My Mac Setup

This repo documents the actual current setup of my Mac — apps, tools, and settings. It's meant to reflect reality, not a wishlist, so I can rebuild this machine (or set up a new one) accurately.

• Profiles: Home vs Work
• What Mac do I have?
• OS Settings
  • Desktop
  • Finder
  • Dock
• Quick Launching & Window Management
• Homebrew
  • Keeping things updated
• Menu Bar Utilities
  • Hidden Bar
  • Menu Bar Calendar
• Web Browser
  • Firefox
• Other Apps I Use Daily
• Terminal
  • Shell
    • Dotfiles
  • Github SSH Setup
• Node.js
  • Global Modules
• VS Code
• Custom Scripts
• Local Backup (not on GitHub)

Profiles: Home vs Work

This one repo covers both my Home and Work Macs. Most of it is shared; where the two machines differ (installed apps, VS Code extensions), the lists are split:

• *-common.txt — installed on both machines
• *-home.txt — Home-only
• *-work.txt — Work-only

install.sh takes the profile as an argument and installs common + profile-specific:

./install.sh home   # or: ./install.sh work

Right now the Work profile files are empty placeholders. Here's how to pull in the Work Mac's real setup:

1. Clone the repo there (or git pull if it's already cloned):

   git clone https://github.com/christwellman/mac-setup.git
   cd mac-setup

2. Run the diagnostics to capture what's actually installed/configured:

   ./diagnostics/collect.sh > diagnostics/report.txt
   ./scripts/backup-local.sh   # optional — also gives you a manual-apps.txt for that machine

   Both outputs are gitignored, so they stay on the Work Mac unless you move them somewhere yourself (paste the contents to Claude in a session with access to this repo, copy the file over some other way, etc.).

3. Fill in the Work files using that report as the source of truth: brew-formulae-work.txt, brew-casks-work.txt, vscode-extensions-work.txt, zshrc-work.zsh. Anything that matches what's already in the equivalent *-home.txt / zshrc-common.zsh should move into the *-common.txt file / zshrc-common.zsh instead of being duplicated in -work.

4. Wire it up on the Work Mac:

   ./install.sh work

5. Commit and push from whichever machine has the changes — it's the same repo either way.

If you'd rather have Claude do the reconciliation (same as we did for Home), just get diagnostics/report.txt from the Work Mac into a session that has access to this repo and ask it to fill in the Work profile — steps 3–4 are exactly what it'll do.

What Mac do I have?

Home profile. Mac mini (M4, base chip), Model Identifier Mac16,10.

• Apple M4, 10-core CPU (4 performance + 6 efficiency)
• 24GB RAM

OS Settings

These are my preferred settings for Desktop, Finder and the Dock.

Desktop

I don't like the Desktop, Stage Manager or Widget features, so I disable them.

• System Settings
  • Desktop & Dock
    • Stage Manager -> off (confirmed via defaults read com.apple.WindowManager GloballyEnabled = 0)

Note: the exact state of the individual "show widgets" / "show desktop items" checkboxes wasn't independently reverified against defaults — the underlying keys are ambiguous across macOS versions. Check by eye in System Settings if it matters.

Finder

Current actual settings (verified via defaults read):

• Show Path Bar -> on
• Show Status Bar -> on
• Show all filename extensions -> on
• New Finder windows show -> All My Files (not Home Folder — this drifted from an earlier preference; change it in Finder -> Settings -> General if you'd rather have Home Folder)
• Desktop icons: external hard drives and removable media currently show on the desktop; internal hard drives and mounted servers do not

Dock

• Size -> ~47pt (small-ish, not minimum)
• Position -> bottom (default — an earlier preference called for the left side; change in System Settings -> Desktop & Dock if you want that back)
• Automatically hide and show the Dock -> on
• Animate opening applications -> off
• Show suggested and recent apps in the Dock -> off

Quick Launching & Window Management

Not currently using a dedicated launcher or window manager app (no RayCast, Alfred, Rectangle, or AltTab installed) — relying on macOS defaults (Spotlight, Mission Control, standard Cmd+Tab). Revisit this section if that changes.

