dotfiles

My productivity setup for macOS (Apple Silicon). Not tested on Linux.

A modern, opinionated development environment for macOS:

• Aerospace — i3-like tiling window manager for macOS
• Sketchybar — highly customizable status bar for macOS
• Zsh — main shell with Starship prompt using the Pastel Powerline preset
• Atuin — magical shell history with sync across machines
• Tmux — terminal multiplexing with Claude Code integration and process management
• Neovim with LazyVim — pre-configured, extensible code editing
• Ghostty — fast, native terminal emulator
• Claude Code — AI coding assistant with custom hooks and status line
• 1Password CLI — secrets injected at login via op inject
• Hiddenbar and Stats — menu bar and system monitoring

Example: Starship prompt (Pastel Powerline), Ghostty terminal, and Sketchybar on macOS.

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Table of Contents

• Getting Started
• What Each Install Script Does
• Secrets Management
• Tmux
• Claude Code Integration
• Cheatsheet
• My Mac Setup
• About Aerospace

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

The install script backs up existing configuration files, but read below before running it!

Requirements:

• Git
• Homebrew (macOS package manager)
• 1Password CLI (op) — for secrets injection

# Install Homebrew if not already installed
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install

git clone https://github.com/mehd-io/dotfiles ~/.dotfiles
cd ~/.dotfiles
./install.sh              # Full install: apps + macOS defaults + dotfiles + neovim + sketchybar + aerospace

Run a subset via flags:

./install.sh --apps          # Homebrew packages from Brewfile
./install.sh --defaults      # macOS defaults (runs macos.sh)
./install.sh --dotfiles      # symlinks for zsh, tmux, ghostty, starship, atuin, claude, borders
./install.sh --neovim        # clone LazyVim starter
./install.sh --sketchybar    # symlink sketchybar config + install custom font
./install.sh --aerospace     # symlink aerospace config
./install.sh --help

Post-Install

After installation, you may want to:

1. Restart your terminal to apply all shell changes
2. Log out and back in for Aerospace to take effect
3. Configure Atuin by running atuin login to sync shell history across machines
4. Set up 1Password — create items referenced in zsh/env.tpl (see Secrets Management)

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Repo Layout

File	Purpose
Brewfile	macOS source of truth: Homebrew formulae + casks. Run with brew bundle. Each entry has a one-line comment.
install.sh	Orchestrator with subcommand flags: apps, defaults, dotfiles, neovim, sketchybar, aerospace.
macos.sh	macOS defaults write settings, one comment per line. Safe to run standalone.

What Each Subcommand Does

--apps

Runs brew bundle --file=Brewfile. Installs all CLI tools (neovim, tmux, atuin, fzf, ripgrep, etc.), data tooling (duckdb, libpq), cloud CLIs (aws, gcloud), window manager + status bar (aerospace, sketchybar, hiddenbar, stats), terminal (ghostty), and apps (1Password, Raycast, Obsidian, Notion, Slack, Spotify, Brave, Chrome, Firefox, Cursor, Claude Desktop, etc.).

--defaults

Runs macos.sh. Sets dock, menu bar, keyboard, text input (disables smart quotes / em-dash substitution), Finder, screenshot, animation, and multi-monitor preferences. Each line is annotated; comment out anything you want to skip.

--dotfiles

Backs up any existing real files in ~ to ~/dotfiles-backup, then creates symlinks for:

• ~/.zshrc, ~/.zprofile (Zsh)
• ~/.tmux.conf, ~/.tmux.conf.local (Tmux)
• ~/.tmux/pane-info.sh, open-url.sh, log-pane.sh (Tmux runtime scripts)
• ~/.config/ghostty/config (Ghostty)
• ~/.config/starship.toml (Starship)
• ~/.config/atuin/config.toml (Atuin)
• ~/.config/borders/bordersrc (Borders)
• ~/.claude/settings.json (Claude Code hooks and status line)

Sets Zsh as the default shell.

--neovim

Clones the LazyVim starter into ~/.config/nvim. Skips if already present.

