How I set up my Mac

This guide includes a lot of free apps I use on my Mac. I have a comprehensive list of these in Github and Google Sheets.

i. From your previous Mac/install

1 - Install apps

1.1 - Install Homebrew

Install Homebrew using the following command:

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

1.2 - Install packages

1.2.1 - Brewfile placement

Place the Brewfile (which you downloaded from here, or created yourself) in your /usr/ directory — you can get here in Finder by selecting Go > Go to Folder... (or pressing ⌘ + ⇧ + G) and typing ~/. Terminal should launch here by default.

1.2.2 - Installation

Open Terminal and run the following command:

brew bundle install

(If you have your Brewfile in a different location, you can specify this by running brew bundle install /path/to/Brewfile)

1.2.3 - Auto-updates

I like my packages to update automatically, so I use the Homebrew Autoupdate package which just uses the built-in autoupdate mechanism within Homebrew. It is in my Brewfile, but if you want to install it yourself, you need to use:

Alternative to using a Brewfile

1.3 - iOS/iPadOS Apps from the Mac App Store

These cannot be downloaded using mas. You have to download these manually. Currently the two I have installed are:

1.4 - Other sources

1.4.1 - The other apps I install outside of these two places are:

1.4.2 - TheBoringNotch is not yet signed by Apple, so when first launched, it will show a popup saying it is untrusted. Click Okay, then on your Mac go to Settings > Privacy & Security and scroll until you see a button saying Open Anyway.

1.5 - Additional app downloads

1.5.1 - Adobe: brew will have installed Creative Cloud but it will not have installed the apps. Sign in and download the apps. (No longer used, November 2026.)

1.5.2 - Xcode: Xcode needs to install additional bits. Launch it and download the relevant environments.

1.6 - App configs

My app configs are in the configs/ folder of the mac-setup repo.

1.6.1 - Ghostty (my terminal): copy configs/ghostty/config to ~/Library/Application Support/com.mitchellh.ghostty/config. Its custom-shader line points at a local copy of the CRT shader in ~/Github; clone that first, or remove the line.

1.6.2 - Starship (my shell prompt): install it with brew install starship (it's in the Brewfile), install a Nerd Font such as JetBrainsMono Nerd Font and set it as the terminal font, then copy both files in configs/starship/ to ~/.config/. starship.toml is the full layout; starship-plain.toml is a plain-ASCII version for Apple's Terminal. Add this near the top of ~/.zshrc:

case "$TERM_PROGRAM" in
  "Apple_Terminal") export STARSHIP_CONFIG="$HOME/.config/starship-plain.toml" ;;
  *)                export STARSHIP_CONFIG="$HOME/.config/starship.toml" ;;
esac
eval "$(starship init zsh)"

2 - Install fonts

2.1 - Google Fonts

Install all the fonts from the google/fonts repository by doing the following. The --depth 1 flag fetches only the latest version and skips the repo’s ~2.8 GB of git history, keeping the download smaller while git pull still works for updates:

cd ~/Library/Fonts/

git clone --depth 1 <https://github.com/google/fonts.git> google-fonts

Updating fonts cd ~/Library/Fonts/google-fonts/ && git pull --depth 1

Removing fontsrm -rf ~/Library/Fonts/google-fonts/
Source: https://www.junian.net/tech/macos-google-fonts/

2.2 - Apple Fonts

I usually need to use some of Apple’s fonts (like San Francisco), so I download them from
https://developer.apple.com/fonts/.

2.3 - Fontshare

There is no way to install all of these at once. Unfortunately you have to go and select 'Download' on each from
https://www.fontshare.com/

3 - Settings

3.1 - System Preferences

3.1.1 - Desktop and Dock

I turn on Automatically hide and show the Dock and set the size and magnification as shown here:

In Desktop & Stage Manager I also set Click wallpaper to reveal desktop to Only in Stage Manager and turn off Stage Manager

3.1.2 - Windows

I turn on Hold ⌥ key while dragging windows to tile and turn off Tiled windows have margins

3.1.3 - Mission Control

I turn on Group windows by application

3.1.4 - Trackpad

I change the gesture for Mission Control to Swipe Up with Three Fingers

I turn on the gesture for App Exposé - Swipe Down with Three Fingers

3.1.5 - Keyboard Shortcuts

I customise a few of these and have adjusted as I use different devices. These are based on Apple’s older Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad and my Nuphy Air which don’t have a fn key in the bottom left, meaning I change the Window Management commands.

Old layout

New layout

Honestly it seems like a small change but I wish they had done this ages ago, and I’m not getting a new keyboard just for this!

