Snapshot

Capture your current Mac’s dev environment and turn it into a shareable config — without building anything from scratch.

openboot snapshot

Or if you don’t have openboot yet:

curl -fsSL https://openboot.dev/install.sh | bash -s -- snapshot

What It Captures

Category	What’s Scanned	How
Homebrew Formulae	Top-level CLI tools (not dependencies)	`brew leaves`
Homebrew Casks	All installed GUI apps	`brew list --cask`
Homebrew Taps	Third-party repositories	`brew tap`
NPM Global Packages	Globally installed npm packages	`npm list -g`
macOS Preferences	26 whitelisted developer settings	Curated list
Shell Config	Oh-My-Zsh plugins, theme, aliases	`.zshrc` parsing
Git Config	user.name, user.email, editor, default branch	`~/.gitconfig`
Dev Tools	Go, Node.js, Python, Rust, Java, Ruby, Docker	Version detection

Only whitelisted data is captured. No SSH keys, API tokens, .env files, or credentials — ever.

How It Works

Step 1 — Scan. OpenBoot scans your system with real-time progress:

✓ Homebrew Formulae    28 found
✓ Homebrew Casks       12 found
✓ macOS Preferences     9 found
✓ Shell Environment     scanned
✓ Git Config            scanned

Step 2 — Review. A full-screen TUI editor lets you customize what’s included:

Tabs: Formulae, Casks, NPM Packages, macOS Preferences
Space to toggle individual items on/off
/ to search, a to select all in a category
Taps, Shell, Git, and Dev Tools are shown as a read-only summary

Step 3 — Save. Choose where it goes:

Upload to openboot.dev — get a shareable install URL
Save locally — stored at ~/.openboot/snapshot.json

If you upload, you’ll authenticate via browser (like gh auth login), name your config, and get a one-line install command:

curl -fsSL openboot.dev/yourname/my-setup | bash

Restoring from a Snapshot

Use --import to restore your environment from a previously captured snapshot:

openboot snapshot --import ~/.openboot/snapshot.json
openboot snapshot --import https://example.com/snapshot.json

What gets restored:

Category	What’s Applied
Homebrew Formulae	Installed via `brew install`
Homebrew Casks	Installed via `brew install --cask`
Homebrew Taps	Added via `brew tap`
NPM Global Packages	Installed via `npm install -g`
Git Config	`user.name` and `user.email` set via `git config --global` — skipped if both are already configured
Shell Config	Oh-My-Zsh theme and plugins written to `.zshrc` — only applied if Oh-My-Zsh was captured in the snapshot
macOS Preferences	Applied via `defaults write` for each captured preference

Before installing, a full-screen editor lets you review and deselect anything you don’t want. If the snapshot is partial (some steps failed during capture), you’ll be warned and asked whether to proceed.

Run --dry-run to preview the installation without making any changes:

openboot snapshot --import my-setup.json --dry-run

Flags

Flag	What it does
`--dry-run`	Preview what would be captured or restored, without making changes
`--json`	Output snapshot as JSON to stdout — great for piping to `jq`
`--local`	Save to `~/.openboot/snapshot.json` instead of uploading
`--import <path>`	Restore from a local file or URL

Privacy & Safety

Snapshots are designed to be safe to share:

Paths sanitized — home directory references replaced with ~/
Whitelisted preferences only — no arbitrary system data is read
No secrets captured — SSH keys, tokens, credentials are never included
Full control — you review and deselect anything before uploading

See Config Options for the full list of macOS preferences that can be captured.