diff --git a/stow/.config/fish/config.fish b/stow/.config/fish/config.fish
index 2155f8a..dd9be20 100644
--- a/stow/.config/fish/config.fish
+++ b/stow/.config/fish/config.fish
@@ -23,4 +23,9 @@ if status is-interactive
   set pure_enable_single_line_prompt true
   set HOMEBREW_AUTO_UPDATE_SECS 86400
   zoxide init fish | source
+  # xdg variables
+  set -gx XDG_CONFIG_HOME "$HOME/.config"      # config
+  set -gx XDG_CACHE_HOME "$HOME/.cache"        # cache
+  set -gx XDG_DATA_HOME "$HOME/.local/share"  # data files eg. /usr/share
+  set -gx XDG_STATE_HOME "$HOME/.local/state"  # state files eg. /var/lib
 end