lfg is a single Go binary that launches an interactive TUI for bootstrapping a fresh dev machine. It's open source, MIT-licensed, and runs on macOS and Linux (Windows is on the long-term roadmap).

What lfg does

• Bootstraps developer tooling — Homebrew, mise, node, bun, go, CLIs, AI coding harnesses, and any custom package you describe in a TOML preset.
• Picks a curated subset — bundles + a tree picker so you don't have to remember every tool by name.
• Detects what's already there — concurrent binary + version probe on launch; anything already on PATH lands in an Already installed group instead of being reinstalled.
• Resolves live versions — npm, brew, and Node.js registries hit asynchronously per tool with a 3 s timeout, so the picker shows you what's current without blocking the UI.
• Augments your shell rc — adds a fenced # lfg-managed PATH block to every shell rc it finds (.bashrc, .zshrc, fish), idempotent.
• Backs up your dotfiles — lfg backup produces a tar.gz or tar.age (encrypted) of your shell, editor, AI-tool, and SSH configs. Private keys stay on-device unless you opt in.
• Self-updates — lfg update pulls the latest release from GitHub.

What lfg is not

• A package manager — it wraps brew/mise/npm rather than reinventing them.
• A dotfile manager — chezmoi is great at that; backup/restore in lfg is for the day-zero archive, not ongoing sync.
• A configuration management system — Nix, Ansible, and friends are the right answer for fleets. lfg is for one human, one laptop, Friday afternoon.

Status

v0.3 is the latest stable: real installers, PostInstall hooks, async live version resolver, lfg backup / lfg doctor / lfg update, four themes. v0.4 ships the terminal-essentials bundle and renames dev-tools to ai-harnesses — currently on the beta channel via brew install ptmaroct/tap/lfg-beta. Snapshot tests still see deterministic mock data so test runs never touch your system.

The roadmap (sync, SSH fleet management, macOS defaults wizard) is on the Roadmap page.