Homebrew

Homebrew installs tools and apps from the command line. To install it:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Formulae and casks actually in use are tracked per-profile (see Profiles: Home vs Work above): brew-formulae-common.txt / brew-formulae-home.txt / brew-formulae-work.txt, and the equivalent brew-casks-*.txt files.

./install.sh home   # or work — installs common + profile-specific formulae, casks, and VS Code extensions

Custom taps in use on this machine: sapireli/airprint_bridge (for the AirPrint bridge formula used by ~/bin/airprint_bridge_launcher.sh) and steipete/tap.

Keeping things updated

scripts/brew-update.sh does the Homebrew/cask/MAS side of this in one go — updates formulae, upgrades outdated casks, prompts for Mac App Store updates, cleans up old versions, runs brew doctor, and logs everything to ~/Logs/:

./scripts/brew-update.sh          # run it
./scripts/brew-update.sh --dry-run   # see what it would do first

For macOS itself (not covered by the script):

softwareupdate --list
sudo softwareupdate --install [name listed]

Menu Bar Utilities

Hidden Bar

Hidden Bar hides menu bar icons after a timeout when a lot of background apps are running.

brew install --cask hiddenbar

Menu Bar Calendar

Itsycal puts a calendar in the menu bar.

brew install --cask itsycal

Current menu bar clock settings: date display appears to be set to "Never" (ShowDate = 2); "Show Day of Week" currently reads as on, which doesn't match an earlier preference for it to be off — check System Settings -> Control Center -> Clock if that matters to you.

Web Browser

Firefox

Currently running standard Firefox (not Developer Edition, despite what an earlier version of this doc said):

brew install --cask firefox

Extension preferences (not independently re-verified against the actual browser profile, carried over from earlier notes):

• Tabliss - simple new tab page
• OneTab - consolidate open tabs
• Dark Reader - dark mode everywhere
• uBlock Origin - adblocker
• Privacy Badger - tracker blocker
• Decentraleyes - local CDN caching to reduce cross-site tracking

Other Apps I Use Daily

This list is the Home profile (brew-casks-home.txt); see Profiles for how Work differs.

• 1Password CLI (1password-cli) - command-line access to 1Password vaults
• aText (atext) - text expansion / snippets
• Beekeeper Studio (beekeeper-studio) - SQL database GUI client
• Calibre (calibre) - ebook management/conversion
• Claude Code (claude-code) - Anthropic's CLI coding agent
• Inkscape (inkscape) - vector graphics editor
• Keyboard Maestro (keyboard-maestro) - macros / automation
• LM Studio (lm-studio) - run local LLMs
• Querious (querious) - MySQL/MariaDB GUI client
• qView (qview) - lightweight image viewer
• Slack (slack) - team chat
• Sublime Text (sublime-text) - text editor
• Synology Assistant (synologyassistant) - manage the Synology NAS
• Syntax Highlight (syntax-highlight) - Quick Look syntax highlighting for code files
• VS Code (visual-studio-code) - code editor
• WakaTime (wakatime) - coding time tracking
• WordService (wordservice) - system-wide text services

Install them all at once (combined with whichever profile you're on):

./install.sh home   # or work

Terminal

I use iTerm2.

brew install --cask iterm2

Current actual profile settings (Default profile):

• Font -> Monaco 12
• Working Directory -> fixed to home directory (an earlier preference had this set to "reuse previous session's directory" — change under Profiles -> Default -> General if you want that back)
• Foreground color -> a light gray (not the lime green documented previously)

Shell

zsh (the macOS default) with Oh My Zsh, theme robbyrussell.