3.1.5.1 - Raycast and Window Management

I use Raycast instead of Spotlight , I change from ⌘ + Space to ⌥ + Space

I am a Hyper key stan! This allows you to use the Caps Lock key to press all four left modifier keys — ⇧ + ⌃ + ⌥ + ⌘ . I have set it up using Raycast , but I have set up window management using macOS’s built in functions:

General

Minimise

Zoom

Fill

Centre

Return to Previous Size

Halves

Tile Left Half

Tile Right Half

Tile Top Half

Tile Bottom Half

Quarters

Tile Top-Left Quarter

Tile Top-Right Quarter

Tile Bottom-Left Quarter

Tile Bottom-Right Quarter

Arrange

Arrange Left and Right

Arrange Right and Left

Arrange Top and Bottom

Arrange Bottom and Top

Arrange in Quarters

Full-Screen Tile

Full-Screen Tile Left

Full-Screen Tile Right

⌘M

none

⌃⌥⇧⌘F

⌃⌥⇧⌘C

⌃⌥⇧⌘R

⌃⌥⇧⌘←

⌃⌥⇧⌘→

⌃⌥⇧⌘↑

⌃⌥⇧⌘↓

[This is because they are in a square!]

⌃⌥⇧⌘U

⌃⌥⇧⌘I

⌃⌥⇧⌘J

⌃⌥⇧⌘K

[You may want to switch these with ‘Halves’]

⌃⌥⇧⌘A

⌃⌥⇧⌘D

⌃⌥⇧⌘W

⌃⌥⇧⌘S

⌃⌥⇧⌘/

none

none

3.1.5.2 - Screenshots

Since I use Shottr for screenshots, I change the Copy default to change it to the ‘Super’ modifier
e.g. ⇧ + ⌘ + 3 → ⇧ + ⌃ + ⌥ + ⌘ + 3

I also change the location of where screenshots get saved to my Downloads folder by using

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Downloads && killall SystemUIServer

I also change the time for the screenshot preview in the native macOS screenshot utility to 15 seconds using:

defaults write com.apple.screencaptureui "thumbnailExpiration" -float 15 && killall SystemUIServer

sudo killall cfprefsd

3.1.5.3 - Finder

I also really hate that ⌘ + R rotates in Finder — I expect it to rename (even though for individual items I use ↵ ). Instead it rotates everything! Urgh!

Finder

Rename

⌘R

3.1.5.4 - Freeform

Though I don’t use it that much, I do like Freeform. I have a massive UI refs board (which really slows down any device I use it on 😅), but I am so used to my keyboard shortcuts that I need to replicate them here, so:

Freeform

Arrange->Align Objects->Bottom

Arrange->Send to Back

Arrange->Align Objects->Left

Arrange->Bring to Front

Arrange->Align Objects->Right

Arrange->Align Objects->Centre

Arrange->Ungroup

Arrange->Align Objects->Middle

Arrange->Bring Forward

Arrange->Group

Arrange->Align Objects->Top

Arrange->Send Backward

⌃⌘↓

⇧⌘[

⌃⌘←

⇧⌘]

⌃⌘→

⌃⌘H

⇧⌘G

⌃⌘V

⌘]

⌘G

⌃⌘↑

⌘[

ℹ️

Note that you have to use -> in the shortcut’s name to identify lower levels

3.1.5.5 - Sketch (inc. Beta)

Sketch

Vertically

Horizontally

Rotate Copies

Flatten

⌃⌥⌘V

⌃⌥⌘H

⌃⇧R

⌥⇧⌘F

3.1.6 - Control Centre (and menu bar)

I ensure that Bluetooth is set to Show in Menu Bar — it doesn’t always show up here.

I also change Sound to Always Show in Menu Bar .

3.2 - Preinstalled Apps

3.2.1 - Finder

Finder is great but I always forget how much I have customised it until I move to new Mac that hasn’t been customised!

3.2.2 - Safari

I am not sure why, but Safari likes to default to open with a new window every time you start it up. I always change it to:
Safari opens with: All windows from last session

3.2.3 - Dock

We already talked about the Dock settings before, but I like to separate out the items on my Dock using spacers. There are two types of spacer, small and regular. Regular is the same size as a full app, whereas small is half the width. I use small spacers.

To add these, you have to run the corresponding command in Terminal. Sometimes this doesn’t work, so re-run it until it adds one. Once one is added, drag and position it before adding another — the success rate of adding another seems to go up if you drag the one you just added away.

The commands to add spacers are as follows:

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

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

3.2.4 - Terminal

I found this recently, but for sudo commands instead of typing your password, you can enable TouchID for authentication! To do this:

1. Create a local PAM configuration file (this persists across macOS system updates):

   sudo cp /etc/pam.d/sudo_local.template /etc/pam.d/sudo_local

2. Open it in an editor:

   sudo nano /etc/pam.d/sudo_local

3. Remove the # before the line:

   auth       sufficient     pam_tid.so

   Save and exit ( ⌃ + O, Enter, then ⌃ + X).

3.3 - Replacing default macOS functions

3.3.1 - Raycast

I prefer Raycast to Spotlight — it has many more functions and I can customise it more. I am by no means a power user, but I have adjusted it so that it works for me.

My full Raycast settings are exported in Raycast 2026-11-02.rayconfig in the mac-setup repo (password-protected). Import it in Raycast → Settings → Advanced → Import, then enter the export password.

3.2.2 - BetterSnapTool

I use BetterSnapTool for setting up custom snap areas. I first used this for my monitor which I have rotated 90°, but have since created 1/4 and 1/3 snap areas for my 4k monitors when I need to reference a few things at once.

