---
title: Troubleshooting dotfiles for GitHub Codespaces
allowTitleToDifferFromFilename: true
intro: Troubleshooting steps for common dotfiles issues.
versions:
  fpt: '*'
  ghec: '*'
type: reference
topics:
  - Codespaces
shortTitle: Dotfiles
---

If your codespace fails to pick up configuration settings from dotfiles, you should work through the following debugging steps.

1. Enable dotfiles by selecting **Automatically install dotfiles** in [your personal {% data variables.product.prodname_github_codespaces %} settings](https://github.com/settings/codespaces).

   ![The 'Automatically install dotfiles' option](/assets/images/help/codespaces/automatically-install-dotfiles.png)

1. Check `/workspaces/.codespaces/.persistedshare/dotfiles` to see if your dotfiles were cloned.
   - If your dotfiles were cloned, try manually re-running your install script to verify that it is executable.
   - If your dotfiles were not cloned, check `/workspaces/.codespaces/.persistedshare/EnvironmentLog.txt` to see if there was a problem cloning them.
1. Check `/workspaces/.codespaces/.persistedshare/creation.log` for possible issues. For more information, see [Creation logs](/codespaces/troubleshooting/codespaces-logs#creation-logs).

If the configuration from your dotfiles is correctly picked up, but part of the configuration is incompatible with codespaces, use the `$CODESPACES` environment variable to add conditional logic for codespace-specific configuration settings.