February 15, 2025
My current setup
Following in the footsteps of many developers before me, here’s an exhaustive list of all the tools I use in my daily workflow.
Office
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For the past few years, I've been using the 2021 Macbook Pro M1 with 32GB of memory and a 1TB drive. And the hype is real. This thing is blazing fast. I can use it in the office on battery for almost a full workday. It doesn't get warm so you can actually use it on your lap, and the fans never get loud unlike my previous Macbook Pro with Intel chip.
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Surely, I would like to have a fancy Apple XDR display. But I'm not spending that much money on a monitor. The LG UltraFine 5K is a great alternative. It's sharp, color-accurate, and works seamlessly with my Macbook using a single USB-C cable. I'm using my old 2011 Apple Thunderbolt Display as a second monitor, but it's starting to show its age and I'm using a Rain mStand for my laptop instead.
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Apple Magic Mouse & Apple Magic Keyboard
I've been using Apple keyboards and mice for years. They are not the most ergonomic, but they work great. I have the Logitech MX Master 3, but I always come back to the Magic Mouse because the smooth touch scroll gestures are just too good. And yes, you cannot use the mouse while charging but that only happens a few times a year.
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Karlby Walnut Desk & Topsky Standing Desk Frame
I spend a disproportionate amount of time sitting at my desk, so I invested in a good one in 2020 when WFH became the norm. The Karlby countertop is actually a kitchen countertop, but with 186cm in length it's perfect for a desk. The Topsky standing desk frame has two motors that can lift the heavy Karlby table-top with ease. It was quite easy to assemble and has been working flawlessly since I got it.
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I'm a big fan of Oliur (UltraLinx)'s YouTube channel. When he started selling premium desk mats, I bought one years ago. It's a great quality mat and looks fantastic on my desk.
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Herman Miller Aeron Chair (refurbished)
I bought this Herman Miller Aeron chair back in 2020 when I started working from home. It's a great chair, but it's expensive. I managed to buy a refurbished chair from a reputable company. It was as good as new for a fraction of the price. The mesh is comfortable and the chair looks great. I swapped out the wheels for soft rollerblade wheels. Game. Changer. Doesn't scratch the hardwood floor and they're amazingly silent.
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I listen to music with the built-in LG UltraFine display speakers most of the time. But when I need to focus, I put on my Apple Airpods Pro with noise-cancelling. They are great for that. I dislike the rubber tips though. I tried all sizes but they don't stick to my ears when I go for a run. I switched to memory-foam tips from Amazon and those are a much better fit.
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Belkin iPhone mount with MagSafe for Desktops
When Apple released their Continuity Camera feature that allows you to use your iPhone as a webcam, I was amazed by the video quality. It simply outperforms any built-in webcam on a monitor. With the iPhone as webcam, I get a great depth of field and a sharp image that follows my face. I bought the Belkin mount to easily attach my iPhone to my LG UltraFine display using the Magsafe magnets.
Devtools
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PHPStorm/Webstorm/IntelliJ IDEA
I've been using JetBrains IDEs since 2010. The truth is that there's no editor as good for PHP as PHPStorm. It takes a ton of PHP plugins to configure VSCode and it's still not great for large refactors. I also use Webstorm for big Node/Typescript projects, and IntelliJ for Python/Kotlin/Scala projects. For PHPStorm I use the phpstorm-light-lite theme. The other IDEs use the default Light theme.
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Not every coding task requires me to fire up a full-blown IDE. I prefer the speed of VSCode for a lot of projects or quick edits. The Copilot integration is also superior to the Copilot plugin in Jetbrains products. I use the GitHub light theme based on their Primer color system. Font is the blex-mono-liga-powerline font which is just a modded IBM Plex Mono with ligatures. I'm a big fan of using a light theme for several reasons.
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I switched from iTerm2 to Ghostty. It's a lot faster and minimalistic. I love the configuration file to style it. I'm using the built-in Snazzy theme and BlexMono Nerd Font.
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I've been using Paw since 2015. It's the best API client for macOS. I tried all the alternatives, but I keep coming back to Paw. For collaboration in Git with others, I sometimes use Bruno too.
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I've been using TablePlus for a few years now. It's fast, has a great UI, and is very customizable. It supports most databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Redis, Redshift, Clickhouse, etc.) but unfortunately not AWS Athena.
