# Effortless Configuration Management with check-config
**Keep your development environment consistent, shareable, and version-controlled**
check-config is a fast, lightweight, declarative configuration management tool that ensures your configuration files
contain exactly what they should. Instead of managing entire config files,
you declare specific parts that must be present - making configurations shareable, maintainable, and verifiable.
## How It Works
Define your configuration requirements in simple TOML files, then let check-config ensure they're applied:
```toml
# Set your preferred editor
[[lines_present]]
file = "~/.bashrc"
lines = "export EDITOR=hx"
```
```toml
# Ensure git signing is configured
[[lines_present]]
file = "~/.gitconfig"
lines = """
[gpg]
format = ssh
[commit]
gpgsign = true
"""
```
Run `check-config --fix` to apply changes, or `check-config` to verify everything is in sync.
## Why check-config?
### 🔧 **Shareable Configuration Snippets**
Traditional dotfile repositories force users to adopt entire configuration files. check-config lets you share just the essential parts:
- Share your preferred Python formatting rules without forcing your entire `pyproject.toml`
- Distribute security settings without overwriting personal aliases
- Collaborate on team standards while preserving individual preferences
### ✅ **Enforce Team Standards**
Ensure consistent development environments across your team:
```shell
# In CI: Verify configurations are up-to-date
check-config
# For developers: Apply required configurations
check-config --fix
```
Perfect for ensuring tools like Ruff, Black, and ESLint use consistent settings across all developers and CI pipelines.
### 📦 **Composable Configuration**
Combine multiple configuration files to build your complete setup:
- Base configurations for your team
- Personal tweaks and preferences
- Project-specific requirements
- Environment-specific overrides
## Beyond Simple Lines
check-config supports multiple checker types for different configuration needs:
- **Lines present/absent**: Shell configs, text files
- **Key-value pairs**: TOML, JSON, YAML files
- **File existence**: Ensure critical files exist
- **And more**: See [docs/checkers.md](docs/checkers.md) for all features
## Get Started
Make a `check-config.toml` according your needs:
```toml
# Set your preferred editor
[[lines_present]]
file = "~/.bashrc"
lines = "export EDITOR=hx"
```
And use it:
```shell
# Check if configurations match requirements
check-config
# Apply missing configurations
check-config --fix
```
## Read on
A large number of [file types](features.md/#file-types) and [checks](checkers.md#checkers) are supported or will
be supported in the near [future](features.md#current-and-future-features).
## Alternatives
When `check-config` is not suitable for your, may be some [alternatives.md](alternatives.md) are.