Mac

macOS developer environment guides.

• Mac backups — Time Machine + cloud + encrypted external SSD

  Time Machine setup, Backblaze/iCloud cloud combo, encrypted external SSDs, and four real recovery scenarios.

• Docker on Mac — Docker Desktop vs OrbStack vs colima + Apple Silicon setup

  Comparing three container runtimes on Apple Silicon Mac. License, performance, RAM usage, and compatibility — pick the right one for your situation.

• macOS security basics — FileVault · Firewall · Gatekeeper · XProtect

  The four security features to enable right after unboxing a Mac. How disk encryption, firewall, app validation, and malware quarantine work — and how to set them up.

• Mac dev environment weekly maintenance — update brew · toolchains · SDKs with one command

  A single weekly shell script that updates Homebrew, Mac App Store, npm globals, rustup, cargo binaries, pipx, Flutter, CocoaPods, and oh-my-zsh.

• Customizing zsh — starship prompt, history, aliases, plugins

  Turn the macOS default zsh into a productive shell in 30 minutes. starship + history search + autosuggestions + syntax highlighting.

• Brewfile management — reproduce a Mac dev environment as code with `brew bundle`

  A Brewfile pattern that pins your Mac setup into a single file. dump → cleanup → cleanup → install on another machine, one full cycle.

• Mac language toolchain — one mise instead of nvm + pyenv + rbenv + goenv

  Replace nvm, pyenv, rustup-light, goenv, and rbenv with a single tool. Per-project auto-switching, shell integration, and migration paths.

• Dotfiles management — chezmoi vs yadm vs raw symlinks, Mac edition

  Comparing tools to cleanly replicate the same dev environment across machines, plus a practical chezmoi setup.

• VS Code vs Cursor on Mac — use both with synced settings

  Practical setup for running VS Code and Cursor side-by-side on macOS while managing settings/extensions/keymaps from a single source of truth.

• New Mac developer setup — the first hour after unboxing

  A single-path setup for Apple Silicon Mac on macOS 14+. Bring it from blank to ready-to-git-push in 30–60 minutes.

• Mac productivity tools — Raycast · Rectangle · AltTab · Maccy · Karabiner

  Five tools that let you drive macOS from the keyboard. Setup, key shortcuts, and real daily patterns.

• Multiple GitHub accounts via SSH on Mac — manage work + personal keys

  The straightforward way to cleanly separate multiple hosts/accounts (work GitHub, personal GitHub, external clients) with ~/.ssh/config.

• Mac terminal — iTerm2 vs WezTerm vs Ghostty + zsh + Starship

  Three options to replace the default Terminal.app, plus the fastest path to a stable zsh + Starship setup.