My Mac OS setup and the best applications I use as a Web Developer. This is a living document. I regularly update it with new tools and applications that I find useful. If you want to know more, I share more on my blog and my newsletter.

• Disclaimer
• Usage
  • Where to find the right tool?
• My Hardware
• Setup shell
• Command Line Apps
• Applications
  • Bare minimum
  • Browsers
  • Utilities
  • Automation
  • Tasks & time management
  • Storage & backup management
  • Code
  • Reading & Writing
  • Communication
  • Social Media
  • Design & Web Design
  • Audio & Video production
  • Miscellaneous
• Mac preferences
  • Dock
• Web Applications
• Inspiration
• Icons and images

• I tried to keep the right order you should also follow to install packages and applications on your Mac (particularly the setup shell part)
• Some tools are free and some are not. I'm lucky to have the ability to pay for licences and subscriptions. But if you are not in that situation, 1) You will find free alternatives in the "Alternatives" section of most of the tools, 2) you don't need a paid tool to do an amazing work. Just choose the best tool that suits you and your situation.

• Product Hunt - By far the best and well-know website where you can find almost everything you need. You will sometimes find a badge that redirects to the Product Hunt page. Show some ❤️ to the makers!
• AlternativeTo - I regularly use AlternativeTo but find it limited and not always accurate. The "ups" are most of the time not relevant or doesn't reflect what people prefer the most. It's a great place to start if you are looking for a list of alternatives though.
• Slant and stackshare - Slant and Stackshare are kind of similar but Stackshare is more developer tools focused. It's a nice source of information to compare apps / web apps.

I regularly update all my hardware on a dedicated page on kit.co. Feel free to check it out!

• Xcode is required for some applications to run. So having Xcode updated just remove the issue of not being able to install some apps.

xcode-select --install

$ ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

With Homebrew comes brew-cask which will allow to install applications with the command line.

brew update                         # Fetch latest version of homebrew and formula.
brew search {app name}              # Searches all known Casks for a partial or exact match.
brew install {package name}         # Install a package
brew info --cask {app name}           # Displays information about a given Cask
brew install --cask {app name}        # Install the given cask.
brew cleanup

brew install --cask cakebrew

brew install zsh

Add this to my ~/.zshrc

export HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS="--appdir=/Applications"

Verify that ZSH is correctly installed

zsh --version

Additionally, Zsh should be set as the default shell. Run echo $SHELL from a new terminal to confirm. Expected result: /usr/bin/zsh or similar

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Check if Oh My Zsh was correctly installed.

⚠️ Some of the following packages are not essential but highly recommended. Some applications may depend on the installation of these packages.

brew install coreutils

brew install wget

brew install tree

tree -L 1 # to output only the root directories and files

brew install nmap

brew install the_silver_searcher

brew install jq

brew install youtube-dl

youtube-dl -f best 'link-of-your-own-youtube-video'

brew install tesseract-lang && brew install homebrew-ffmpeg/ffmpeg/ffmpeg --with-fdk-aac --with-librsvg --with-libsoxr --with-libssh --with-tesseract --with-libvidstab --with-opencore-amr --with-openh264 --with-openjpeg --with-openssl --with-rubberband --with-webp --with-zeromq --with-zimg --with-srt --with-libvmaf --with-libxml2 --with-game-music-emu --with-libbluray --with-libbs2b --with-libcaca --with-libgsm --with-libmodplug [email protected] --with-rtmpdump --with-speex --with-two-lame --with-wavpack --with-xvid

More details here

brew install blueutil

brew install speedtest-cli

brew install imagemagick

brew tap jakehilborn/jakehilborn && brew install displayplacer

brew tap homebrew/cask-fonts

brew install --cask \
    font-fira-code \
    font-source-code-pro font-source-code-pro-for-powerline \
    font-source-sans-pro

brew install mas

mas search {app name} # To search for an app

brew install rbenv ruby-build rbenv-default-gems rbenv-gemset
echo 'eval "$(rbenv init -)"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc # Apply changes

rbenv install {version}

⚠️ (never use brew to install nvm)

wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.35.3/install.sh | bash

Add these lines in the $HOME/.zshrc file:

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
[ -s "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" ] && . "$NVM_DIR/nvm.sh" # This loads nvm

And these lines to automatically switch your node version based on the nvmrc file.