If you previously had some preferences you should back them up

3.2.2 - Ice — replaced by Thaw (November 2026)

To tidy up my menu bar I use Ice, where I place things is as follows:

3.2.3 - Shottr

I use Shottr instead of macOS’s built in screenshot utility. I prefer that it allows you to mark up, edit, crop, measure, and more!

It also has a super useful OCR feature which allows you to select an area on the screen and extract the text from it.

Since I want it to replace the default screenshots in macOS, I set it up to:

3.2.4 - Velja

I use Velja to automate switching to Arc for Google apps. They are as follows:

3.2.5 - Rocket (Emojis)

I prefer typing a : and searching to insert emoji. Rocket does this really well. I hide the Menu Bar icon using Ice.

3.4 - System Enhancements

3.4.1 - DockDoor — no longer used (November 2026)

DockDoor shows you a preview of the windows you have open when you hover over them in the Dock.

I prefer it to be clean, quick and launch on login, so I change:
In General:

• I check Launch DockDoor at login
• Preview Window Open Delay > 0
• Window Size > Small

In Appearance:

• Traffic Light Buttons Visibility > Never visible

In Window Switcher:

• I uncheck Enable Window Switcher

3.4.2 - Boring Notch — no longer used (November 2026)

Boring Notch is a great app and has loads of functionality to make your notch more useful on MacBooks. They added the feature I really wanted — being able to assign this to only your MacBook screen when connected to external monitors.

I change a few settings:

General

Menubar icon [Off]

Launch at login [On]

Show on all displays [On]

Show on a specific display [Built-in Retina Display]

Automatically switch displays [Off]

Appearance

Always show tabs [Off]

Settings icon in notch [Off]

Calendar

Show calendar [Off]

3.5 - Utilities

These are other utilities I use that aren’t necessarily tied to system functions, but things I install, and set to open on login (they are automatically downloaded in the packages.txt and mas-apps.txt).

3.5.1 - AutoSwitch — no longer used (November 2026)

I like to use AutoSwitch as secondary menu to quickly access some advanced settings.

In General I set:

• Launch: Launch at login to On
• Promotion: Show More Apps to Off

In Customisation I turn on:

• Hide Desktop Icons
• Autohide Dock
• Autohide Menu Bar
• Xcode Derived Data
• Show Hidden Files
• Empty Clipboard
• Show User Library Folder
• Show Extension Name
• Low Power Mode
• Show Finder Path Bar
• Screen Test & Clean
• True Tone
• Key Light
• In here I also turn off Hide Menu Bar Icons

3.5.2 - MeetingBar — no longer used (November 2026)

I use MeetingBar only for a single function, it shows a fullscreen notification when a meeting starts, meaning I can’t ignore it.

I therefore check Launch after login and Show a fullscreen notification when event starts.

I turn off basically everything else and hide it in my menu bar using Ice.

3.5.3 - Lossless Switcher — no longer used (November 2026)

This ensures you’re always streaming the best quality when connected to AirPods or other Bluetooth headphones. In the Menu Bar, click the icon to see its settings. I like to have it in the hidden menu in Ice with Show Sample Rate selected so I can keep an eye on it.

3.5.4 - Amazon Q — no longer used (November 2026)

This is a great autocomplete for Terminal, but by default it shares a lot of data with Amazon. Log in and then select the icon in the Menu Bar → Settings. Then under Settings →Preferences →Advanced, turn off Share Amazon Q content with AWS and Telemetry.

3.5.5 - AdGuard for Safari — no longer used (November 2026)

I don’t generally block ads, but I prefer not to be tracked, and don’t like the popups on websites, including cookie notices. I therefore turn on:

• Privacy, with AdGuard Tracking Protection filter and Peter Lowe's Blocklist
• Annoyances, with AdGuard Annoyances filter

I also turn off Show AdGuard for Safari in the menu bar

3.5.6 - NepTunes

This is much better than the Last.fm app, for scrobbling. You just need to log in and grant access to your play history.

Also I disable the widget (Widget, uncheck Show widget).

3.5.7 - Apparency — no longer used (November 2026)

This is a good app to have just so you can see all the details of any app on your system in one place.

3.5.8 - Syntax Highlight — no longer used (November 2026)

This is a Quick Look Extension to previewing source files using Quick Look. Another great one to have.

3.6 - Removing things from the Menu Bar

Loads of apps like to have Menu Bar items, and mine’s already quite cluttered, even with Ice. I therefore go into each of these apps and turn them off:

• Notion
• ChatGPT
• Figma

Appendix A

1. Fix ownership of all Homebrew directories

sudo chown -R "$(whoami)":admin /opt/homebrew

2. Ensure everything inside is writable

chmod -R u+w /opt/homebrew

3. Fix related caches (Homebrew sometimes touches these)

sudo chown -R "$(whoami)":admin ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew
chmod -R u+w ~/Library/Caches/Homebrew

4. Reset permissions on the Homebrew temp directory

sudo chown -R "$(whoami)":admin /private/tmp

(Not always required, but avoids rare permission problems when brew extracts packages.)

After running the commands, run:

brew doctor