Mac Dev Bootstrap — Fully Automated macOS Setup for Developers

🚀 Mac Dev Bootstrap — Fully Automated macOS Setup for Developers

by Justin Napolitano

💡 Why I Built This

Setting up a new Mac for development should take 15 minutes, not half a day of manual installs, missing fonts, and plugin rabbit holes.

After fighting through brew, zsh, oh-my-zsh, Powerlevel10k, libcurl mismatches, and the GitHub CLI chaos, I decided to script everything — from Zsh setup to GitHub SSH configuration — so the next time I wipe or upgrade a Mac, it’s one make all away from ready.

This repo is that setup — a modular macOS bootstrap you can use, fork, and customize.

🧱 Project Overview

Repository: mac-dev-bootstrap
Language: Bash
Run it with:

make all

Each step is its own script under scripts/, wired together by a Makefile.
You can run them all at once or step through them one by one.

mac-dev/
├─ Makefile
├─ README.md
└─ scripts/
   ├─ 01_zsh.sh              # Zsh + Oh My Zsh + Powerlevel10k + plugins
   ├─ 02_brew_git.sh         # Homebrew setup + curl + zshrc hardening
   ├─ 03_cli_tools.sh        # CLI tools: fzf, zoxide, bat, jq, etc.
   ├─ 04_fonts_and_terminal.sh
   ├─ 05_macos_defaults.sh   # Key repeat, Dock, Finder, etc.
   ├─ 06_dev_runtimes.sh     # pyenv, fnm, rbenv, Go, Java
   ├─ 07_vscode.sh           # VSCode + extensions + settings
   ├─ 08_apps.sh             # iTerm2, Chrome, Docker, Slack, etc.
   ├─ 09_github_ssh.sh       # GitHub CLI + SSH key setup
   └─ 99_postflight.sh       # Git identity + key printout

⚙️ Core Features

🌀 1. Zsh + Oh My Zsh

• Installs Oh My Zsh without using git (tarball method).
• Adds Powerlevel10k and MesloLGS NF fonts.
• Configures plugins:
  • zsh-autosuggestions
  • zsh-syntax-highlighting
  • zsh-completions
• Adds optional “smart history” search with ↑ / ↓ arrows.

✅ The 01_zsh.sh script ensures Powerlevel10k’s setup wizard runs the first time you open your shell.

🍺 2. Homebrew + Git (sane defaults)

After breaking brew one too many times, I hardened the setup:

• Uses system git and system curl (avoids libcurl symbol mismatch).
• Reinstalls curl as keg-only, sets paths, and exports everything to your ~/.zshrc.
• Keeps your brew environment clean and idempotent.

No more _curl_global_trace crashes.
No more half-broken brew updates.

🧰 3. CLI Tools

Includes everything I actually use day-to-day:

• fzf – fuzzy finder for history/files
• zoxide – smarter cd
• bat – colorized cat
• jq, yq, ripgrep, fd, eza, tree, tmux, starship, direnv
• Integrates completions automatically into Zsh.

🖋️ 4. Fonts & Terminal

Installs:

• JetBrains Mono Nerd Font
• Hack Nerd Font
• (optional) Fira Code Nerd Font

Also creates ~/iterm-schemes/ with downloadable .itermcolors files for OneHalfDark, Dracula, and Solarized Dark.

Tip: You can skip color schemes entirely by setting INSTALL_SCHEMES=0.

⚙️ 5. macOS Defaults

Tweaks macOS for sane dev behavior:

• Fast key repeat
• Show all file extensions
• Dock autohide & scaling
• Save screenshots to ~/Screenshots
• Enable trackpad tap-to-click

🧑‍💻 6. Dev Runtimes

Installs modern toolchains:

• Python via pyenv
• Node.js via fnm
• Ruby via rbenv
• Go + Temurin JDK

Each one auto-wires its init block into your ~/.zshrc.

💻 7. VS Code

• Installs VS Code via Homebrew
• Installs extensions (Python, Docker, ESLint, Prettier, etc.)
• Writes a clean default settings.json

🧩 8. Apps

Installs the usual suspects:

iTerm2, Chrome, Rectangle, Raycast, Slack,
Notion, Docker, Postman, VS Code, Spotify, 1Password

Runs through cask, skips failed installs gracefully.

🔐 9. GitHub + SSH (the game changer)

This is where most setups break — so I made it bulletproof.

The script:

• Prefers system git.
• Generates/loads an ed25519 SSH key.
• Adds it to your macOS Keychain and ~/.ssh/config.
• Configures the GitHub CLI (gh) for SSH.
• Converts your repo’s origin from HTTPS → SSH.
• Attempts to upload your public key via the GitHub API (auto-refreshes the needed scope).

✅ After this step: git push and gh repo create both just work — no prompts, no crashes.

🧹 99. Postflight

• Prints your SSH public key.
• Configures your Git name/email.
• Confirms system git/curl paths.

🧾 Makefile Usage

Run everything:

make all

Or run individual steps:

make zsh
make brew
make cli
make fonts
make github

🔁 Idempotent by Design

Every script checks for existing installs and configurations — rerunning it won’t break anything. It’s built for repeatable use across machines or fresh macOS setups.

💪 Why It Matters

This project is more than a dotfile repo. It’s a complete reproducible Mac development environment — modular, debuggable, and stable enough to trust on a clean machine.

• No hardcoded paths
• No external dependencies
• No brew tap hacks
• Fully offline-compatible once cached

🧠 Lessons Learned

• Don’t mix brewed git with system libcurl on macOS.
• Don’t assume Oh My Zsh is cloned via git.
• Always back up .zshrc before patching.
• SSH > HTTPS for GitHub every time.

🔗 Repository & License

Repo: github.com/justin-napolitano/mac-dev
License: MIT
Author: Justin Napolitano

Feel free to fork, modify, and share — the goal is to make onboarding a new Mac take minutes, not hours. justin@Justins-MacBook-Air Downloads %