# place this after nvm initialization!
autoload -U add-zsh-hook
load-nvmrc() {
  local node_version="$(nvm version)"
  local nvmrc_path="$(nvm_find_nvmrc)"

  if [ -n "$nvmrc_path" ]; then
    local nvmrc_node_version=$(nvm version "$(cat "${nvmrc_path}")")

    if [ "$nvmrc_node_version" = "N/A" ]; then
      nvm install
    elif [ "$nvmrc_node_version" != "$node_version" ]; then
      nvm use
    fi
  elif [ "$node_version" != "$(nvm version default)" ]; then
    echo "Reverting to nvm default version"
    nvm use default
  fi
}
add-zsh-hook chpwd load-nvmrc
load-nvmrc

To default a specific node version: nvm alias default {version}

brew install yarn

brew install nektos/tap/act

brew install git-standup

brew install github/gh/gh

brew install --cask \
	qlcolorcode qlmarkdown qlprettypatch qlstephen \
	qlimagesize \
	quicklook-csv quicklook-json epubquicklook

List all NPM package installed globally: npm list -g --depth 0

• Netlify CLI - npm install netlify-cli -g
• Gatsby CLI - npm install -g gatsby-cli
• NPM-check - npm install -g npm-check
• Yarn-check - npm install -g yarn-check
• AWS Amplify CLI - npm install -g @aws-amplify/cli
• Vercel CLI - npm i -g vercel
• Create React App - npx create-react-app my-app
• dotenv-cli - npm install -g dotenv-cli
• Gitmoji - npm i -g gitmoji-cli
• Release-it - npm install --global release-it
• Plop - npm i -g plop

This is a complete list of all the applications I have on my personal and professional Mac (some apps are only on my personal computer).

🎁 Some applications can be bought individually or you can subscribe Setapp for a 7-day free trial to test multiple applications and decide the one you want to use!

This is the list of the most essentials apps I would install if I was limited in the number of apps to have.

brew install --cask little-snitch

• Chrome extension - Update settings and set the shortcut to ⌃⇧P
• Setting 1Password 1Click Bookmarks in Alfred

brew install --cask 1password

mas install 1333542190

This is the list of the workflows I used the most (files saved in Dropbox):

• caniuse
• DEVONThink Search - To search on my DEVONThink databases
• F.lux - Change the settings of F.lux
• Lorem Ipsum - To generate random Lorem Ipsum text
• MDN Search - One of the best documentation
• Snippets Lab - Search code snippets
• Spotify Mini Player - Play, Pause, Next, the missing remote for Spotify
• Things - Access my tasks from Alfred
• Alfred Maestro - Search on Keyboard Maestro using Alfred
• Terminal Finder - Type a command in Alfred and append it directly in the terminal
• Copy URL - Copy the current browser tab URL and deliver it in the markdown format

brew install --cask alfred

brew install --cask iterm2

Multiple profiles

• Professional user
• Personal user
• Accessibility user

• Feedly Mini - Easily save the RSS feed of the current website
• Adblock Plus - Because I prefer to limit ads
• 1Password - 1Password companion
• Tabs Mania - Extension I built to manage tabs
• Toolbar Spacer 1 - I prefer to separate my extensions visually
• Clip to DEVONthink - Clip the URL, text or screenshot the page and save it in DEVONthink
• Save to Notion - Save a page, text or anything else to Notion
• Add to Things 3 - Add the current URL to Things
• Eagle - Save images to Eagle (love the drag and drop functionality that works with any image)
• What Runs - Discover what runs a website
• React Developer Tools - The required tool that help to inspect any React component
• Grammarly - The life saving tool that help to fix writing errors
• CSS Scan
• Session Budy -
• Keepa - Amazon price tracker: know when to buy and when to wait
• VisBug - Open source web design debug tool for designers (and developers)
• JSONView - To view JSON documents in your browser
• Momentum - The classic and beautiful tab replacement

brew install --cask google-chrome

brew install --cask google-chrome-canary

brew install --caskfirefox

brew install --cask firefox-nightly

brew install --cask microsoft-edge

• Pro

  • Show view

  • Hide view

• Personal

  • Show view

  

