Helpful tools and commands 🛠

A collection of things I like to use, intended to be used as a reference for initial setup of an OSX dev machine. Includes a few (sanitized) template configuration files based off of my personal preferences.

General Tools and Apps

• BetterTouchTool: For setting up custom macros for your keyboard/touchpad (template config included configs/profile.bttpreset).
  • More info about the template config here
• homebrew: Package manager. Machines with arm64 processors may want to install brew in an x86 shell for more reliable package compatibility.
• iTerm2: Terminal replacement (template config included configs/iterm2_profile.json).
  • More info about the template config here
• Notion: Wiki-style note-taking app with Markdown support and various templates.
• Oh My Zsh: Zsh framework for plugins and themes (more info about the template .zshrc file here).
• Zed: A fast Rust-based editor, favorite extensions here
• MacsyZones: A window snapping tool, works just like Powertools FancyZones

Brew

• jq: JSON processor
• fnm: Fast Node version manager
• httpie: A user-friendly cUrl stand-in
• pnpm: Performant node package manager
• pure: My zsh theme of choice
• tldr: man pages but prettier
• uv: All-in-one Python management

brew install awscli git git-lfs curl httpie jq pnpm fnm pure uv

Git

# Reconciliation behaviour for divergent branches
git config pull.ff true

# Alias for one line git log
git config --global alias.olog "log --oneline"

# Alias to print upstream name for working branch
git config --global alias.ref "rev-parse --abbrev-ref HEAD@{upstream}"

# Push with upstream as working branch name
git config --global alias.upush "push $(git branch --show-current)"

# Global git ignore
git config --get core.excludesfile  # check if it exists first
mkdir -p ~/.config/git && touch ~/.config/git/ignore  # if it doesn't exist then create one in the default location
git config --global core.excludesFile '~/.gitignore'
echo ".idea/" >> ~/.config/git/ignore  # example of adding Jetbrains IDE project files to global ignore

BetterTouchTool Template Config

Keyboard Shortcuts

I use these shortcuts with QMK compatible keyboards (Ex. Fn + Q will trigger the macro for ⌃ ⌥ ←, which resizes the focused window to the left half of my monitor).

Shortcut	Action
⌃ ⌥ ←	Resize focused window to left half
⌃ ⌥ →	Resize focused window to right half
⌃ ⌥ ↑	Maximize focused window
⌃ ⌥ ⌘ ←	Move focused window to next monitor
⌃ ⌥ P	Capture screenshot to clipboard

Trackpad Shortcuts (Only works with Apple force touch trackpads)

Shortcut	Action
Press bottom-left corner	Resize focused window to left half
Press bottom-right corner	Resize focused window to right half
Press top-left corner	Maximize focused window
Press top-right corner	Capture screenshot to clipboard

iTerm2 Template Config

Run this command before using this template config to use the correct root directory (requires jq):

cat <<< $(jq ".\"Working Directory\" = \"/Users/$(whoami)\"" iterm2_profile.json) > iterm2_profile.json

Doesn't stray too far from the default settings, some changes include:

• Dracula themed colors and other cosmetic settings
• Pane splitting opens the new pane in the same directory as the original pane
• 10,000 scroll-back lines
• Natural text editing (Ex. text navigation shortcuts like ⌥ ← and ⌘ ←)

Zsh Template Config

• Pure prompt initialization
• FNM initialization

Zed Extensions

• Jetbrains Mono font
• Material Icon Theme
• Dracula Theme