with syntax highlighting and visual editing.

Next Steps

• Learn about CLI Commands
• Understand pact.json configuration
• Set up secrets for API keys