Uses
CHANGELOG
Last verified November 2023
Last updated November 2023
See also
You might also be interested in Setting Up A New Mac In 2023.
Contents
Workstation
- Two desks in an L. One is sit/stand
- Keebio Quefrency keyboard, Kailh Speed Pro Burgundy switches, and PBT keycaps (SA profile to match my amusing Git modifier keycaps but I much prefer DSA. I might like XDA or DES or CS better but have not tried them.)
- Logitech M330 Silent Plus mouse
- Two 24" monitors on a two-monitor arm (three x 27" is my sweet spot I think)
Fonts
- Editor: https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode
- Terminal: Inconsolata Nerd Font (Inconsolata patched with dev icons)
Hosting
- AISO.net registrar and host. They run entirely on renewable energy. My go-to since 2011 and I've had only good experiences.
- GitHub, GitLab code storage
- Vercel hosting, CD
Analytics
Fathom. Use my referral code to get $10 off your first bill!
Apps
Development, General
- Brave browser (see also my browser plugins)
- Firefox I use to inspect event listeners
- Fork I have this Git GUI open at all times for its graph, for copying commit SHAs, and —though for most things I prefer typing over mousing— I often use it for staging files/lines. It’s nice for reflog too, but as of this writing its lost commits are not always complete (installed via Homebrew)
- GitHub CLI Easily open pull requests locally (installed via Homebrew)
- GPG Suite part of my setup for signing Git commits. (installed via Homebrew)
- iTerm Fast, customizable, actively developed terminal app (installed via Homebrew)
- Pop code pairing tool: multiplayer control, screen sharing, audio/video
- VSCodium VS Code without MS branding, telemetry, and licensing (see also my editor plugins)
Development, stack-specific
- DDEV better, faster Docker experience for PHP environments (installed via Homebrew)
- ImageOptim on the command line for local image optimization
- imgix image optimization and delivery
- Sequel Ace MySQL/MariaDB database GUI
- svgomg SVG optimization GUI
- XScope macOS screen rulers, color picker, and more
Other, general
- 1Password password manager
- Notion docs, kanban, tables, etc. Sometimes with the desktop app (installed via Homebrew)
- RescueTime time tracker for productivity, time management, focus/life management (installed via Homebrew)
Other, system-specific
- Aerial free open-source screensaver of high quality videos
- Bartender hides menubar item (installed via Homebrew)
- Better Touch Tool I use it to resize and move windows without having to carefully click the window edge, but it can do all kinds of fancy things (installed via Homebrew)
- CapsLocker my keyboard does not have a light in the caps lock key. CapsLocker tells me when caps lock is on (my config: start at login, HUD visible while caps lock is active, sounds, colored icons)
- Clocker additional clocks in the menu bar (installed via Homebrew)
- Coconut Battery menubar item and diagnostics. I hide the macOS battery menubar item and use this instead (installed via Homebrew)
- Homebrew package manager
- Itsycal macOS calendar menubar item. I hide the date in macOS’s Date & Time menubar item and use this instead (installed via Homebrew)
- Karabiner Elements Customize your keyboard layout. I add a layer with media controls and arrows on the home row (installed via Homebrew)
- Micro Snitch show an HUD when your microphone is being used (installed via Homebrew)
- Mimestream macOS email client
- Muzzle Automatically silences desktop notifications when you’re sharing your screen (installed via Homebrew)
- Rectangle tile windows on your screen with keyboard commands (installed via Homebrew)
- Rocket macOS emoji picker (installed via Homebrew)
- WiFi Signal signal strength analyzer menubar item. I hide macOS’s WiFi with Bartender and mostly use this instead
Terminal
I use zsh. My article Configure Zsh Options & Plugins for Productivity in macOS’s Default Shell has an outdated but relevant take on how I configure it.
