macOS on Steroids

This is my almanac for setting up a new macOS machine to my workflows.

Initial System Setup

Step 1: Basic macOS Configuration

Before installing any applications, let's configure macOS for optimal productivity:

# Position, size, auto-hide
defaults write com.apple.dock orientation -string right
defaults write com.apple.dock tilesize -int 32
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide -bool true
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0
defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0.4

# Bottom-right hot corner → Quick Note
defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-br-corner -int 14
defaults write com.apple.dock wvous-br-modifier -int 0

# Dock contents: wipe Apple's defaults, pin only Zen
brew install dockutil
dockutil --remove all --no-restart
dockutil --add /Applications/Zen.app --no-restart

killall Dock

defaults write com.apple.WindowManager EnableTilingByEdgeDrag -bool false
defaults write com.apple.WindowManager EnableTopTilingByEdgeDrag -bool false
defaults write com.apple.WindowManager EnableTilingOptionAccelerator -bool false
defaults write com.apple.WindowManager EnableTiledWindowMargins -bool false

Wallpapers & Visual Setup

Desktop Wallpapers

My collection of desktop wallpapers:

Twitter Banners

For your Twitter account banners and social media:

Profile Pictures

For consistency across all your accounts:

Installing Homebrew & Core Applications

Step 1: Install Homebrew

Homebrew is the essential package manager for macOS. It simplifies installing and managing applications.

After installation, add Homebrew to your PATH:

Step 2: Install Essential Applications

Now let's install all the applications you'll need. I've organized them by category with detailed explanations:

One-Command Installation

Install everything at once. Formulae and casks go in two separate commands, because a --cask anywhere in a single brew install makes Homebrew treat every name as a cask:

Not in the one-liners on purpose: DaVinci Resolve (no cask, see below), Pear Desktop (pinned version, see below), Mac App Store apps, and the alternatives I list next to my picks.

Core Command Line Tools

Browsers

Development Tools

Productivity & System Tools

File Management

Office & Documents

Communication

Creative & Media Tools

Media Players

cd ~/Downloads
curl -LO https://github.com/pear-devs/pear-desktop/releases/download/v3.11.0/YouTube-Music-3.11.0-arm64.dmg
MOUNT=$(hdiutil attach -nobrowse YouTube-Music-3.11.0-arm64.dmg | grep -o '/Volumes/.*')
rm -rf "/Applications/YouTube Music.app"
cp -R "$MOUNT/YouTube Music.app" /Applications/
hdiutil detach "$MOUNT"
defaults read "/Applications/YouTube Music.app/Contents/Info.plist" CFBundleShortVersionString   # → 3.11.0

Audio Utilities

Security & Privacy

Terminal Setup with Oh My Zsh

Step 1: Install Oh My Zsh

Oh My Zsh is a framework for managing your Zsh configuration with tons of helpful features.

Step 2: Install Powerlevel10k Theme

The most powerful and customizable Zsh theme:

Then edit your ~/.zshrc:

Powerlevel10k's icons need a Nerd Font:

Step 3: Install Essential Zsh Plugins

zsh-autosuggestions

Suggests commands as you type based on your history:

zsh-syntax-highlighting

Provides syntax highlighting for your shell commands:

zsh-fast-syntax-highlighting

Faster and more feature-rich syntax highlighting:

zsh-autocomplete

Real-time auto-completion as you type:

Enabling the Plugins

Edit your ~/.zshrc file and update the plugins line:

Apply the changes:

Step 4: Advanced Terminal Tools Setup

Initialize Shell History with Atuin

Set up magical shell history sync:

Configure Zoxide for Smart Navigation

Initialize zoxide in your shell:

Setup FZF Integration

Add fuzzy finding to your shell:

Step 5: Handy ~/.zshrc Additions

Auto-Activate Python Virtual Environments

Activates the nearest .venv whenever you cd into a project, plus pnpm on the PATH:

# Auto-activate Python virtual environment if .venv exists (no auto-deactivate)

function auto_activate_env() {
  local dir=$PWD
  while [ "$dir" != "/" ]; do
    if [ -d "$dir/.venv" ]; then
      source "$dir/.venv/bin/activate"
      echo "✅ Activated virtual environment ($dir/.venv)"
      return
    fi
    dir=$(dirname "$dir")
  done
}

autoload -U add-zsh-hook
add-zsh-hook chpwd auto_activate_env

# Also activate immediately on shell startup
auto_activate_env

# pnpm
export PNPM_HOME="$HOME/Library/pnpm"
case ":$PATH:" in
  *":$PNPM_HOME:"*) ;;
  *) export PATH="$PNPM_HOME:$PATH" ;;
esac
# pnpm end

Ghostty Terminal Configuration

Essential Ghostty Settings

My full Ghostty config. cmux is built on Ghostty and reads the same ~/.config/ghostty/config, so this one file covers both:

# Restore windows, tabs, and splits on relaunch
window-save-state = always

# ~75 MB of scrollback per terminal (the value is in bytes; agent logs get long)
scrollback-limit = 75000000

cursor-style = bar
cursor-style-blink = true

background-opacity = 0.95
background-blur-radius = 20

Hyper Key Setup & Macros

Ultimate Productivity Shortcuts

Using BetterTouchTool's Hyper Key (⌘⌥⌃⇧). Never use your eyes for navigation (vision search is slow), use your muscle memory:

Development Environment Setup

Bun - Fast JavaScript Runtime

Install Bun, a fast all-in-one JavaScript runtime and toolkit:

Python Environment with uv

We already installed uv via Homebrew earlier. Now let's use it to manage Python versions:

Git Configuration

Set up your Git identity and preferences:

SSH Keys for GitHub

Generate and add SSH keys for secure GitHub access:

Or let the GitHub CLI do the key upload and auth in one go:

My Global CLAUDE.md & AGENTS.md

Every coding agent I run inherits the same thinking style. I keep this prompt in my global ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md and a matching ~/.codex/AGENTS.md so Claude Code and Codex both reason the way I do by default. The block at the bottom routes work to the skills below:

Be organized, accurate, thorough, and detailed without unnecessary verbosity.

Treat me as an expert. Do not dumb things down.

Optimize for truth and correctness over approval, conformity, politeness, or harmony. If I'm wrong, say so directly.

Value good arguments over authorities or sources. Consider serious contrarian arguments alongside consensus expert views.

When useful, present the strongest counterargument to any position I appear to hold.

Do not capitulate when I push back unless I provide new evidence or a better argument.

Do not anchor on numbers, estimates, or assumptions I provide; generate your own independently.

Be skeptical by default. Look for hidden assumptions, failure modes, and ways to improve the answer, product, argument, or system.

My epistemology is the same as David Deutsch or Karl Popper. Naval Ravikant has serious resonance with my thinking loops.

Be surprisingly resourceful. Suggest non-obvious solutions. Be proactive and anticipate my needs. Assume I am high-agency and can make practically anything happen.

Cite sources. Use examples liberally.

Open-minded and impossible to offend. Be provocative, argumentative, and pointed when useful.

When copy editing, always mark changes inline.

About me: Kshitij (tjay) Dhyani (@type_tjay on X)

Co-founder of Ghostfeed, entrepreneur, technical, range of knowledge/experience.

<!-- BEGIN @agent-native/skills -->
When operating as Claude Fable, use the /efficient-fable skill always.
When using a high-cost frontier model for codebase-heavy work, use the /efficient-frontier skill always.
When writing final response status indicators, use the /quick-recap skill always.
When long-running or parallel work needs usage-limit checks, use the /stay-within-limits skill always.
<!-- END @agent-native/skills -->

Claude Code & Codex Skills

Skills are reusable instruction packs that live in ~/.claude/skills/ and load on demand. These are the ones I keep installed:

Code Quality

• thermo-nuclear-code-quality-review - Brutally strict maintainability review. Blocks files past 1,000 lines, rejects ad-hoc spaghetti conditionals, questions thin abstractions and magical behavior, and enforces architectural boundaries. From Cursor's team kit

Agent Orchestration & Usage

From BuilderIO/skills:

