My MacBook Pro M5 Setup: A Developer's Configuration Guide

7th May 2026

A cheerful MacBook Pro character confidently lifts a barbell in a bright, airy gym.

A developer's opinionated guide to setting up a MacBook Pro from scratch

A clean, opinionated setup guide for developers — and a reference for future me.

A New Machine is a Fresh Start

Every developer has their own way of working. Over the years I’ve refined mine — the tools I reach for, the settings that keep me in flow, and the small tweaks that make a big difference. When I set up a new machine, I don’t want to spend days rediscovering what I already figured out.

My Old Setup Didn’t Follow Me Automatically

When I got my MacBook Pro M5, I wanted to get back to full productivity as fast as possible without cutting corners. I also realized I’d never written any of this down in a way that was easy to follow — my old notes were scattered across Evernote, Gists, and memory.

I Documented Everything, With the Why

Here’s exactly how I set up my machine — the steps, the tools I chose, and why I chose them.

macOS Updates

Apply all updates:

Apple icon > System Settings > Software Update — apply everything before touching anything else.

macOS Settings

Appearance

System Settings > Appearance

Appearance > Auto
Show scroll bars > Always

System Settings > Menu Bar

Check Bluetooth

Notifications

System Settings > Notifications

Show previews > Never
Application notifications > Turn off all

Privacy & Security

System Settings > Privacy & Security

Screen & System Audio Recording for >

Google Chrome
Zoom
TechSmith Capture

Keyboard

System Settings > Keyboard

Text Input > Edit

Capitalize words automatically > Off
Double quotes > "abc"
Single quotes > 'abc'

Trackpad

System Settings > Trackpad

Tap to click > Tap with one finger
Look up & data detectors > Off
Click > Lightest

Finder

Finder > Settings > General >

Check Hard disks
New Finder windows show > Macintosh HD

Advanced >

Show all filename extensions
Remove items from the Trash after 30 days

Dock

Remove most of the applications from Dock
Automatically hide and show the Dock
Show suggested and recent apps in Dock > Off
Show indicators for open applications > On
Click and drag the Applications folder in Finder to the right side of the Dock

Add to Dock:

Evernote
Google Chrome
iTerm (iTerm2)
Visual Studio Code

Prevent Power-On When Opening the Lid

This command will disable power-on when opening the lid

sudo nvram BootPreference=%00

Currently there is no way to disable power-on when any key is pressed

Command Line Tasks

Install Command Line Tools for Xcode

Open the command line and run the following line:

xcode-select --install

Install Homebrew

Homebrew is the backbone of my Mac setup — almost everything gets installed through it.

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

Important: Be sure to follow any commands after the install Run these two commands in your terminal to add Homebrew to your PATH: More info: Homebrew Installation

Install core apps in one command:

brew install --cask \
  affinity \
  evernote \
  figma \
  firefox \
  google-chrome \
  iterm2 \
  local \
  rectangle \
  spotify \
  visual-studio-code \
  zoom

Note: Applications can also be installed one-at-a-time using this format:

  brew install --cask rectangle

Other apps to install as needed:

brew install wp-cli
brew install macos-trash
brew install --cask adobe-creative-cloud
brew install --cask discord
brew install --cask slack

A Note on Affinity vs. Adobe

I use the Affinity Suite (Designer, Photo, Publisher) as my primary design tools. They’ve never slowed me down, and I reach for Adobe Creative Cloud only when a project specifically requires it. Both are available via Homebrew.

Other Applications

Amphetamine — App Store (keeps my Mac awake during deploys, presentations, etc.)
Dropbox — dropbox.com/install
Toggl Desktop — App Store (time tracking)

Screenshots

I like my screenshots organized and named cleanly. These terminal commands set that up:

Change screenshot destination: This will create a folder called “Screenshots” in your home directory

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Screenshots

Remove the default filename:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture name ""

Change screenshot format to JPG:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg

More info: How to change screenshot location on Mac using Terminal

Terminal

I use iTerm2 over the default Terminal for its customization options.

Install iTerm2:

brew install --cask iterm2

Close the default Terminal app and open iTerm from the Applications folder

More info: iTerm2

iTerm2 Settings I change:

General > Window: Uncheck Native full screen windows
Appearance > Hide scrollbars
Appearance > Unselect Show tab bar in fullscreen
Appearance > Dim inactive split panes + Dim background windows
Profiles > Window: Transparency 0, Style: Normal

Install Oh My Zsh:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Cobalt2 Theme

I’ve been using Wes Bos’ Cobalt2 theme for years. It’s easy on the eyes and makes the terminal feel like a place I want to spend time.