Dotfiles

~/.zshrc is tracked in this repo, split the same way as everything else:

• zshrc-common.zsh — shared: oh-my-zsh bootstrap, nvm, iTerm2 shell integration, general aliases, and the ytmd/xtmd/ytdl functions from Custom Scripts
• zshrc-home.zsh / zshrc-work.zsh — profile-specific: Go (GOROOT/GOPATH), a pinned Python 3.11 as default python/python3, the Google Cloud SDK, hugo — currently all filed under Home, move to common if Work needs them too
• ~/.zshrc.local — not tracked, machine-only secrets/aliases (e.g. the local SSH target alias that used to live in plain .zshrc)

install.sh <profile> wires this all up: it symlinks ~/.zshrc to this repo's zshrc dispatcher (backing up whatever was there first, as ~/.zshrc.backup.<timestamp>), symlinks the right profile pieces into ~/.zshrc.d/, and creates an empty ~/.zshrc.local if one doesn't exist yet.

There's also an old, stale dotfiles/setup snapshot in iCloud Drive (~/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/dotfiles) from a previous job — it's not synced with or representative of this repo; ignore it.

Github SSH Setup

• Follow this guide to set up an SSH key for GitHub
• Follow this guide to add it to your GitHub account

Node.js

nvm manages Node versions.

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

nvm install 22
nvm use 22
node --version

Global Modules

Currently installed globally (via npm list -g):

• lighthouse - run Lighthouse audits from the CLI
• uipro-cli - internal/personal CLI tool
• corepack and npm ship bundled with Node itself, not separately installed

npm install -g lighthouse uipro-cli

VS Code

VS Code is my editor. Extensions are tracked per-profile, same pattern as Homebrew: vscode-extensions-common.txt, vscode-extensions-home.txt (current Home list, from code --list-extensions), vscode-extensions-work.txt (TODO).

Install them all (combined with whichever profile you're on):

./install.sh home   # or work

Custom Scripts

Small personal CLI scripts live in bin/ and are symlinked into ~/bin so they're on $PATH. They're written as PEP 723 single-file scripts run via uv run, so uv handles their dependencies automatically — no venv setup needed.

brew install uv

Setup (new machine)

git clone https://github.com/christwellman/mac-setup.git
cd mac-setup
./install.sh home   # or work

install.sh symlinks everything in bin/ into ~/bin, and — when given a profile — also installs that profile's Homebrew formulae/casks and VS Code extensions (see Profiles: Home vs Work). Re-run it any time after git pull to pick up new/updated scripts or package lists.

Scripts

• ytmd.py — YouTube Transcript Downloader. Fetches a video's transcript and saves it as markdown to ~/downloads/transcripts.
• xtmd.py — X/Twitter Thread Downloader. Saves a thread as markdown to ~/downloads/threads.
• ytdl.py — YouTube video downloader. Saves video + metadata to ~/downloads/videos.

Shell functions

ytmd, xtmd, and ytdl are defined in zshrc-common.zsh and available automatically once ~/.zshrc is symlinked via install.sh <profile> (see Dotfiles) — no manual copy-paste needed.

Local Backup (not on GitHub)

scripts/backup-local.sh captures two things into a backup/ folder that's gitignored — it never leaves this machine:

• App inventory (backup/apps-inventory.txt, backup/manual-apps.txt) — everything in /Applications, cross-referenced against Homebrew casks and Mac App Store apps, plus a best-effort list of what's left over (installed some other way — direct download, DMG, etc., the way Amphetamine and Sophos Home used to show up in the old setup docs).
• App preferences (backup/preferences/) — every ~/Library/Preferences/*.plist, plus known ~/Library/Application Support/ folders for apps that store real config there (VS Code, Sublime Text, Keyboard Maestro, aText, iTerm2, Beekeeper Studio).

./scripts/backup-local.sh

This intentionally does not get committed — preference files can carry API keys, license data, or auth tokens (WakaTime's config is a real example). Treat backup/ as a local safety net, not something to publish. Re-run it whenever you want a fresh snapshot; it overwrites in place.