• efficient-fable - Run Claude Fable as the orchestrator while cheaper subagents do token-heavy research, coding, and testing
• efficient-frontier - Same orchestration pattern for any high-cost frontier model: delegate heavy lifting, keep planning and final review on the expensive model
• stay-within-limits - Respects 5-hour and weekly usage limits — pauses near the cap and resumes when the window clears
• quick-recap - Red/yellow/green status block convention for final agent responses

Frontend & Design

• frontend-design - Distinctive, production-grade frontend interfaces that avoid generic AI aesthetics
• ui-skills - Opinionated technical constraints for building interfaces (React, TypeScript, Tailwind, composition patterns)
• web-design-guidelines - Reviews UI code for Web Interface Guidelines compliance — accessibility, UX, and design audits
• vercel-react-best-practices - React and Next.js performance optimization guidelines from Vercel Engineering
• better-ui - Polish pass for existing UI: concentric border radius, optical alignment, surface depth, contextual icons, hit areas
• emil-design-eng - Emil Kowalski's philosophy on UI polish, component design, and when (not) to animate
• make-interfaces-feel-better - Design-engineering details that make interfaces feel polished: micro-interactions, enter/exit animations, shadows, typography, tabular numbers
• remotion-dev/skills - The full Remotion suite (video creation in React): remotion-best-practices is the router, plus create, markup, captions, maps, multimedia, interactivity, studio, render, docs, saas, and upgrade

Writing & Content

• humanizer - Strips signs of AI-generated writing, based on Wikipedia's "Signs of AI writing" guide
• seo-writer - Long-form posts built to rank on Google page 1 and show up in AI Overviews: meta titles, schema markup, snippet-ready structure
• tiktok-hooks - Generates Gen-Z / college-apps TikTok hooks for the first 1-3 seconds of a video
• ghostfeed-ai/skills - Drive Ghostfeed over MCP: ghostfeed-avatars, ghostfeed-slideshows (TikTok photo slideshows), and ghostfeed-ugc-reactions (UGC reaction videos)

Claude Code Plugins

From the official claude-plugins-official marketplace. Install each inside Claude Code with /plugin install <name>@claude-plugins-official:

• commit-commands - /commit and /commit-push-pr in one step
• code-simplifier - Agent that simplifies recently changed code without changing behavior
• context7 - Pulls current library docs instead of relying on stale training data
• playwright - Browser automation for testing and clicking through flows
• github, figma, vercel - First-party integrations for repos, design files, and deploys
• frontend-design, swift-lsp - Design guidance and Swift language server support

MCP Servers & Hooks

And a desktop notification whenever Claude Code finishes a task, in ~/.claude/settings.json (uses terminal-notifier from the CLI tools above):

{
  "hooks": {
    "Stop": [
      {
        "hooks": [
          {
            "type": "command",
            "command": "terminal-notifier -title \"Claude Code\" -subtitle \"Task Complete\" -message \"Finished working in $(basename \"$PWD\")\" -sound Blow -timeout 10"
          }
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
}

System Maintenance

Regular Updates

Keep your system and applications up to date:

Mole - Deep Clean Your Mac

Mole deep cleans and optimizes your Mac — find large files, clear caches, and reclaim disk space with a clean, fast UI.

Essential Extensions & Productivity Tools

VS Code Extensions

These are some very useful VScode Extensions:

Core Productivity Extensions

• Claude Code - Anthropic's official extension; runs Claude Code in the editor panel with inline diffs
• Better Comments - Styled comments with alerts, todos, and highlights
• Color Highlight - Highlight color values in your code
• Error Lens - See errors and warnings inline with your code
• Path Intellisense - Autocomplete for file paths
• TODO Highlight - Highlight TODO, FIXME comments
• DotENV - Syntax highlighting for .env files
• EditorConfig - Respect each repo's .editorconfig

Git Integration

• GitLens - Supercharge Git capabilities with blame annotations
• Git History - View git log, file history, and compare branches
• Git Graph - Visual commit graph with branch actions
• GitHub Actions - View runs and edit workflows with validation