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I use zsh as my shell as this is the default on newer macOS versions. When I switched to Ghostty, I redid my zsh configuration. I'm using zinit as a plugin manager and Starship as a super-fast Rust-based prompt but tweaked a lot of the prompts.
Productivity
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I've been using Firefox for years because they are one of the few browsers that respect your privacy. It's also one of the few browsers that still works with uBlock Origin. Zen Browser is a fork of Firefox with some interesting UI tweaks and a vertical tab bar that feels like the fancy Arc browser but using Firefox under the hood. The game-changer for me is workspaces with full container tab support to fully isolate my work tabs from my personal tabs. The AWS SSO Containers extension is a must-have for AWS users on Firefox-based browsers to open AWS SSO tabs in a separate container to avoid log-out and visually see which account you are using.
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Raycast is a great productivity tool for macOS. It's like Alfred, but on steroids. I use it to quickly open apps, calculate and convert things, search for files/emojis/snippets/bookmarks, and run plugins. There's also a great calendar integration to start my next Zoom meeting. And I find myself using the clipboard history throughout the day. Some of the plugins I use are Coffee to avoid Macbook from sleeping for a few hours, Color Casket to convert and save colors, Conventional Commits to help writing a conventional commit, Deepcast to translate words using DeepL, Github to quickly search for a GitHub repository, Gitlab to quickly search for a (private) GitLab repository, Gitmoji to search a suitable Gitmoji, Home Assistant because there's nothing cooler than turning on your lights using Raycast, Jira, Kaomoji to search for tableflip emoji's, Tableplus to open a saved connection, TailwindCSS to search in the docs, Ray.so to copy a nice screenshot of a code snippet, ...
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One of the most popular password managers. I also use this for my SSH keys. It also integrates nicely with my Apple Watch. Protip: if your company uses 1Password Business, you can get a free 1Password Family plan.
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I tried a lot of task managers, but Things is the one that stuck. It's simple, fast, and has a great UI. I do combine this with my zero-inbox mail with snooze functionality as a todo. And the Slack reminders/later functionality.
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I know the Git CLI but I prefer to use a GUI for Git. Tower is the best one I tried for macOS. Once you know the shortcuts (⌘+⇧+P to pull, ⌘+⇧+U to push, ⌘+⇧+F to fetch, ⌘+⇧+A for quick actions and branch search, etc.) it's a breeze to use. You can also create a pull request from the app, which is a great feature. And you can inspect the diff before you commit, using your preferred fonts and code theme. It also integrates with Kaleidoscope to resolve git conflicts.
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I use Notion for personal notes, project management, and as a knowledge base. It's a great tool for organizing information.
Apps
- Affinity suite for graphic design because Adobe is evil.
- CleanShot X for taking screenshots and screen recordings.
- System Color Picker from Sindre Sorhus is a really nifty color picker.
- Eagle to collect and organize all kinds of visual information.
- Figma for UI/UX design.
- Ivory. I've been a long-time user of Tweetbot until Twitter killed it. Ivory is a great alternative for Mastodon. Using SkyBridge you can connect it to Bluesky.
- Maestral for syncing my files with Dropbox.
- OrbStack as a great alternative to Docker Desktop.
- Pixelmator Pro for image editing.
- Raindrop for bookmarking.
- Snippetslab to store code snippets.
- Spark Mail for email. I try to keep a zero-inbox using snooze and archive functionality.
Mobile Apps
- Halide for taking pictures with my iPhone. They can even skip the AI processing using Process Zero
- Darkroom for editing Raw pictures and videos.
- Lightroom when I want to use Oliur's ProRaw presets.
- Home Assistant to control the lights in the house, the thermostat, rolling shutters, energy monitoring, ... I renovated the house and redid the wiring with KNX, but that's for another post.
- Things for task management.
- Misc: Slack, Discord, Signal, WhatsApp, Messenger, Ivory, Sonos, Spotify, ARBP, ...
Other Gear
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I've been using iPhones since the iPhone 3G (2008). I'm currently using the iPhone 16 Pro since launch day. Not a lot has changed since the iPhone 14 Pro, but it takes the best pictures of my kids in Raw format and 4K videos.
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Db The Backpack (Black Leather, 21L)
After a lengthy search for the perfect backpack for both traveling and going to work with gear, I ended up with Db in 2019. It's a great looking backpack and it's very comfortable to wear. The laptop compartment can easily fit a 15" laptop, but the 16" is a tighter fit.