frork

A Fennel-based configuration management tool inspired by bork. Describe the desired state of your system in declarative Fennel scripts, then check status or satisfy each assertion.

Quick start

;; dotfiles.fnl
(local {: ok} (require :frork))

(ok :symlink "~/.gitconfig" "~/.dotfiles/.gitconfig")
(ok :directory "~/.config/nvim")
(ok :git "~/src/project" "https://github.com/user/project.git")

Check what's missing:

$ frork status dotfiles.fnl
ok: symlink /Users/alpha/.gitconfig /Users/alpha/.dotfiles/.gitconfig
missing: directory /Users/alpha/.config/nvim
missing: git /Users/alpha/src/project https://github.com/user/project.git

Fix everything:

$ frork satisfy dotfiles.fnl
ok: symlink /Users/alpha/.gitconfig /Users/alpha/.dotfiles/.gitconfig
ok: directory /Users/alpha/.config/nvim
ok: git /Users/alpha/src/project https://github.com/user/project.git

Installation

cargo install --locked --path frork-cli

Or use just install.

Built-in assertion types

Type	Arguments	Description
symlink	target, source	Ensure a symlink exists pointing to the source
directory	path	Ensure a directory exists
git	directory, remote URL	Ensure a git clone exists with the correct remote
brew	—	Ensure Homebrew is installed (macOS)
brew-bundle	Brewfile path	Ensure a Brewfile's packages are installed (macOS)

Paths support ~ and $ENV_VAR expansion.

Custom assertion types

Register new assertion types from Fennel using frork.register:

(local frork (require :frork))

(frork.register :my-thing
  {:status (fn [name]
             (if (check-thing name) :ok :missing))
   :install (fn [name]
              (install-thing name))})

(frork.ok :my-thing "widget")

The table passed to register must include status and install functions. An optional display function controls how the assertion is printed.

Inline assertions

For one-off checks without a script file:

$ frork check '(ok :directory "~/src")'
$ frork do '(ok :directory "~/src")'

Design goal: compiled Fennel binaries

A long-term goal is compiling Fennel scripts into standalone binaries — no Rust toolchain or frork CLI needed at runtime. The frork-lua crate exists to support this: it builds as a C dynamic library that exposes frork's assertion engine as a Lua module, which Fennel's --compile-binary could link against a static Lua library.

This doesn't work yet, but the desire for it drives the split between frork-cli (embedded Lua, the primary interface) and frork-lua (cdylib, future compilation target).

Development

cargo check -p frork-cli
cargo test -p frork-cli
just              # fmt + clippy + coverage

Check crates individually — cargo check --workspace fails because frork-cli and frork-lua use mutually exclusive mlua features.