--sketchybar

Symlinks the sketchybar config to ~/.config/sketchybar, downloads sketchybar-app-font for workspace app icons, and restarts the brew service. The sketchybar formula itself comes from --apps.

--aerospace

Symlinks aerospace.toml to ~/.config/aerospace/aerospace.toml. The aerospace cask comes from --apps.

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Secrets Management

Environment variables (API keys, tokens) are injected at first login via 1Password CLI op inject. The template zsh/env.tpl contains op:// references that resolve at runtime and are cached for the session.

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Tmux

• Theme from gpakosz/.tmux, prefix remapped to backtick (`)
• Vim-style pane navigation (h/j/k/l)
• Pane borders show: git branch, listening ports, devcontainer status
• Process state written to /tmp/tmux-proc-state/ for tooling integration
• Auto-cleanup: when the last pane for a repo closes, orphaned processes and devcontainers are stopped

Tmux Scripts

Script	Purpose
pane-info.sh	Pane border info: branch, ports, devcontainer links
open-url.sh	prefix + U — open URLs from pane border in browser
log-pane.sh	prefix + L — toggle log viewer pane
toggle-nvim.sh	prefix + n — toggle nvim + Neotree pane
tmux-cleanup.sh	Auto-kill processes/devcontainers on pane exit

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Claude Code Integration

Claude Code is configured via claude/settings.json (symlinked to ~/.claude/settings.json).

Hooks

Hook	Script	Purpose
PreToolUse	claude-on-busy.sh	Sets Claude status to "busy" for tmux status line
PreToolUse (Bash)	claude-pretool-check.sh	Blocks duplicate server starts when ports are in use
Notification	claude-on-waiting.sh	Sets Claude status to "waiting"
Stop / SubagentStop	claude-on-idle.sh	Sets Claude status to "idle"

Status Line

claude-statusline.sh provides a compact status line showing: state icon, directory, git branch (with worktree detection), model, and context remaining.

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Cheatsheet

See docs/cheatsheet.md for all keyboard shortcuts (tmux, neovim, zsh, Claude Code).

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My Mac Setup

A comprehensive list of apps and tools I use for development and productivity.

Terminal & Shell

Tool	Description
Ghostty	Fast, native terminal emulator
Starship	Cross-shell prompt with Pastel Powerline theme
Atuin	Magical shell history with sync
Tmux	Terminal multiplexer
Yazi	Blazing fast terminal file manager

Code Editors & IDEs

Tool	Description
Cursor	AI-powered code editor
Neovim + LazyVim	Extensible text editor

AI Tools

Tool	Description
Claude Desktop	Claude AI desktop app
Claude Code	AI coding assistant CLI

Window Management & Menu Bar

Tool	Description
Aerospace	i3-like tiling window manager
Sketchybar	Customizable status bar
Hiddenbar	Hide menu bar icons
Stats	System monitoring in menu bar

Productivity

Tool	Description
Raycast	Spotlight replacement with extensions
Obsidian	Markdown-based knowledge base
Notion	All-in-one workspace
1Password	Password & secrets manager
Annotate	Screenshot annotation tool

Development & DevOps

Tool	Description
Homebrew	Package manager for macOS
OrbStack	Fast Docker & Linux on macOS
AWS CLI	Amazon Web Services CLI
gcloud CLI	Google Cloud CLI
dua	Disk usage analyzer

Browsers

Tool	Description
Brave	Privacy-focused browser
Chrome	Google Chrome
Firefox	Mozilla Firefox

Media & Creative

Tool	Description
Spotify	Music streaming
OBS	Streaming and recording
Adobe Photoshop	Image editing
Adobe Premiere Pro	Video editing
Ableton Live	Music production

Utilities

Tool	Description
Keka	File archiver
Zoom	Video conferencing

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About Aerospace

I made a deep dive video on this tiling window manager:

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Starship Prompt : Pastel Powerline

This setup uses Starship with the Pastel Powerline preset for a modern, colorful, and informative shell prompt.