macOS Developer Workstation

A pragmatic setup for software and data work on a Mac: package management, a terminal and shell prompt, editors, version control, container runtime, automation and launcher utilities. Nothing exotic, everything maintained.

14 tools · updated Nov 2, 2026 · compare the first four

Tools in this collection

1. 1
   H

   Homebrew

   Homebrew maintainers · macOS system utilities

   In-depth entry

   Package manager for everything that is not an app bundle.

   BSD-2-ClauseOpen sourceFreeLocalNov 2, 2026
2. 2
   G

   Ghostty

   Ghostty project (Mitchell Hashimoto) · Terminals & shells

   Fast native terminal emulator.

   MITOpen sourceFreeLocalNov 2, 2026
3. 3
   T

   tmux

   tmux project (Nicholas Marriott) · Terminals & shells

   Persistent terminal sessions, especially over SSH.

   ISCOpen sourceFreeLocalSelf-hostedNov 2, 2026
4. 4
   S

   Starship

   Starship contributors · Terminals & shells

   Informative, fast shell prompt.

   ISCOpen sourceFreeLocalNov 2, 2026
5. 5
   VS

   Visual Studio Code

   Microsoft · IDEs & editors

   In-depth entry

   The default editor for most languages, with a large extension ecosystem.

   MITFreeLocalNov 2, 2026
6. 6
   Z

   Zed

   Zed Industries · IDEs & editors

   A lighter, native editor with built-in collaboration and AI features.

   GPL-3.0-or-laterOpen sourceFreeLocalNov 2, 2026
7. 7
   X

   Xcode

   Apple Inc. · Swift & SwiftUI development

   In-depth entry

   Required for Apple-platform builds and for the command-line developer tools.

   ProprietaryFreeLocalNov 2, 2026
8. 8
   G

   Git

   Git project (Software Freedom Conservancy) · Version control & code hosting

   In-depth entry

   Version control.

   GPL-2.0-onlyOpen sourceFreeLocalSelf-hostedNov 2, 2026
9. 9
   O

   OrbStack

   OrbStack (Orbital Labs) · Containers & virtualization

   Lightweight Docker and Linux VMs on Apple Silicon.

   ProprietaryFreemiumPaidLocalNov 2, 2026
10. 10
    U

    uv

    Astral · Programming languages & runtimes

    In-depth entry

    Python environments and packages, fast and reproducible.

    MIT OR Apache-2.0Open sourceFreeLocalNov 2, 2026
11. 11
    R

    Raycast

    Raycast Technologies Ltd · macOS system utilities

    Launcher and command palette for the whole system.

    MixedFreemiumPaidLocalBroken
12. 12
    H

    Hammerspoon

    Hammerspoon contributors · macOS automation

    Lua-scriptable window and system automation.

    MITOpen sourceFreeLocalNov 2, 2026
13. 13
    L

    launchd

    Apple Inc. · macOS automation

    In-depth entry

    The system's own scheduler for agents and daemons.

    ProprietaryFreeLocalBroken
14. 14
    1

    1Password

    AgileBits Inc. (1Password) · Secrets management

    In-depth entry

    Credentials, SSH keys and the SSH agent.

    ProprietaryPaidEnterpriseLocalNov 2, 2026