š§ Dotfiles for Two
I used to have a command called gh. It opened GitHub Desktop, my preferred visual Git client. Short, memorable, mine.
Then Claude Code came along.
The Shift
Command-line AI tools like Claude Code and Codex are different from Cursor-based AI. They donāt just operate at the project levelāthey operate at the file system level. They can do anything a person can do at a keyboard, through command line invocations.
I started using Claude Code in November 2025, a few months after its June release. It took me a while to realize what was fundamentally different: I was now sharing my computer with an agent trained on standard naming conventions.
The Conflict
gh is the GitHub CLI. Everyone knows this. The AI knows this. When I asked Claude Code to create an issue for a bug Iād found, it ran gh issue createāand got this:
open: unrecognized option `--title'
Usage: open [-e] [-t] [-f] [-W] [-R] [-n] [-g] [-h] [-s <partial SDK name>]
[-b <bundle identifier>] [-a <application>] [-u URL] [filenames]My alias had mapped gh to open -a "GitHub Desktop". The AIās perfectly reasonable command became nonsense.
The AI figured it out eventually. But it stumbled first, confused by my custom alias shadowing a standard tool.
The Roommate Effect
Itās like having a roommate. When you live alone, you can leave things wherever you want. Your system, your rules. But when you share a space, you have to keep things tidy. Standard places for standard things. Otherwise your roommate canāt find anything.
AI agents are roommates now. They expect gh to be the GitHub CLI. They expect python to be Python. They expect your PATH to look like everyone elseās PATH.
If your workspace is full of custom aliases and non-standard names, your AI roommate will trip over them constantly. Itāll figure things outāthese models are good at recoveringābut youāre adding friction to every interaction.
What I Changed
I renamed gh to ghd (GitHub Desktop). Kept gh for the CLI, like everyone else expects.
Iāve started auditing my other aliases too. Anything that shadows a standard tool is a candidate for renaming. My personal convenience matters less than shared legibility.
The Broader Point
This is a small thing. But itās a sign of something larger: AI agents are changing how we organize our personal computing environments.
For decades, your dotfiles were yours. Your aliases, your functions, your workflow. Optimized for a single user: you.
Now thereās another user. One that expects standard conventions, because thatās what it was trained on. And increasingly, that user is doing a lot of the work.
How many of your shortcuts only work because no one else has to use them?
I used to have a command called `gh`. It opened GitHub Desktop, my preferred visual Git client. Short, memorable, mine.
Then Claude Code came along.
## The Shift
Command-line AI tools like Claude Code and Codex are different from Cursor-based AI. They don't just operate at the project levelāthey operate at the file system level. They can do anything a person can do at a keyboard, through command line invocations.
I started using Claude Code in November 2025, a few months after its June release. It took me a while to realize what was fundamentally different: I was now sharing my computer with an agent trained on standard naming conventions.
## The Conflict
`gh` is the GitHub CLI. Everyone knows this. The AI knows this. When I asked Claude Code to create an issue for a bug I'd found, it ran `gh issue create`āand got this:
```
open: unrecognized option `--title'
Usage: open [-e] [-t] [-f] [-W] [-R] [-n] [-g] [-h] [-s <partial SDK name>]
[-b <bundle identifier>] [-a <application>] [-u URL] [filenames]
```
My alias had mapped `gh` to `open -a "GitHub Desktop"`. The AI's perfectly reasonable command became nonsense.
The AI figured it out eventually. But it stumbled first, confused by my custom alias shadowing a standard tool.
## The Roommate Effect
It's like having a roommate. When you live alone, you can leave things wherever you want. Your system, your rules. But when you share a space, you have to keep things tidy. Standard places for standard things. Otherwise your roommate can't find anything.
AI agents are roommates now. They expect `gh` to be the GitHub CLI. They expect `python` to be Python. They expect your PATH to look like everyone else's PATH.
If your workspace is full of custom aliases and non-standard names, your AI roommate will trip over them constantly. It'll figure things outāthese models are good at recoveringābut you're adding friction to every interaction.
## What I Changed
I renamed `gh` to `ghd` (GitHub Desktop). Kept `gh` for the CLI, like everyone else expects.
I've started auditing my other aliases too. Anything that shadows a standard tool is a candidate for renaming. My personal convenience matters less than shared legibility.
## The Broader Point
This is a small thing. But it's a sign of something larger: AI agents are changing how we organize our personal computing environments.
For decades, your dotfiles were yours. Your aliases, your functions, your workflow. Optimized for a single user: you.
Now there's another user. One that expects standard conventions, because that's what it was trained on. And increasingly, that user is doing a lot of the work.
How many of your shortcuts only work because no one else has to use them?