  (Trailer, Mouseless, SnippetsLabs, PopClip, Magnet, Timing)

  • Hide view

  

  (f.lux, Hammerspoon, Dropbox, Google Backup, Airplay, Wifi)

brew install --cask bartender

brew install --cask flux

• List of the extensions I use (files saved on Dropbox)

  • Past and Match Style
  • Alfred
  • Things 3
  • DEVONthink 3
  • Highlight
  • SnippetLab
  • Slack
  • Bitly
  • Terminal
  • Fantastical 3

• Excluded apps

brew install --cask popclip

• Shortcut used: ctrl + space

brew install --cask contexts

brew install --cask cleanshot

• Mac (free): Kap
• Windows (paid): Snagit

brew install --cask cleanmymac

• I have few profiles

brew install --cask elgato-stream-deck

• I use to play different ambients when coding or working in general.
• I also use Portal and Thunderspace on my iPhone.

brew install --casknoizio

mas install 928871589

I only use TeamViewer when I need to debug my Mom's computer (which is located in France).

• I use Cardhop occasionally to ensure my contact list is up to date or to easily add missing information or missing birthday dates.
• I synchronise my list of Contacts on iCloud and Gmail Contacts to avoid duplicates.

• Alfred Maestro - Search on Keyboard Maestro using Alfred

brew install --cask keyboard-maestro

brew install --cask hazel

brew install --cask raycast

brew install --caskbettertouchtool

brew install --caskhammerspoon

• I use Fantastical to manage personal and professional events.
• I always view my events from Week view. And shows 5 days with 16h shown for all days. This lets me have a perspective over what I have to do now.

brew install --caskfantastical

• I used Todoist for few years but decided to try Things, and even I miss some options from Todoist, I'm loving using Things.

brew install --caskthings

mas install 904280696

brew install --casktiming

I've used Google One many years, but decide to use Dropbox instead. The two main reasons are: integration with most of the apps I used and the offline mode out of the box.

I've used Google Drive storage few years but use now mainly Dropbox because of the integration with a lot of Mac OS, iOs and iPad OS apps.

• Select Apps and Screenshots folders to sync

brew install --caskdropbox

• Choose folders to sync

• Sync favorites with Dropbox

brew install --caskforklift

mas install 412448059

brew install --caskthe-unarchiver

mas install 425424353

Sometimes, some external hard drives can gave me tough times. Hard Disk Manager saved me multiple times and it's always good to check the health of your hard drives time to time.

The best code editor (for my usage)

brew install --caskvisual-studio-code

brew install --casktower

brew install --caskdiffmerge

• I store all my code snippets

Other options

• Alfred
• VSCode

• Alfred extension
• PopClip extension

• Snipper

mas install 1006087419

I found Proxyman when struggling making Charles working on my Mac. Proxyman make it really easy to replace any file by a local version. Useful sometimes to debug production.

https://paw.cloud/extensions/

brew install --caskpaw

brew install --casktableplus

brew install --caskmockoon

brew install docker

brew install --caskdocker-toolbox

brew install --caskaltair-graphql-client

brew install --caskpoedit

brew install --caskswitchhosts

Free alternative Jayson

mas install 1268962404

• CodeKit was one of the best and first software that would convert Sass to CSS. A lot of improvements were made since then. I use it when I'm lazy and don't want to configure Gulp, ParcelJS or Webpack.

mas install Haskell

• I use Feedly to store all my RSS feeds and synchronize with Reeder.
• I like to activate the Bionic Reading setting, which speed up my reading.
• DEVONthink 3 and Things are activated in the "Actions and Sharing" settings.

mas install 880001334

• When I want to brainstorm without any structure, Scapple is the first tool I use in my workflow.
• It allows me to put all words / ideas I can think of and then start establishing relationships.
• When I have a better vision or want to be more organize, I usually switch in using MindNode.

brew install --caskscapple

mas install 568020055

• To help organization thoughts and ideas

• Easy to use
• Nice UI and integration with MacOS / iOS

• The mobile application cost
• No enough inovations

brew install --caskmindnode-pro

mas install 1289197285

brew install --casknotion

• I used Evernote for years, but the lack of new features I decided to use DEVONthink and have no regrets.

