Mac Setup

My complete Mac configuration — shell, apps, configs, and a setup script.March 2, 2026 (today)

OS Setup

Manual System Settings & Finder tweaks I apply on every fresh Mac. Most of these can be automated with the script in the Setup Script section — this section explains what each setting does and why.

Appearance

Dark Mode

Dock

Remove all default apps from Dock — defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array ""
Auto-hide — saves screen space, no red notification badges tempting you
Size: as small as possible
"Show recent applications in Dock" → off
"Show indicators for open applications" → on
Battery → Show Percentage

Desktop & Stage Manager

Show Items → On Desktop → uncheck
Show Items → In Stage Manager → uncheck
Click wallpaper to reveal desktop → Only in Stage Manager
Stage Manager → uncheck
Widgets → On Desktop → uncheck
Widgets → In Stage Manager → uncheck

Trackpad

Tap to Click

Keyboard

Keyboard Shortcuts → Spotlight → disable CMD+Space — replace with Raycast
Text → disable "Capitalize words automatically"
Text → disable "Add full stop with double-space"
Text → disable "Use smart quotes and dashes"
Text → use " for double quotes, ' for single quotes
Mission Control → disable all shortcuts

Siri

Disabled

Notifications

Off for everything except Calendar

Storage

Remove GarageBand & Sound Library
Remove iMovie

Finder

General → New Finder windows show: Downloads — 90% of the time you open Finder for Downloads — why not make it the default?
Advanced → Show all filename extensions
Advanced → Remove items from Bin after 30 days
View → Show Status Bar
View → Show Path Bar
View → Show Tab Bar
View → Show Preview — for image files etc.

Use Touch ID as sudo password

Open the file with sudo nano /etc/pam.d/sudo and add the line below as the first entry

Menu Bar

Hide clutter with Hidden Bar — https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden

RaycastThe first app I install on every Mac — launcher, clipboard, window management, and more.

Shell Setup

Oh My Zsh with Powerlevel10k, autosuggestions, and syntax highlighting.

Homebrew

Homebrew is the package manager for macOS. Cask apps and CLI formulae below. You can speed it up by adding HOMEBREW_NO_AUTO_UPDATE=1 to your .bash_profile — stops auto-updating before every command. Though the Homebrew team recommends against it.

Cask Apps

GUI applications installed via Homebrew Cask.

claude— Anthropic Claude desktop app

ngrok— Secure tunnels to localhost

syntax-highlight— Quick Look syntax highlighting

Key Formulae

CLI tools installed via Homebrew.

bat— Cat clone with syntax highlighting

bpytop— Resource monitor

exa— Modern ls replacement

ffmpeg— Media processing toolkit

gh— GitHub CLI

git— Version control

git-lfs— Git Large File Storage

nvm— Node version manager

wget— Network downloader

yt-dlp— Video downloader

zsh-syntax-highlighting— Shell syntax highlighting

Applications

All apps installed on my Mac, grouped by category.

Core Apps

My default picks for everyday tasks.

Raycast— Launcher

1Password— Password manager

Notion— Notes & docs

Notion Calendar— Calendar

Gmail Checker+ Chrome Extension— Mail (desktop)

Spark— Mail (mobile)

Google Photos— Photo management

Google Drive— Cloud storage

Google Chrome— Browser

WhatsApp— Chat

Telegram— Chat

Google Sheets— Budgeting & finance

Spotify— Music

Claude— AI

Development

Code editors, terminals, and dev tools.

Cursor— AI-powered code editor

Visual Studio Code— Code editor

Warp— Modern terminal

iTerm2— Terminal emulator

Ollama— Local LLM runner

Docker— Containerization

Postbird— PostgreSQL client

Postman— API testing

Browsers

Web browsers for development and daily use.

Firefox— Testing

Zen Browser— Minimal browser

Chrome Extensions

Browser extensions I use daily.

uBlock Origin— Ad blocker

SponsorBlock— Skip YouTube sponsors

Checker Plus for Gmail— Gmail notifications

Enhancer for YouTube— YouTube UI improvements

Rakuten— Cashback & coupons

React Developer Tools— React debugging

Save to Notion— Web clipper for Notion

Feedly Notifier— RSS feed notifications

Bypass Paywalls— Skip article paywalls

Design & Media

Creative and media applications.

Figma— UI/UX design

Affinity Designer 2— Vector graphics

Affinity Photo 2— Photo editing

IINA— Media player

Upscayl— AI image upscaler

Productivity

Communication and organization.

Slack— Team communication

Discord— Community chat

DeepL— Translation

Superlist— To-do

Raycast Floating Notes— Notes & to-do

Perplexity— AI search

ChatGPT— AI

Gemini— AI

iCloud— Cloud storage

System & Utilities

System management and utility apps.

NordVPN— VPN service

Malwarebytes— Malware protection

Hidden Bar— Menu bar management

BetterDisplay— Display management

Command X— Cut & paste for Finder

Mole— System cleanup

Finance & Other

Finance and miscellaneous.

TradingView— Charts & analysis

Webull— Stock trading

Flighty— Flight tracking

Apps I'd Like to Try

On my radar — haven't used these yet.

AlDente— Battery charge limiter

DockDoor— Dock window previews

Wallper— Live wallpapers

CleanupBuddy— Keyboard & trackpad cleaner

Mimestream— Native macOS email client

SmoothScroll— Smooth scrolling for mice

DaisyDisk— Disk space analyzer

VSCode / Cursor

Theme, font, tabs, format on save, and extensions.

Extensions

VSCode extensions I use daily.

Halcyon Theme— Dark theme

Material Icon Theme— File icon theme

Prettier— Code formatter

ESLint— Linting

Tailwind CSS IntelliSense— Tailwind autocomplete

Auto Rename Tag— Sync rename HTML/JSX tags

Auto Close Tag— Auto close HTML/JSX tags

Path Intellisense— File path autocomplete

GitLens— Git supercharged

Error Lens— Inline error display

Better Comments— Color-coded comments

Color Highlight— CSS color preview

REST Client— HTTP requests in editor

DotENV— .env syntax support

ES7+ Snippets— React/JS snippets

Markdown Preview Enhanced— Rich markdown preview

Bracket Pair Color DLW— Bracket pair colors

Live Server— Local dev server

SVG Preview— SVG file preview

macOS Defaults

System preferences set via defaults write — Dock, Finder, trackpad, keyboard, and more.

Git

Global git configuration with LFS and credential store.

Useful Commands

Handy built-in macOS terminal commands.

caffeinate— Prevent Mac from sleeping. Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Setup Script

One-command bootstrap — installs everything above on a fresh Mac.

Download setup.sh

All dotfiles on GitHub

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