Starting my new SWE job, I had recently set-up my new development purpose macbook. Writing those below so I can (you can too!) refer to whenever needed. Will update here later, when I stumble upon another interesting thing.

Terminal & related stuff

  • Install iTerm2

  • Get Oh My Zsh

    CAUTION: As of 2025, p10k is no longer maintained, but it’s not yet broken and I still use it, will look for a new one later

  • Some aliases that I use. Add source ~/.aliases to your .zshrc

    ~/.aliases
    alias g=git
alias d=docker
alias j=jump

  • Resulting .zshrch file

    ~/.zshrc
    # Enable Powerlevel10k instant prompt. Should stay close to the top of ~/.zshrc.
# Initialization code that may require console input (password prompts, [y/n]
# confirmations, etc.) must go above this block; everything else may go below.
if [[ -r "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh" ]]; then
  source "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh"
fi

# If you come from bash you might have to change your $PATH.
# export PATH=$HOME/bin:$HOME/.local/bin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH

# Path to your Oh My Zsh installation.
export ZSH="$HOME/.oh-my-zsh"

# Set name of the theme to load --- if set to "random", it will
# load a random theme each time Oh My Zsh is loaded, in which case,
# to know which specific one was loaded, run: echo $RANDOM_THEME
# See https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/wiki/Themes
ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k"

# Set list of themes to pick from when loading at random
# Setting this variable when ZSH_THEME=random will cause zsh to load
# a theme from this variable instead of looking in $ZSH/themes/
# If set to an empty array, this variable will have no effect.
# ZSH_THEME_RANDOM_CANDIDATES=( "robbyrussell" "agnoster" )

# Uncomment the following line to use case-sensitive completion.
# CASE_SENSITIVE="true"

# Uncomment the following line to use hyphen-insensitive completion.
# Case-sensitive completion must be off. _ and - will be interchangeable.
# HYPHEN_INSENSITIVE="true"

# Uncomment one of the following lines to change the auto-update behavior
# zstyle ':omz:update' mode disabled  # disable automatic updates
# zstyle ':omz:update' mode auto      # update automatically without asking
# zstyle ':omz:update' mode reminder  # just remind me to update when it's time

# Uncomment the following line to change how often to auto-update (in days).
# zstyle ':omz:update' frequency 13

# Uncomment the following line if pasting URLs and other text is messed up.
# DISABLE_MAGIC_FUNCTIONS="true"

# Uncomment the following line to disable colors in ls.
# DISABLE_LS_COLORS="true"

# Uncomment the following line to disable auto-setting terminal title.
# DISABLE_AUTO_TITLE="true"

# Uncomment the following line to enable command auto-correction.
# ENABLE_CORRECTION="true"

# Uncomment the following line to display red dots whilst waiting for completion.
# You can also set it to another string to have that shown instead of the default red dots.
# e.g. COMPLETION_WAITING_DOTS="%F{yellow}waiting...%f"
# Caution: this setting can cause issues with multiline prompts in zsh < 5.7.1 (see #5765)
# COMPLETION_WAITING_DOTS="true"

# Uncomment the following line if you want to disable marking untracked files
# under VCS as dirty. This makes repository status check for large repositories
# much, much faster.
# DISABLE_UNTRACKED_FILES_DIRTY="true"

# Uncomment the following line if you want to change the command execution time
# stamp shown in the history command output.
# You can set one of the optional three formats:
# "mm/dd/yyyy"|"dd.mm.yyyy"|"yyyy-mm-dd"
# or set a custom format using the strftime function format specifications,
# see 'man strftime' for details.
# HIST_STAMPS="mm/dd/yyyy"

# Would you like to use another custom folder than $ZSH/custom?
# ZSH_CUSTOM=/path/to/new-custom-folder

# Which plugins would you like to load?
# Standard plugins can be found in $ZSH/plugins/
# Custom plugins may be added to $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/
# Example format: plugins=(rails git textmate ruby lighthouse)
# Add wisely, as too many plugins slow down shell startup.
plugins=(
    git
    zsh-autosuggestions
    zshmarks
)

source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh

# User configuration

# export MANPATH="/usr/local/man:$MANPATH"

# You may need to manually set your language environment
# export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

# Preferred editor for local and remote sessions
# if [[ -n $SSH_CONNECTION ]]; then
#   export EDITOR='vim'
# else
#   export EDITOR='nvim'
# fi

# Compilation flags
# export ARCHFLAGS="-arch $(uname -m)"

# Set personal aliases, overriding those provided by Oh My Zsh libs,
# plugins, and themes. Aliases can be placed here, though Oh My Zsh
# users are encouraged to define aliases within a top-level file in
# the $ZSH_CUSTOM folder, with .zsh extension. Examples:
# - $ZSH_CUSTOM/aliases.zsh
# - $ZSH_CUSTOM/macos.zsh
# For a full list of active aliases, run alias.
#
# Example aliases
# alias zshconfig="mate ~/.zshrc"
# alias ohmyzsh="mate ~/.oh-my-zsh"

# To customize prompt, run p10k configure or edit ~/.p10k.zsh.
[[ ! -f ~/.p10k.zsh ]] || source ~/.p10k.zsh

# import aliases
source ~/.aliases

Here’s how the terminal looks like after the setup:

Minimalist terminal, visuals can be adjusted with p10k configure, gray text is the suggested by the autocomplete engine, based on shell commands history.

Minimalist terminal, visuals can be adjusted with p10k configure, gray text is the suggested by the autocomplete engine, based on shell commands history.

Gitconfig

Enhancing git experience overall.

~/.gitconfig
[alias]
  alias = "!git config -l | grep alias | cut -c 7-"
  au = add -u
  b = "!git for-each-ref --sort='-authordate' --format='%(authordate)%09%(objectname:short)%09%(refname)' refs/heads | sed -e 's-refs/heads/--'"  # list branches sorted by last modified
  cm = commit
  co = checkout
  cob = checkout -b
  d = diff
  diffr  = "!f() { git diff "$1"^.."$1"; }; f"
  discard = reset HEAD --hard
  dlc = 
  dlc = diff --cached HEAD^
  graph = log --graph --abbrev-commit --date=relative --pretty=format:'%Cred%h%Creset -%C(yellow)%d%Creset %Cblue%cn%Creset committed %s %Cgreen(%cr)%Creset'
  ld = log --pretty=format:"%C(yellow)%h\\ %ad%Cred%d\\ %Creset%s%Cblue\\ [%cn]" --decorate --date=relative
  lds = log --pretty=format:"%C(yellow)%h\\ %ad%Cred%d\\ %Creset%s%Cblue\\ [%cn]" --decorate --date=short
  ll = log --pretty=format:"%C(yellow)%h%Cred%d\\ %Creset%s%Cblue\\ [%cn]" --decorate --numstat
  ls = log --pretty=format:"%C(yellow)%h%Cred%d\\ %Creset%s%Cblue\\ [%cn]" --decorate
  p = pull
  pf = pull --ff-only
  s = status
  uncommit = reset --soft HEAD^
  unstage = reset HEAD --

[merge]
  conflictstyle = diff3

Apps

Some apps that I find useful.

Productivity

Window arranger

Display manager

Prevents bluetooth connections while sleeping

Clipboard manager, auto-saves whatever copied to clipboard (careful with secrets!)

Dev helper tools

Database management tool

Kubernetes management tool