Snapshot

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

openboot snapshot

Don’t have openboot yet? Run the installer with the snapshot subcommand:

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	Installed GUI apps	`brew list --cask`
Homebrew taps	Third-party repositories	`brew tap`
NPM globals	Globally installed npm packages	`npm list -g`
macOS preferences	Whitelisted developer settings	Curated list
Shell config	Oh-My-Zsh theme and plugins	`.zshrc` parsing
Git config	user.name, user.email, editor, default branch	`~/.gitconfig`
Dev tools	Go, Node, 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

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

2. Review (TTY only). A full-screen TUI editor lets you customize what’s included:

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

3. Choose a destination. Either via flag or the interactive menu.

Destinations

Flags decide where the snapshot goes. Without flags, behavior depends on whether stdout is a TTY.

Command	Result
`openboot snapshot` (TTY)	Interactive editor, then a menu to save locally / publish / both
`openboot snapshot` (piped)	JSON to stdout
`openboot snapshot --local`	Save to `~/.openboot/snapshot.json`
`openboot snapshot --publish`	Upload to openboot.dev
`openboot snapshot --local --publish`	Save and upload
`openboot snapshot --json`	JSON to stdout (explicit)

Piping

Since a piped stdout auto-switches to JSON, you can script around snapshots without extra flags:

openboot snapshot | jq '.packages.formulae'
openboot snapshot > my-setup.json

Publishing

--publish uploads directly, no interactive menu:

openboot snapshot --publish

If the machine is already synced to a config (from a previous install), --publish updates that config in place — no prompts for name/description/visibility.
Otherwise you’re asked for a name and visibility, then a new config is created.

Target an existing config by slug:

openboot snapshot --publish --slug my-config

After upload, you get a one-line install command:

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

Restoring from a snapshot

Use --import to apply a snapshot to the current Mac:

openboot snapshot --import ~/.openboot/snapshot.json
openboot snapshot --import https://example.com/snapshot.json
openboot snapshot --import my-setup.json --dry-run

Before installing, a review editor lets you deselect anything you don’t want. If the snapshot is partial (some capture steps failed), you’ll be warned.

Category	What’s applied
Homebrew formulae	`brew install`
Homebrew casks	`brew install --cask`
Homebrew taps	`brew tap`
NPM globals	`npm install -g`
Git config	`git config --global` for name/email — skipped if both are already set
Shell config	Oh-My-Zsh theme and plugins written to `.zshrc` — only if Oh-My-Zsh was captured
macOS preferences	`defaults write` for each captured preference

Flags

Flag	What it does
`--local`	Save to `~/.openboot/snapshot.json`
`--publish`	Upload to openboot.dev
`--slug <slug>`	Target an existing config by slug (with `--publish`)
`--json`	Output JSON to stdout
`--dry-run`	Preview without saving, uploading, or installing
`--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 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.