Provisioning With Comtrya

Overview

Comtrya is a declarative system provisioning tool (YAML/TOML) that applies configurations idempotently across macOS, Linux, and Windows. Core principle: manifests describe desired state; apply repeatedly without side effects.

Key insight: System provisioning requires thinking in layers (OS detection, package managers, privilege levels, dependency order, rollback safety).

Critical: File operations (file.link, file.copy, directory.copy) require source files in a files/ subdirectory relative to the manifest. This prevents Comtrya from parsing config files as manifests.

When to Use

• Designing multi-OS provisioning (dev teams, CI/CD, personal machines)
• Structuring manifests to handle OS differences
• Managing package manager conflicts
• Setting up dotfiles + system configuration together
• Testing changes before applying broadly
• Handling privilege escalation safely