Mac apps for developers: a practical setup

A good developer setup on a Mac is mostly small utilities around your editor and terminal: Raycast as a launcher, Rectangle for window shortcuts, a clipboard history, Drafts for scratch text, and a keep-awake switch for long builds. Install Homebrew first, then add these.

How we picked: these are the apps we found ourselves using between commits, not the editors and compilers themselves, which depend on your language. Details come from our catalog listings.

Start with Homebrew

Homebrew is the package manager most Mac developers use. It installs command-line tools, and with the cask option it installs Mac apps too, so you can rebuild your setup on a new machine from a single list. Several apps below install this way.

For the editor and terminal, use whatever your stack expects. Visual Studio Code, Zed, Xcode and JetBrains IDEs all run natively on Apple silicon. For a terminal, the built-in Terminal is fine; iTerm2 and Ghostty are popular free alternatives.

Raycast: the command bar

Raycast replaces Spotlight and becomes the place you start most things. For developers, the useful parts are:

• Script commands, which run your own shell, Python or Node scripts from the launcher.
• Extensions, written in React and TypeScript, for tools like GitHub, Linear, Jira and Docker.
• Clipboard history and snippets, so you can paste a JWT from ten minutes ago or expand a template.
• Window management commands with hotkeys.

The core is free. AI chat and some extras are part of Raycast Pro.

Rectangle: windows by keyboard

Editor on the left two-thirds, terminal and browser on the right third. Rectangle does that with a shortcut, and moves windows to an external display with another. It is free and open source, and installs with Homebrew. If you already use Raycast's window commands, you can skip it, but do not run both with the same shortcuts.

Clipboard history

You copy a lot as a developer: hashes, IDs, error messages, URLs. Raycast's clipboard history may be enough. If you want a richer visual history and pinboards for snippets you reuse, Paste is the polished option, sold as a subscription.

Whichever you use, exclude your password manager and any app that shows secrets, so tokens do not end up in a synced history.

Drafts: scratch text with automation

Drafts opens to a blank page. It is a good place for a quick JSON payload, a commit message you are composing, or notes during a debugging session. Actions can send text anywhere, and you can write your own actions in JavaScript, which makes it a small automation tool as well.

Keep the Mac awake during long jobs

Builds, test suites and large downloads stop when the Mac sleeps. Amphetamine can keep the Mac awake while a specific app runs or until a download finishes. In the terminal, prefix a command with caffeinate -i and macOS stays awake until the command exits. Our keep-awake guide explains the options.

Links in the right browser

Many developers keep separate browsers or profiles for work, testing and personal use. Velja opens each link in the browser you choose, per app or per website, so links from Slack open in your work browser and localhost links in the one with your dev tools.

Screen recordings for bug reports

A short GIF often explains a UI bug faster than a paragraph. Gifox records a window or region as a small, high-quality GIF that fits in a pull request or issue.

Know what your Mac is doing

A long build that makes the fans spin is worth checking. Activity Monitor shows CPU, memory and energy per process, and top or htop (from Homebrew) do the same in the terminal. If a build is slow, check that your toolchain runs natively on Apple silicon rather than through Rosetta; Activity Monitor's Kind column shows "Apple" or "Intel" for each process.

Archives and odd formats

Sooner or later someone sends a 7z or RAR file. Keka opens them and can create encrypted archives. It is open source.

Passwords and secrets

Developers handle API keys, SSH keys and tokens all day. Keep them out of notes apps and chat. Bitwarden stores passwords, passkeys and secure notes, and has a command-line client, so scripts can read a secret without you pasting it into a file. Pair it with your clipboard manager's ignore list so copied tokens are not saved in history.

A minimal developer Brewfile

Many people keep their apps in a Brewfile so a new Mac is one command away. A short example, using Homebrew cask names:

cask "raycast"
cask "rectangle"
cask "keka"

Run brew bundle in the folder with the file to install everything. Check each app's cask name with brew search first, as names occasionally change.

More tools are in developer tools and the open-source collection.

FAQ

What should a developer install first on a new Mac?

Xcode Command Line Tools (run xcode-select --install), Homebrew, your editor, then a launcher and a window manager. The rest can come as you need it.

Is Raycast useful for developers?

Yes. Script commands, extensions for GitHub and issue trackers, clipboard history and snippets save a lot of small context switches. The core features are free.

How do I stop my Mac sleeping during a long build?

Run the build with caffeinate -i in front of the command, or use Amphetamine to keep the Mac awake while your terminal or IDE is running.

Do I need a paid clipboard manager?

No. Raycast's built-in clipboard history is free and works well. Paste is worth it if you want pinboards for snippets and sync with an iPhone.