Mac Development Environment Setup

This is a repeatable checklist for setting up my development environment on a clean macOS install. It’s mostly for me, but I keep it readable in case someone else wants to see how I work.

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Prerequisites

What	Why	Command
macOS updates	Start from a clean, patched OS	System Settings → General → Software Update
Xcode Command-Line Tools	Needed for Homebrew & compilers	xcode-select --install

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1 · Install Homebrew

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

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2 · Shell & Zsh Plugins

# Zsh itself (new macs include it, but this gets the latest)
brew install zsh

# Oh-My-Zsh (framework & plugin manager)
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

# Plugins
brew install zsh-autosuggestions zsh-syntax-highlighting

Copy Config Files

Everything is in the config/ folder in this repo. Copy the files to your home directory:

Source file	Destination
config/.gitconfig	~/.gitconfig
config/.zshrc	~/.zshrc
config/sobol.zsh-theme	~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/themes/sobol.zsh-theme

.zshrc already includes:

# Autosuggestions & syntax highlighting
source /opt/homebrew/share/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh
source /opt/homebrew/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh

# Local binaries & mise
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"
eval "$(~/.local/bin/mise activate zsh)"

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3 · Mise (Runtime Manager)

curl https://mise.run | sh
mise doctor

Node + pnpm

mise install node@latest
mise use -g node@latest

corepack enable
corepack prepare pnpm@latest --activate

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4 · Visual Studio Code

Install from: https://code.visualstudio.com/

Settings Sync is enabled, so that will take care of extensions, themes, and settings.

See extensions.md for the list of extensions I use.

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5 · Git & SSH

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -C "$(git config user.email)" -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 -N ""
cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

Copy the public key into GitHub under SSH and GPG keys.

To confirm Git is set up:

git config --list --show-origin

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6 · Install Docker Desktop

https://www.docker.com/products/docker-desktop

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7 · Install Slack

https://slack.com/downloads/mac

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8 · Install Zoom

https://zoom.us/download

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9 · Install AWS CLI

brew install awscli

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10 · Install Azure CLI

brew install azure-cli

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11 · Post-Setup Checklist

• Restart Terminal / source ~/.zshrc
• mise doctor shows no issues
• node -v, pnpm -v return versions
• VS Code settings and extensions are synced
• SSH key works: ssh -T [email protected]