Installing Essential Software on macOS Golden Gate

By Baochun Li • Jun 18, 2026

TL;DR

My personal preferences on must-have software and configurations during a clean installation of macOS Golden Gate.

For fresh macOS installations, I would like to document some of the important software and configurations that I always install. This entry will be continuously updated: it is last updated to work with macOS Golden Gate 27.0 (beta 1).

Customizing macOS Golden Gate

I customize my macOS Golden Gate with the following changes:

System Settings - Trackpad - Point and Click tab - Tap to click: enabled

System Settings - Trackpad - Scroll and Zoom tab - Natural scrolling: disabled

System Settings - Accessibility - Pointer Control - Trackpad Options - Dragging style: change to With Drag Lock

Installing Homebrew

Homebrew is the de facto standard for package management in macOS. To install Homebrew on macOS Golden Gate, use:

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

Homebrew will automatically install command line tools for Xcode.

Installing Rust

Install Rust with the following command:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 https://sh.rustup.rs -sSf | sh

Installing uv

To manage Python packages, install uv with the following command:

curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh

Installing LaTeX

To install MacTeX, run:

brew install mactex

Installing useful command-line utilities

Install useful command-line utilities using brew, such as:

brew install keychain ispell mactop lazygit tmux rg fd gh cloc jq rsync

Setting up .zshrc

Since macOS’s terminals are using login shells, the environmental setup should always go into .zshrc, rather than .zprofile.

Pages, Keynote, and Numbers

Install these using the Mac App Store.

Installing the iA Writer and Paper Mono fonts

Go to the iA Font GitHub repository and install iA Writer’s free font collection, such as the excellent iA Writer Duospace and iA Writer Mono S. Next, go to Paper Mono and install the excellent JetBrain Mono family of fonts. These are excellent and suitable for use in Ghostty and Zed.

Installing the San Francisco Mono, Pro and Compact fonts

Visit the Apple Developer SF Font website, and download, SF Mono, SF Pro and SF Compact fonts. SF Compact fonts are best suitable for large spreadsheets (in Numbers), and SF Pro fonts are best suitable for Keynote presentations. SF Mono is useful when coding using Zed, and it is the default font for Xcode as well.

Installing Sync

Sync for Mac is a secure Dropbox replacement that is secure, fast, and supports Selective Sync in a much better way than Dropbox. As of June 2026, I am using Sync 2.2.58.

Installing AI agents

First, install the Node Version Manager (nvm):

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.5/install.sh | bash

Then install Node using nvm:

nvm install node --lts

Then install Bun:

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

Then install pnpm via corepack:

npm install -g corepack@latest
corepack enable pnpm

This is convenient since the version of pnpm can be pinned per-project using the command:

corepack use pnpm@latest-11

Now, install Codex CLI using bun:

bun install -g @openai/codex

Finally, install the Pi coding agent:

bun add -g --ignore-scripts @earendil-works/pi-coding-agent

Installing essential macOS utilities

The following utilities are handy and are worth installing on all macOS installations, listed in the descending order of priority. Some of them are free, others require a small investment but are worth paying for.

BitWarden, the best password manager.

AppCleaner, for uninstalling applications cleanly.

Rectangle, the best window tiling manager.

Zen Browser, a Firefox browser with vertical tabs in the sidebar.

GitHub Desktop

Zed, the best editor.

Telegram, the best messaging application.

Tailscale

Arq Backup, the best backup application.

MoneyWell, the best personal finance application.

Affinity Designer, for editing vector-based figures.

Current RSS Reader: the best RSS reader on macOS and iOS.

Obsidian, the best all-in-one personal memory subsystem.

iA Writer, classic design for focused writing.

Cisco Secure Client

Codex

cmux, the best tool for opening multiple workspaces for agents to run within.

Raycast, lightning fast application launcher.

Repo Prompt, the best tool for context engineering.

Fastmail, the best professional email service.

Skim, useful for two-way synchronization when updating LaTeX source in Zed.

Nitro Photo, the best photo management application I can find.

Beekeeper Studio, for working with databases.

Caffeine, to keep the Mac awake.

LinearMouse

To install LinearMouse, run:

brew install --cask linearmouse

CodexBar, a handy status bar utility for checking codex usage. Install with:

brew install --cask codexbar