Prompt
- Hometown Prompt high performance, high data:ink ratio prompt. By yours truly! (installed via zcomet)
UX
- https://github.com/zdharma-continuum/fast-syntax-highlighting syntax highlighting (installed via zcomet)
- zsh-abbr saves you keystrokes without letting you forget full commands. Abbreviations (like aliases, but automatically expand) are stored in a dot file. By yours truly! (installed via zcomet)
- zsh-autopair auto-close and delete matching delimiters in zsh (installed via zcomet)
- zsh-autosuggestions Fish-like autosuggestions for zsh (installed via zcomet)
- https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-completions Additional completion definitions for Zsh (installed via zcomet)
- https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-history-substring-search port of Fish history search (installed via zcomet)
- zsh-window-title sets terminal window titles to “current directory, its parent, and if something is running the first word of the ongoing command”. By yours truly! (installed via zcomet)
Other
- asdf A single tool to manage tool versions (I’ve had trouble with the Homebrew install, so install via zcomet)
- gh GitHub CLI handy for checking out pull requests and for forking
- delta pretty pager for
git-diff
- GnuPG macOS’s
gpg
tool is non-standard. This gives you the standard one, asgpg2
(installed via Homebrew) - trash move files to the macOS trashcan (installed via Homebrew)
- tree the Linux tree command (installed via Homebrew)
- zcomet shell plugin manager
- zsh-test-runner unit tests and coverage reports for zsh scripts. By yours truly! (installed via zcomet)
Brave/Chrome/Edge plugins
Blockers
Developer
- axe DevTools - Web Accessibility Testing — accessibility auditor
- Notifier for GitHub — see a count of your unread notifications
- React Developer Tools
- Redux Devtools
- Refined GitHub
- Refined GitHub Notifications
- Vue.js devtools
- WAVE Evaluation Tool accessibility auditor
Other
- 1password — password manager
- Bandcamp Volume
- Elfster’s Wish It! — add things to gift lists
- Grammar Checker & Paraphraser – LanguageTool
- Grammarly: Grammar Checker and AI Writing App
- Library Extension — see if a book is at your library
- New Tab Redirect — customize the URL new tabs go to
- PayPal Honey: Automatic Coupons & Cash Back — coupons. I set this to have access only "on click"
- PostureMinder — reminders to sit up straight
- Save to Pocket
- Stylish - Custom themes for any website
- Tab to Window/Popup - Keyboard Shortcut
VSCodium / VS Code plugins
Themes
- Ayu — see https://github.com/dempfi/ayu
- Night Owl — see https://github.com/sdras/night-owl-vscode-theme
- Nord — see https://www.nordtheme.com/
- One Dark Pro — see https://binaryify.github.io/OneDark-Pro/
- Tokyo Night — see https://github.com/enkia/tokyo-night-vscode-theme
Editor improvements
- advanced-new-file — I use this as a keyboard shortcut for creating a sibling to an open file
- Auto Close Tag — automatically adds the closing HTML tag
- Auto Rename Tag — when changing either a closing or ending HTML tag, the other automatically changes
- change-case — changes the case of selected text
- EditorConfig for VS Code — see https://editorconfig.org/
- File Utils — duplicate, move, rename, delete files from the command palette
- GitLens — tons of great features. I use it most heavily for inline blame annotations
- Highlight Matching Tag — click on either an opening or closing HTML tag, and both the opening and closing tag are highlighted
- indent-rainbow — colorize indentation
- Sort lines
- Sort JSON objects
- Terminal Zoom — change the terminal font size independent of the window font size
- TODO Highlight — highlight configured words, for instance TODO
- Todo Tree — tree view for TODO (and other) comments. No more forgotten TODOs
Integrations + Stack-specific tools
- 1Password — password management
- GitHub Pull Requests and Issues — open and comment on issues; create, open, review, merge PRs
- Import Cost — import/require package size inline annotations
- LTeX — LanguageTool grammar/spell checking
- Slidev
Stack-specific
- Astro
- Babel JavaScript
- ENV
- ESLint
- Even Better TOML
- Inline fold — useful for hiding long utility-class
class
attributes - Prettier
- Ruby LSP
- Stylelint
- Svelte for VS Code
- Tailwind CSS IntelliSense
- Twig Language
- Twig Language 2
- Vetur
- Vue Language Features (Volar)
Other
- Sublime Text Keymap and Settings Importer
- Tabnine — like Code Pilot, but it’s been around longer, is cheaper, and has more privacy options