Facts reference

Facts are resolved by the engine and never declared. The idea is that you ask where is the rc dir rather than writing conditionals about it.

Fact	Values	Notes
os	macos, linux
distro	ubuntu, debian, fedora, opensuse, arch, macos, other	from /etc/os-release
distro_like	debian, rhel, suse, arch, none	ID_LIKE is believed over the built-in table
distro_version	e.g. 24.04	VERSION_ID, or the macOS product version
arch	x86_64, arm64
home, user, hostname		user falls back to id -un when $USER is unset
shell.name	zsh, bash, fish, other	the shell you are configuring
shell.detected	same	the shell you are running
shell.rc_file	~/.zshrc …
shell.rc_dir	~/.zshrc.d …	the drop-in directory
privilege	root, passwordless, password, unavailable
env.NAME		the process environment

See them for your machine:

bedouin facts

Environment values are printed as <set> rather than their contents — that output ends up in bug reports.

In templates

Facts are bare, variables are under vars., environment under env.:

path: ["{{ home }}/.cargo/bin"]
rc:
  - file: "{{ shell.rc_dir }}/70-tool.{{ shell.name }}"
    content: "export EDITOR={{ vars.editor }}"
version: "{{ env.TOOL_VERSION | default('latest') }}"

Two facts you cannot match on

shell and the set of installed managers are not arm names, and not match: keys. Bedouin installs your shell and your package managers, so an arm keyed on one would be chosen from the machine’s state before Bedouin ran — wrong on exactly the fresh-box case the tool exists for.

For the shell, declare what you are targeting instead:

shell: zsh

Both remain readable in templates, where the same hazard exists but is visible at the point of use.

distro: other is deliberate

An unrecognised distro must be representable, or Bedouin cannot run at all somewhere it has not been taught about. A Pop!_OS box reports distro: other and distro_like: debian, so debian-like: arms still match it.

Privilege

sudo -n true has two outcomes and cannot tell no sudo rights from sudo wants a password, so Bedouin checks group membership for that distinction. If a plan needs root and the machine offers no way to escalate, apply refuses to start rather than failing nineteen steps in.