Download files from Wes Bos’ GitHub
Drop cobalt2.zsh-theme into ~/.oh-my-zsh/themes/
Open ~/.zshrc and set: ZSH_THEME="cobalt2"
Install Powerline fonts:

git clone https://github.com/powerline/fonts
cd fonts
./install.sh

In iTerm2: Preferences > Profiles > Colors > Color Presets > Import the Cobalt2 file
Preferences > Profiles > Text > Set font to your installed Powerline font

VS Code

brew install --cask visual-studio-code

Settings I configure:

Set spaces over tabs, tab size 2
Enable Format on Save
Enable Word Wrap: bounded at 80 columns
Disable Compact Folders
Enable Wrapped Tabs

My user settings JSON:

{
  "explorer.compactFolders": false,
  "editor.cursorWidth": 2,
  "editor.defaultFormatter": "esbenp.prettier-vscode",
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "editor.formatOnPaste": true,
  "editor.insertSpaces": true,
  "editor.tabSize": 2,
  "editor.wordWrap": "bounded",
  "editor.wordWrapColumn": 80,
  "prettier.semi": false,
  "svelte.enable-ts-plugin": true,
  "indentRainbow.colors": [
    "rgba(247, 37, 133,0.15)",
    "rgba(181, 23, 158,0.15)",
    "rgba(114, 9, 183, 0.15)",
    "rgba(86, 11, 173,0.15)",
    "rgba(72, 12, 168,0.15)",
    "rgba(58, 12, 163,0.15)",
    "rgba(63, 55, 201,0.15)",
    "rgba(63, 55, 201,0.1)",
    "rgba(63, 55, 201,0.05)",
    "rgba(63, 55, 201,0.025)"
  ],
  "workbench.editorAssociations": {
    "*.svg": "default"
  }
}

VS Code Extensions

Always install:

Astro — Language support for Astro
Auto Rename Tag — Auto rename paired HTML/XML tags
Code Spell Checker — Catches typos in code and comments
Color Highlight — Visualizes color values inline
ESLint — JavaScript linting
GitHub Copilot Chat — AI-assisted coding
Highlight Matching Tag — Makes tag pairs easy to spot
indent-rainbow — Color-coded indentation levels
MDX — Language support for MDX
Prettier — Code formatting (set as default formatter)
Pretty TypeScript Errors — Makes TS errors actually readable
Svelte for VS Code — Svelte language support

Install as needed:

EJS language support
EJS Snippets
ES7+ React/Redux/React-Native snippets
Live Server
Lorem ipsum
Thunder Client — Lightweight REST API client

Node: Install via nvm

I always install Node through nvm rather than globally — it makes switching versions between projects seamless.

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.39.7/install.sh | bash

Auto-switch Node versions based on .nvmrc — add this to your ~/.zshrc:

autoload -U add-zsh-hook

load-nvmrc() {
  local nvmrc_path
  nvmrc_path="$(nvm_find_nvmrc)"

  if [ -n "$nvmrc_path" ]; then
    local nvmrc_node_version
    nvmrc_node_version=$(nvm version "$(cat "${nvmrc_path}")")

    if [ "$nvmrc_node_version" = "N/A" ]; then
      nvm install
    elif [ "$nvmrc_node_version" != "$(nvm version)" ]; then
      nvm use
    fi
  elif [ -n "$(PWD=$OLDPWD nvm_find_nvmrc)" ] && [ "$(nvm version)" != "$(nvm version default)" ]; then
    echo "Reverting to nvm default version"
    nvm use default
  fi
}

add-zsh-hook chpwd load-nvmrc
load-nvmrc

SSH Key

Follow GitHub’s official guides:

Make VS Code Your Git Editor

git config --global core.editor "code --wait"

A Setup That Gets Out of My Way

The goal of all of this isn’t complexity — it’s the opposite. Every setting here exists so that my tools disappear and I can focus on building. Whether you’re setting up your first Mac or your fifth, I hope this saves you a few hours of rediscovery.

The full Gist is also available on GitHub if you want a raw reference version.

Tags:

macos

vscode

terminal