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CLI Reference

Command-line usage for Bootible bootstrap scripts and runners.

Bootstrap Commands

The one-liner commands that download and run Bootible. Both default to a dry run — nothing is changed until you run bootible.

Steam Deck

curl -fsSL https://bootible.dev/deck | bash

What it does:

  1. Downloads deck.sh from bootible.dev (with SHA256 integrity verification)
  2. Clones the bootible repo to ~/bootible
  3. Runs the configuration in check mode (dry run)
  4. Installs the bootible command for the real run

ROG Ally

irm https://bootible.dev/rog | iex

What it does:

  1. Downloads ally.ps1 from bootible.dev (with SHA256 integrity verification; falls back to GitHub if bootible.dev is unavailable)
  2. Clones the bootible repo to %USERPROFILE%\bootible
  3. Runs Run.ps1 in dry-run mode
  4. Installs the bootible command for the real run

The bootible Command

After bootstrap, bootible is installed for easy re-runs. It is a thin wrapper around the platform runner — a real run by default (you already did the dry run via the one-liner).

Steam Deck

bootible

Location: /usr/local/bin/bootible

What it runs:

cd ~/bootible && git pull && BOOTIBLE_RUN=1 ./targets/deck.sh "$@"

deck.sh takes no flags — it prompts for instance selection and runs the full Ansible playbook. For dry runs, re-run the curl one-liner; for tag-scoped runs, run ansible-playbook manually.

ROG Ally

bootible

Location: %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\WindowsApps\bootible.cmd (falls back to %USERPROFILE%\bootible\bootible.cmd, added to PATH)

What it runs:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "%USERPROFILE%\bootible\config\rog-ally\Run.ps1" %*

It forwards all arguments to Run.ps1, so bootible accepts the same parameters:

bootible -DryRun
bootible -Tags base,apps

ROG Ally: Run.ps1 Parameters

Run.ps1 accepts exactly three parameters:

Parameter Type Description
-ConfigFile <path> string Merge a specific config file on top of the defaults. When set (the bootstrap does this), the ~/.config local layer and private-repo instance selection are bypassed.
-Tags <list> string[] Run only the listed modules. There is no skip flag — list what you want, or disable modules in config.
-DryRun switch Preview changes without applying them. 
cd $env:USERPROFILE\bootible\config\rog-ally

# Dry run
.\Run.ps1 -DryRun

# Specific modules
.\Run.ps1 -Tags base,apps

# Specific config file
.\Run.ps1 -ConfigFile C:\path\to\config.yml

Available Tags

Tags are module names, executed in this fixed order:

Tag Description
validate Package validation (dry-run only)
base Hostname, network, winget, directory scaffolding
apps Desktop applications
gaming Game platforms
streaming Streaming clients
remote_access VPN, remote desktop, RDP
ssh OpenSSH configuration
emulation EmuDeck
rog_ally Device-specific tools
optimization Gaming tweaks
power Sleep/hibernate, power button, CPU boost
display HDR toggle, refresh rate
debloat Privacy settings
health Post-install health checks

Examples:

# Only base and gaming
.\Run.ps1 -Tags base,gaming

# Dry run the display module
.\Run.ps1 -Tags display -DryRun

Steam Deck: Running Ansible Manually

The Steam Deck uses Ansible under the hood. The bootible wrapper doesn't accept flags, but you can run the playbook directly for tag-scoped or verbose runs:

cd ~/bootible/config/steamdeck

# Basic
ansible-playbook playbook.yml --ask-become-pass

# With private config
ansible-playbook playbook.yml --ask-become-pass \
  -e @../../private/device/steamdeck/MySteamDeck/config.yml \
  -e device_instance=MySteamDeck

# Check mode (dry run)
ansible-playbook playbook.yml --check --ask-become-pass

# Only specific tags
ansible-playbook playbook.yml --tags ssh,tailscale --ask-become-pass

# Skip specific tags
ansible-playbook playbook.yml --skip-tags decky --ask-become-pass

Available Tags

Tag(s) Description
always Always runs (pre-tasks, post-tasks)
base Base setup (Flathub, hostname)
apps, flatpak Flatpak applications
ssh, remote SSH configuration
tailscale, remote, vpn Tailscale VPN
remote_desktop, remote, streaming Sunshine/remote desktop
decky, plugins, gaming Decky Loader
proton, gaming, wine Proton tools
emulation, roms, gaming EmuDeck
stickdeck, controller, gaming StickDeck
waydroid, android Waydroid
distrobox, containers, password_manager Distrobox apps

Reference

Environment Variables

Variable Description
BOOTIBLE_RUN 1 = real run. Unset/0 = dry run (the curl one-liner default). The bootible wrapper sets this for you.

deck.sh also accepts a single positional argument: the private repo URL.

Variable Description
BOOTIBLE_PRIVATE Private repo URL to clone (skips the interactive prompt)
BOOTIBLE_RUN 1 = real run. Unset = dry run (the irm one-liner default).
BOOTIBLE_DIRECT Internal — marks the re-launched-from-saved-file process (fixes piped-stdin and git credential manager issues); don't set manually
BOOTIBLE_TRANSCRIPT Internal — transcript path handoff between ally.ps1 and Run.ps1

Exit Behavior

A non-zero exit code means the run failed. Run.ps1 exits 1 on setup failures (not Windows, not Administrator, winget unavailable, no package sources, YAML parser missing, or config validation errors). There is no extended exit-code table.

Logging

Transcript logs are committed to your private repo per instance:

private/device/steamdeck/<instance>/Logs/

Transcript logs are committed to your private repo per instance:

private\device\rog-ally\<instance>\Logs\

A machine-readable JSON run log is also appended locally (one file per day):

%USERPROFILE%\.bootible\logs\run-YYYYMMDD.json

Transcript logs are automatically pushed to your private repo after each run.