CodingBuddy

A tidy, native macOS app for managing the environment variables that otherwise live buried in your zsh dotfiles — no more hand-editing ~/.zshrc in the terminal.

• Browse & search every variable from ~/.zshenv, ~/.zprofile and ~/.zshrc in one native window
• Safe editing — byte-precise round-trips, automatic timestamped backups, atomic and symlink-safe writes that preserve file permissions
• Read-only honesty — complex lines (command substitution, multi-assignments) are displayed but never rewritten
• Override detection — sees through zsh load order (.zshenv → .zprofile → .zshrc, last assignment wins) and badges shadowed values
• PATH editor — edit :-separated values as a reorderable list
• .env import/export — move variables between projects and dotfiles
• Secrets stay private — token/password-like values are masked until you authenticate with Touch ID or your password
• English & German, light/dark/auto appearance
• Live reload when the dotfiles change outside the app

• macOS 26 or later
• Xcode 26+ (to build from source)

git clone https://github.com/apps3k-com/CodingBuddy.git
cd CodingBuddy
./scripts/setup.sh        # activates the repo's git hooks (contributors)
open CodingBuddy.xcodeproj

Or from the command line:

xcodebuild -project CodingBuddy.xcodeproj -scheme CodingBuddy -configuration Release build

The app is intentionally not sandboxed: it reads and writes your zsh dotfiles directly. Every mutation is preceded by a backup in ~/Library/Application Support/CodingBuddy/Backups/.

CodingBuddy decomposes each assignment into prefix + export + NAME = quoting + value + suffix so that editable lines reproduce byte-for-byte. Anything it cannot reproduce exactly — $(command substitution), export A=1 B=2, unclosed quotes — is shown read-only and left untouched on disk. New variables go into a clearly marked managed block:

# >>> CodingBuddy >>>
export MY_VAR="value"
# <<< CodingBuddy <<<

Work happens on feature branches off main with Conventional Commits; releases are cut by release-please. See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full workflow.