Installing a macOS developer workstation

It is sitting on my desk, a shiny M4 MacBook. It wants to be configured. I can take the easy route and use the Migration Assistant. But that would carry forward all the cruft the various incarnations of the Migration Assistant have accumulated over the decade. So I went the hard way.

Manual with a dash of AppStore

First Stop: update macOS. In my case Sequoia 15.1 -> 15.6.1

Installation falls into 3 categories

• command line tooling
• settings & data
• GUI applications

Followed by the reconfiguration of license keys

command line tooling

• SdkMan: Install any software SDK
  | Tool | Purpose |
  | -------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------- |
  | Java | 8 17 25 |
  | Maven | handles your builds |
  | Quarkus | Supersonic Java|

• Homebrew: Package manager for macOS

Tool	Purpose
jq	parse json
orbstack	fast container runtime
mkcert & nss	local TLS certificates
starship	Proper prompts
node	JavaScript runtime
gh	GitHub CLI
gpg	Code signing
pinentry-mac	keep your gpg passphrase in the Keychain
helm	Configure your Kubernetes
orbstack	container runtime
marp-cli	Markdown processor
uv	Python package manager
age	Encryption tool
direnv	load env per directory

• Rust: memory safe programming curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
• Jetbrains Mono: Developer font
• Google Drive: File Sync for Cloud
• Symdex: indexing your repos for AI: uv tool install --python 3.12 "symdex[local]" and npx skills add https://github.com/husnainpk/SymDex --skill symdex-code-search --yes --global

settings & data

• Configurations (~/.config)
• Git configurtion (~/.gitconfig and ~/.gitignore)
• GitHub Tokens (~/.github)
• Maven repos (~/.m2) big question: copy the repos or newly fetch
• Network access (~/.netrc and ~/.npmrc)
• Notes Data (~/Library/Application Support/HCL Notes Data' and ~/Library/Preferences/Notes Preferences)
• PGP Keys (~/.gnupg)
• Repositories (~/Code)
• Shell config (~/.zshrc)
• SSH keys and configuration (~/.ssh)
• The shell script collection (~/bin)

GUI applications

• BetterZip: GUI for zip files
• Bruno: HTTP Client, offline
• Charles Proxy: HTTP(s) Debugging Proxy
• Clean my Mac: Basic hygiene including cruft removal and app updates
• Cyberduck macOS SFTP Client
• DiffMerge: One of the best DiffMerge GUIs (Intel only). Needs a little tlc to work: sudo xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Applications/DiffMerge.app
• Discord: Chat & Community
• Firefox: Browser
• GIMP: Graphics editor
• GitKraken: GUI for git
• GPG Suite: Manage your PGP Keys
• IntelliJ: IdE
• Keybase: Share your keys, encrypted chat
• Little Snitch: Application Firewall with GEO GUI
• Omnigraffle (or AppStore): Diagram Editor
• Orbstack: Blazing fast container runtime (I used brew)
• Parallels Desktop: Virtual Machines for macOS
• Sublime Text: Ultra fast text editor
• Termius: Multi platform terminal client
• Tower: GIT GUI
• Visual Studio Code: IdE
• WiFiman: VPN Client
• Xcode: Apple developer IdE
• iTerm2: Terminal supreme for macOS

AI tooling

• brew install copilot-cli : CLI for Github Copilot CLIs
• curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash : Claude Code (or use brew install --cask claude-code)
• curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh : Ollama for open models
• Windsurf

As usual YMMV