Mac setup for developers: what to install first

1. Command-line tools and Homebrew

Start with Apple's command-line tools, which give you git, make and the compilers:

xcode-select --install

Then install Homebrew, the package manager almost every Mac developer uses:

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

From here on, brew install handles command-line tools and brew install --cask handles apps. Keeping a Brewfile in your dotfiles means the next Mac takes one brew bundle command.

2. A terminal

macOS ships Terminal.app, and it's fine. Most developers switch to one of these free options:

• Ghostty: fast, native-feeling, sensible defaults. brew install --cask ghostty
• iTerm2: the long-time favourite, with split panes and endless settings. brew install --cask iterm2
• WezTerm or kitty: GPU terminals configured in a file, popular with people coming from Linux.

3. An editor

Install whatever you already use: VS Code (brew install --cask visual-studio-code), Zed, a JetBrains IDE, or Neovim (brew install neovim). If you use VS Code, run Shell Command: Install 'code' command in PATH from the command palette so code . works in the terminal.

4. A launcher

Spotlight (⌘Space) opens apps and files. Raycast (free for personal use, brew install --cask raycast) does that plus clipboard history, snippets, window snapping and hundreds of extensions. Many people bind it to ⌘Space and move Spotlight elsewhere.

5. Window management

This is the part that decides how a laptop feels after a week of real work. macOS overlaps windows by default, and a developer usually has an editor, a terminal, a browser, docs and chat open at once.

• Just halves? macOS 15 Sequoia and later tile a window to the left or right half with Fn⌃← and Fn⌃→. Rectangle does the same on older versions and adds thirds. See how to tile windows on a Mac.
• A full grid, i3 style? AeroSpace is free and keyboard-driven, configured in TOML.
• Many windows on a small screen? A scrolling window manager puts every window in its own column on one long strip, so opening the fifth window doesn't squeeze the other four. Ribbon is ours ($9.99 once, settings window, no config file). Free options are compared in the best scrolling window managers for Mac. You can try Ribbon in your browser first.

Also worth installing: AltTab (brew install --cask alt-tab), a switcher that shows every window instead of every app (⌥Tab by default, and you can move it to ⌘Tab).

6. Containers and runtimes

• Docker: OrbStack (brew install --cask orbstack) is a lighter alternative to Docker Desktop on Apple silicon; it's free for personal use and paid for commercial use.
• Language versions: use a version manager rather than Homebrew's single version: mise, nvm, pyenv or uv for Python.

7. macOS settings worth changing on day one

• Show hidden files in Finder: press ⌘⇧. in any Finder window.
• Faster key repeat: System Settings → Keyboard → Key repeat rate to Fast, Delay until repeat to Short.
• Auto-hide the Dock for more vertical space: System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Automatically hide and show the Dock.
• Screenshots out of your Desktop: mkdir -p ~/Screenshots && defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Screenshots && killall SystemUIServer
• Turn off "Displays have separate Spaces" only if you use a window manager that asks for it. Ribbon works with the default.
• Stage Manager off if you tile: it reserves a strip on the left edge. See Stage Manager alternatives.

A Brewfile to start from

brew "git"
brew "neovim"
cask "ghostty"
cask "visual-studio-code"
cask "raycast"
cask "rectangle"
cask "alt-tab"
cask "orbstack"

Save it as Brewfile and run brew bundle. Swap in your own picks.