macOS • 2026

My Ultimate Mac Setup for Full-Stack Development [2026]

The terminal, AI coding stack, and daily utilities I actually use to build and ship products rapidly. No fluff - just the raw config.

By Dhirender Choudhary • June 5, 2026 • 4 min read •

The terminal is where I live. If it's slow, I'm slow. If it's ugly, I'm uninspired. These are the tools that make it fast, beautiful, and ergonomic.

Step 1 - Terminal & Shell

Ghostty primary

Insanely fast, minimalistic terminal. Zero bloat, native rendering. My default for focused work.

Warp secondary

The terminal of the future. IDE-like blocks, AI command suggestions, and team collaboration built in.

Starship ⭐ must-have

Cross-shell prompt that gives full Git context without clutter. Fast, written in Rust, infinitely customizable.

zoxide (z)

A smarter cd. Remembers your most-used dirs - just type z proj instead of the full path.

eza & bat

Modern replacements for ls and cat - with icons, colors, and syntax highlighting out of the box.

zsh-autosuggestions

Suggests commands from history as you type. Combined with zsh-syntax-highlighting, typos never make it to enter.

Step 2 - The AI Developer Stack

The way I write code has fundamentally changed. AI is no longer just fancy autocomplete - it's an active pairing partner. Here's what's actually in my stack.

Antigravity ⭐ favorite

My go-to local agentic coding assistant. Handles entire implementation plans natively while I guide the direction.

Cursor

The standard for AI-native code editing. Composer mode is exceptional for multi-file refactors and greenfield work.

Claude (Desktop)

Always open on my second monitor. Architecture discussions, debugging complex logic, and reasoning through tricky decisions.

Zed

When I need an editor that opens instantly with zero Electron overhead. Built-in AI chat with no setup friction.

How I think about the AI stack: Antigravity for agentic tasks, Cursor for editing inside a codebase, Claude for thinking out loud. They complement each other - I rarely use just one.

Step 3 - Core Dev Tools

The bread and butter of my local environment. I prioritize tools that are fast, composable, and stay out of my way.

OrbStack ⭐ swap Docker Desktop

Lightweight, fast Docker replacement for Mac. Uses a fraction of the memory and battery. No contest.

Neovim + lazygit

Quick terminal edits and buttery-smooth Git workflows. lazygit is a game-changer for complex rebases.

pnpm

The only Node package manager I use. Fast, disk-efficient via hard links, handles monorepos beautifully.

ripgrep (rg) & fzf

The ultimate combo for instant file and text search across massive codebases. Once you use it, grep feels prehistoric.

Step 4 - Daily Utilities

Background apps that make macOS actually usable for a power user. These run silently and save hours every week.

Raycast ⭐ essential

Spotlight on steroids. Clipboard history, snippet expansion, window management, app launcher, and a thousand extensions.

Wispr Flow

Voice-to-text everywhere on your Mac. Faster than typing for long messages, prompts, and Slack replies.

Tailscale

Private mesh VPN between all my machines. SSH into anything, anywhere, with zero port forwarding setup.

Step 5 - CLI Toolbelt

Stuff I install on every machine and then forget I'm using. The full brew list - Formulae and Casks both included below.

Homebrew Formulae

bash

brew install gh ripgrep eza bat fzf fd zoxide \
  starship neovim lazygit node pnpm tree fastfetch \
  zsh-autosuggestions zsh-syntax-highlighting

Homebrew Casks

bash

brew install --cask antigravity ghostty warp cursor \
  zed claude raycast orbstack pearcleaner stats zen \
  google-chrome rectangle font-jetbrains-mono-nerd-font

Step 6 - Shell Ergonomics

Typing the same commands again and again gets old real fast. Here are a few of my favorite aliases and functions from my .zshrc that actually make dev work quicker.

Git Shortcuts

zsh

alias ga="git add"
alias gal="git add ."
alias gc="git commit"
alias gs="git status"
alias lm="git switch main && git pull"
alias gp="git pull && git push"

NPM & Projects

zsh

alias pj="cd ~/projects"
alias ns="npm run start"
alias nd="npm run dev"
alias nb="npm run build"

Step 7 - System Tweaks & Bonus Setup

Low-level macOS defaults that make a real difference for coding. Run these once on a fresh machine and forget about them.

Faster Key Repeat

Run these in terminal and restart to fix the sluggish default keyboard repeat rate.

bash

defaults write -g InitialKeyRepeat -int 15
defaults write -g KeyRepeat -int 1

Ship fast, stay sharp.

dhirenderchoudhary.com ↗