MacBook with Homebrew

Set up an ARM-chip MacBook as developer machine using Homebrew as package manager.

October 27, 2025

• Macos
• Dev Machine

Introduction

This document covers how to set up an ARM64 Macbook as a developer machine. It is geared towards Go, Python, JavaScript and Java development.

All commands on this page should be executed from the user’s home directory.

For using MacPorts instead of Homebrew as the package manager, refer to MacBook with MacPorts.

Install xcode command line tools

xcode-select --install

Install homebrew

Use the macOS default Terminal app.

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
eval $(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)
brew update
brew upgrade

Add the following line to both ~/.zshrc and ~/.bash_profile. Restart terminal.

eval $(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)

Use the latest version of bash

brew install bash bash-completion@2

Put bash inside /usr/local/bin and add it to /etc/shells.

pushd /usr/local/bin
sudo ln -s /opt/homebrew/bin/bash
popd
echo '/usr/local/bin/bash' | sudo tee -a /etc/shells

Change the default shell for human admin user to /usr/local/bin/bash.

chsh -s /usr/local/bin/bash

Change the default shell for root to /bin/bash.

sudo chsh -s /bin/bash

Restart computer for the default shell change to take effect.

Install ghostty

Go to the download page. Download the package installer and use it.

From now on perform all CLI operations in Ghostty.

Install essential utilities

brew install fzf bat tree jq yq

Install coding tools

When coding, run NeoVim inside Tmux sessions.

brew install git neovim ripgrep luarocks tmux pre-commit

Install go

brew install go

Install uv

brew install uv

Install documentation tools

brew install hugo

Install fnm

fnm is a Node versions manager that doesn’t cause a noticeable slow down at activation. The CLI interface is largely similar to that of nvm.

brew install fnm

Install aws cli v2

After installation, pin it to avoid unnecessary frequent version upgrade. It’s enough to upgrade for every minor version bump only.

brew install awscli
brew pin awscli

Install github cli

For authentication against GitHub, the most convenient option is to use the GitHub CLI. To install, run the following commands.

brew install gh

Login immediately.

gh auth login

Install shellcheck

brew install shellcheck

Install rustup

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

Set up GPG to sign git commits

Install gnupg and pinentry-mac. The former is the GPG software while the latter is a GUI for prompting for passphrases.

brew install gnupg pinentry-mac
echo "pinentry-program $(which pinentry-mac)" >>  ~/.gnupg/gpg-agent.conf

Restart gpg-agent.

gpg-connect-agent reloadagent /bye

Enter GPG interactive mode by gpg --card-edit, and then enter the fetch and quit command in order. The outputs would be something like below.

gpg/card> fetch
gpg: requesting key from 'https://github.com/kxue43.gpg'
gpg: key C9EED408F4B6D021: "Sato Seinosuke (kxue43.github.io) <kxue43@gmail.com>" not changed
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg:              unchanged: 1

gpg/card> quit

Then use gpg --list-secret-keys to confirm that the keys have been fetched. The outputs should be something like below.

[keyboxd]
---------
sec>  rsa4096 2025-12-24 [SC]
      5EF2BE73370DCE7E808814DBC9EED408F4B6D021
      Card serial no. = 0006 27538718
uid           [ unknown] Sato Seinosuke (kxue43.github.io) <kxue43@gmail.com>
ssb>  rsa4096 2025-12-24 [E]

Install go executables

go install github.com/kxue43/cli-toolkit/cmd/toolkit@latest
go install github.com/kxue43/cli-toolkit/cmd/toolkit-assume-role@latest
go install github.com/kxue43/cli-toolkit/cmd/toolkit-serve-static@latest
go install github.com/kxue43/cli-toolkit/cmd/toolkit-show-md@latest
go install mvdan.cc/sh/v3/cmd/shfmt@latest
go install golang.org/x/tools/cmd/godoc@latest
go install golang.org/x/pkgsite
go install github.com/air-verse/air@latest

Install rust executables

cargo install --locked tree-sitter-cli

Install claude code

brew install --cask claude-code

Set up personal platform

mkdir -p ~/.config
git clone https://github.com/kxue43/substance ~/.config/substance
~/.config/substance/set-up.sh

Restart the terminal so that Bash start-up files take effect. Then open up nvim and run :MasonInstallAll, :TSInstallAll, :checkhealth.