I have this fun annual ritual: every year, I purge my laptop and set it back up from factory settings. This is most definitely excessive. But as a student and young software developer, I'm constantly working with new languages and tools, and unfortunately I tend to butcher their set-up the first time. This is just a simple, half-decent, brutish way for me to get rid of all the clutter and junk I generate.

Apart from that, there's also just something oddly therapeutic about a hard reset when the busyness of life threatens to consume everything. It's an opportunity to shed old skin and reflect on the changes of the past year. And of course I like the feeling of a shiny brand new laptop, and this is the cheapest way I can mimic that.

This guide started as a dusty Word document on my desktop that I touched up once a year. In the summer of 2022, I migrated it onto a personal Notion page for easier access. Then friends starting asked me to share the page with them, which led me to think, maybe more people can benefit from this? There's a ton of dev setup guides out there, but maybe mine will end up being of use to someone?

So if you're that someone, here you go!

I own a 2017 15-inch MacBook Pro currently running macOS Ventura, and this guide will be primarily based on my setup. I imagine that some of the software I install or configurations I use may have compatibility issues with the newer M1 or M2 Macbooks, so you may need to do a bit of your own research in that regard.

I also don't actively maintain this guide. Major updates will probably happen once a year when I do my annual reset, with minor fixes or additions sprinkled in between. So not everything on here will be the most up-to-date. Again, you may need to do a bit of your own research.

If you have any suggestions or spot any errors, please raise an issue and I'll try to make an update as soon as I can!

1. Reformatting your MacBook Pro
2. Configuring system settings
3. Setting up your macOS command line