Workbench

Seamless, automatic, “dotfile” sync to iCloud.

Workbench is an effective way to continuously and securely back up your “dotfiles” so they can be easily restored when you clean install macOS and sign back into your iCloud account.

At this time we are not a multiple computer synchronization solution, but this feature is not far off: the fundamentals are there.

Support mxcl

Hey there, I’m Max Howell, a prolific producer of open source and probably you already use some of it (I created brew). I work full-time on open source and it’s hard; currently I earn less than minimum wage. Please help me continue my work, I appreciate it 🙏🏻

Other ways to say thanks.

Privacy / Security

The binary we provide is signed with our Apple Developer account thus your data is stored in the database we maintain. However, Apple do not give us any access to your data and according to their documentation the data is encrypted and private to your iCloud account.

We assume no liability for your data.

The app has no analytics and obviously we do not transmit your data anywhere but iCloud.

Feel free to compile your own copy of Workbench that is signed with your own Apple account.

Current caveats

• Only works with one computer.
• Conflict resolution is manual and not assisted (you can choose to upload what is here or download what is there).
• No automatic support for directories.
• Doesn’t remember file permissions.
• We provide no revision control.
• We only support iCloud as the synchronization target.
• Sync’d files can only be from your home directory.
• Maximum file size is 1 MB (this is a CloudKit limitation).

If you want these caveats removed please donate to my Patreon; or PR welcome!

Installation

Releases.

Our binaries are notarized, runtime‐hardened and update automatically.

What’s with the name?

I have future plans for this tool which are more general.

Icon Credit

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com licensed under CC 3.0 BY.