Code Quality & Formatting

• ESLint - JavaScript/TypeScript linting
• Prettier - Code Formatter - Opinionated code formatter
• Ruff - Rust-fast Python linter and formatter (also sorts imports, so no separate isort)

Python Development

• Python - Core Python language support
• Pylance - Fast, feature-rich Python language server
• Python Debugger - Debug Python code with breakpoints
• Python Environments - Pick and manage venvs and interpreters

Web Development

• Tailwind CSS IntelliSense - Class autocomplete, linting, and hover previews
• ES7+ React Snippets - Component and hook snippets
• Auto Rename Tag - Rename the paired HTML/JSX tag as you type
• Live Server - Launch local development server with live reload

Containers

• Container Tools - Manage images, containers, and compose files (works with OrbStack)
• Dev Containers - Open a repo inside a container

Data & Documentation

• Rainbow CSV - Highlight CSV files with colors
• Office Viewer - Open Word, Excel, PDF, and Markdown files right in VS Code

Install the whole set in one go:

for ext in \
  anthropic.claude-code aaron-bond.better-comments naumovs.color-highlight \
  usernamehw.errorlens christian-kohler.path-intellisense wayou.vscode-todo-highlight \
  mikestead.dotenv editorconfig.editorconfig \
  eamodio.gitlens donjayamanne.githistory mhutchie.git-graph github.vscode-github-actions \
  dbaeumer.vscode-eslint esbenp.prettier-vscode charliermarsh.ruff \
  ms-python.python ms-python.vscode-pylance ms-python.debugpy ms-python.vscode-python-envs \
  bradlc.vscode-tailwindcss dsznajder.es7-react-js-snippets formulahendry.auto-rename-tag \
  ritwickdey.liveserver ms-azuretools.vscode-containers ms-vscode-remote.remote-containers \
  mechatroner.rainbow-csv cweijan.vscode-office; do
  code --install-extension "$ext"
done

Final Tips & Tricks

Quick Look Enhancements

Enhance Quick Look (spacebar preview) with plugins:

Touch ID for sudo

Enable Touch ID for sudo commands:

Paste Without Formatting (Essential for Cursor)

Set up ⌘⇧V for paste without formatting - crucial when working in Cursor:

Reference: Reddit guide on paste without formatting

CleanShot X Auto Copy Setup

Enable auto copy to clipboard in CleanShot X for seamless screenshot workflow:

Make CleanShot X the Default Image Viewer

macOS keeps reverting image defaults back to Preview because the "Open With → Change All" Finder dialog only binds a single UTI at a time and silently breaks when LaunchServices gets out of sync. Fix it permanently by setting every image UTI via duti:

# CleanShot X's bundle ID is pl.maketheweb.cleanshotx
duti -s pl.maketheweb.cleanshotx public.jpeg all
duti -s pl.maketheweb.cleanshotx public.png all
duti -s pl.maketheweb.cleanshotx public.tiff all
duti -s pl.maketheweb.cleanshotx public.heic all
duti -s pl.maketheweb.cleanshotx public.heif all
duti -s pl.maketheweb.cleanshotx public.webp all
duti -s pl.maketheweb.cleanshotx com.compuserve.gif all
duti -s pl.maketheweb.cleanshotx public.image all

# Verify it stuck
duti -x jpg
duti -x png

If it still reverts, your LaunchServices database is corrupt — rebuild it and re-run the binds:

/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user
killall Finder

Make IINA the Default Audio & Video Player

Same playbook as CleanShot above, but for IINA — the only macOS video player worth running. Bind every common audio/video UTI to com.colliderli.iina so QuickTime and Music stop hijacking your double-clicks:

IINA=com.colliderli.iina

# --- Video UTIs ---
for uti in \
  public.movie public.video public.audiovisual-content \
  public.mpeg-4 public.mpeg public.mpeg-2-video \
  public.avi public.3gpp public.3gpp2 \
  com.apple.quicktime-movie com.apple.m4v-video \
  com.microsoft.windows-media-wmv com.microsoft.advanced-systems-format \
  org.webmproject.webm public.flc-animation; do
  duti -s "$IINA" "$uti" all
done