• Chrome extension
• Alfred extension
• PopClip extension
• Airmail services activation

brew install --caskdevonthink

• I use DEVONagent Pro every-time I need to do research to prepare a presentation, write an article or produce some sort of content.

• I've used Marked 2, Ulysses and Boostnode but MWeb is the one app I've enjoy the most using.

• Mou
• MacDown
• Quiver

mas install 1403919533

• Scrivener is the perfect tool to write any book.
• I've used Scrivener in the past to work on the outline for a video course.
• I'm planning in using it more and maybe start writing small non-fictional ebooks soon.

brew install --caskscrivener

mas install 1310686187

• Dias testing (my own Slack workspace to test apps and webhooks)
• Contentful Community
• A11y
• TorontoJS
• FEDs
• Civic Tech Toronto

brew install cask slack

mas install 803453959

• I've been using Airmail since I fully work on MacOS.
• I tried Spark for few days but I didn't feel it was a big win in comparison to Airmail.
• Like many people, I approach my emails tasks in GTD style, trying to always be close to zero emails in my inbox.

I used "filters" on Gmail to organize most of my emails (especially newsletters, bills, recurring emails...). I wish Gmail would have an easiest way to create these filters.

brew install --caskairmail

mas install 918858936

I have a strict rule in regards to social apps on my professional Mac. I usually don't have any social / communication app that is not directly related to work (only Slack). These apps are mostly on my personal MacBook.

I use mostly Discord to talk with HTMLHint contributors and other platforms.

• Skype was my to-go chat app for years, but since Google Meet, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, I only use with 2-3 people that are not on these platforms.

brew install --caskskype

I'm not a Web Designer / Designer, but I love studying Photography, UI and UX. I try to practice as much as I can using the following applications.

• Eagle Chrome extension

• By far, the best font manager that supports my library of more than 80 000 font files.

• All my icons are stored on IconJar
• I could also used Eagle to store these, but I prefer to have a dedicated software to manage all icon's formats.

• List of Adobe Softwares I most often use
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • Adobe Premiere Rush
  • Adobe Premiere Pro
  • Adobe Audition
  • Adobe Lightroom Classic
  • Adobe Acrobat
  • ...

brew install --caskadobe-creative-cloud

I'm planning in using more Figma as I don't want to renew Sketch in regards to my real usage.

brew install --caskfigma

Still a reference (vs Adobe XD and Figma) but I didn't renew my licence in 2019. Planning in using Figma instead when needed.

brew install --casksketch

To manage plugins for Sketch

Used Zeplin mostly at work. I remember when it first came out. A lot of updates and improvements since.

My go-to color-picker.

brew install --caskcolorsnapper

• I've used Sip in the past but recently switched to ColorSnapper2 because no subscription.

brew install --casksip

brew install --caskimageoptim

It's not because it was build by French people that I love this app!

• Screenflow doesn't recommend to store files on Dropbox, so I usually store the files on Dropbox but move them to my local hard drive if I want to edit these. No problem until today.

The only typing program that has a "Code" practice section

• I use this also for signing my commits.

brew install --cask

defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{"tile-type"="spacer-tile";}'; killall Dock

• Dock screenshot

• Invision
• Namecheap - The best domain registrar
• StatusCake - To keep an eye on your website uptime
• Themer.dev - To generate themes (editors, terminals, wallpapers, and more) with ease
• Netlify
• codeimg - To easily create social media banners
• Gradient Magic - Free gallery of CSS Gradients

Heavily inspired by the works from:

• https://github.com/nikitavoloboev/my-mac-os
• https://github.com/donnemartin/dev-setup

All logos and brand/applications names are registered and below to their owners.

MIT