ACFS is a comprehensive bootstrapping system that transforms a fresh Ubuntu VPS into a fully-configured AI-powered development environment in approximately 30 minutes. The project serves both beginners through an interactive wizard and experienced developers through a single command-line installation.
The Installer Architecture relies on a manifest-driven design where acfs.manifest.yaml serves as the canonical source of truth. A TypeScript generator with Zod validation produces shell scripts from this manifest, ensuring consistency across all installation paths.
Tool Coverage spans 30+ applications including:
- Modern shell environment (zsh, oh-my-zsh, powerlevel10k)
- Language runtimes (bun, uv, Rust, Go)
- Three AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini)
- Development utilities (tmux, ripgrep, fzf, neovim)
- Cloud platforms (Vault, Wrangler, Supabase, Vercel)
- The Dicklesworthstone coordination stack (8 specialized tools)
The system implements several core principles:
Idempotency ensures installations can resume safely after interruption, with checkpoint-based state tracking in ~/.acfs/state.json.
Security verification uses "HTTPS enforcement and checksum verification" rather than blind trust, with all upstream script hashes stored in checksums.yaml.
Progressive disclosure in the wizard website presents beginner guidance first, with expandable troubleshooting and deeper explanations available on demand.
Two distinct configurations serve different purposes:
- Vibe mode: Passwordless sudo and permissive agent flags optimized for throwaway VPS experimentation
- Safe mode: Standard sudo restrictions and confirmation dialogs for production-like environments
The system includes automated Ubuntu version upgrading, automatically advancing systems to version 25.10 before installation. Multi-agent coordination is built-in through MCP Agent Mail, supporting file reservations and inter-agent messaging to prevent conflicts.
The update command (acfs-update) provides unified management of all components with selective categories, dry-run capabilities, and full logging.
An interactive onboarding system guides users through 9 lessons covering Linux basics through complete agentic workflows.