# --- Audio UTIs ---
for uti in \
  public.audio public.mp3 public.mpeg-4-audio public.aac-audio \
  public.aifc-audio public.aiff-audio \
  com.apple.m4a-audio com.apple.coreaudio-format \
  com.microsoft.waveform-audio \
  org.xiph.flac org.xiph.ogg-audio com.real.realaudio; do
  duti -s "$IINA" "$uti" all
done

# --- Extension fallbacks for formats with non-canonical UTIs ---
# (.ts is deliberately left out: it's TypeScript far more often than MPEG-TS video)
for ext in mkv opus webm flac ogg m2ts mts mxf wv ape \
           rm rmvb ra asf vob flv f4v divx dv mp2 m3u m3u8; do
  duti -s "$IINA" "$ext" all
done

# Force-register IINA so LaunchServices knows its claims
/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -f "/Applications/IINA.app"
killall Finder

Verify with duti -x mp4, duti -x mkv, duti -x mp3 — all three should print IINA.

Same trick for PDFs, pointing them at PDF Gear:

Make VS Code the Default for Text & Code

Out of the box, macOS scatters text files everywhere: Markdown into whatever ebook app claimed it, JSON into the browser, CSV into ChatGPT, .ts into a video player. One pass fixes it, and routes Word docs to LibreOffice while we're at it:

VSCODE=com.microsoft.VSCode

# --- Text, code, config, and data UTIs ---
for uti in public.plain-text public.source-code public.script public.shell-script \
  public.json public.xml public.yaml public.comma-separated-values-text \
  net.daringfireball.markdown com.apple.property-list com.apple.log; do
  duti -s "$VSCODE" "$uti" all
done

# --- Extensions macOS knows ---
for ext in md markdown txt log json yaml yml xml plist csv tsv \
           js mjs ts py sh zsh bash swift c h cpp hpp java rb php css svg; do
  duti -s "$VSCODE" "$ext" all
done

# --- Word-processor docs -> LibreOffice (sheets and slides already go there) ---
for ext in docx doc rtf odt; do
  duti -s org.libreoffice.script "$ext" all
done

Extensions no app registers a proper type for (tsx, jsx, go, rs, toml, scss, sql, env, …) make duti fail with error -50. Write those the way Finder's "Change All" does, as extension handlers, then restart LaunchServices so it reloads them instead of saving over them:

D=com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure
defaults export $D /tmp/ls.plist

python3 - <<'EOF'
import plistlib
p = "/tmp/ls.plist"
d = plistlib.load(open(p, "rb"))
exts = ("mdx jsonc toml cjs tsx jsx go rs kt lua scss sass less env ini conf cfg "
        "sql graphql vue svelte astro lock").split()
hs = [h for h in d.get("LSHandlers", []) if h.get("LSHandlerContentTag") not in exts]
hs += [{"LSHandlerContentTag": e,
        "LSHandlerContentTagClass": "public.filename-extension",
        "LSHandlerRoleAll": "com.microsoft.vscode",
        "LSHandlerPreferredVersions": {"LSHandlerRoleAll": "-"}} for e in exts]
d["LSHandlers"] = hs
plistlib.dump(d, open(p, "wb"))
EOF

defaults import $D /tmp/ls.plist && killall lsd

Remove Full Screen Shortcut Conflict

Disable ⌘⇧F full screen shortcut to avoid conflicts with code search:

VS Code Auto Close Tags

Enable automatic tag closing in VS Code for faster HTML/JSX editing:

VS Code Settings

The handful of settings I change, via Command Palette (⌘⇧P) → "Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON)":

{
  // File tree on the right, so opening it doesn't shift the code
  "workbench.sideBar.location": "right",

  // Never lose work to a forgotten save
  "files.autoSave": "afterDelay",

  // Claude Code lives in the bottom panel instead of a sidebar
  "claudeCode.preferredLocation": "panel",

  // Use Homebrew's Python by default
  "python.defaultInterpreterPath": "/opt/homebrew/bin/python3"
}

Shortcuts to Live By

These keyboard shortcuts will save you time:

VS Code / Cursor Shortcuts

• ⌘ + ← Collapse all folders in file explorer