Setup Workstation

“Place which dreams come true “ - Art by painter Julia Makors

Security

• NordPass - Password manager
• NordVPN - VPN for secure connections

Google Ecosystem

• Chrome - Primary browser
• Antigravity - Development tool
• Drive - Cloud storage
• NotebookLM - AI-powered research

Microsoft Ecosystem

• Microsoft 365 - Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Outlook
• OneDrive - Cloud storage and sync

Utility Applications

• Sougou Wubi Input - Chinese input method
• Sublime Text - Lightweight text editor
• Brave Browser - Privacy-focused browser

AI Tools

• Perplexity Desktop - AI search assistant
• Comet Desktop - AI development companion
• Claude Desktop - Anthropic’s AI assistant

Development Environment

Terminal Emulators

• iTerm2 - Feature-rich terminal for macOS
• Ghostty - GPU-accelerated terminal
• kitty - Fast, feature-rich terminal

Homebrew

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install.sh)"
brew tap homebrew/cask-versions

Zsh & Oh-My-Zsh

# Install zsh
brew install zsh

# Install Oh-My-Zsh
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

# Font - https://www.nerdfonts.com/font-downloads
brew install font-Fira-Code-nerd-font
ghostty --font-family="FiraCode Nerd Font Mono Reg" --font-size=14

Shell Themes

Powerlevel10k:

brew install powerlevel10k
echo "source $(brew --prefix)/share/powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k.zsh-theme" >> ~/.zshrc

Starship:

brew install starship
echo 'eval "$(starship init zsh)"' >> ~/.zshrc
starship preset tokyo-night -o ~/.config/starship.toml
starship explain

Oh-My-Zsh Plugins

• Oh My Zsh themes
• Oh My Zsh plugins
• zsh-autosuggestions

Keep in mind: Plugins could slow down startup zsh!

# OMZ plugins - https://github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/wiki/Plugins-Overview
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions
vi ~/.zshrc
plugins=(zsh-autosuggestions)

Understanding Zsh Configuration Files

File	Purpose
.zshenv	Global env variables, API keys, can source .zsh_secrets
.zprofile	Login shells, login environment tweaks
.zshrc	Interactive shells, sources .zprofile

Python (Miniconda)

curl -O https://repo.anaconda.com/miniconda/Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-arm64.sh
bash Miniconda3-latest-MacOSX-arm64.sh
conda create --name py312 python=3.12

Node.js (Volta)

curl https://get.volta.sh | bash
volta install node pnpm@latest   # LTS
volta pin node@20                # Project-specific

Java (SDKMAN)

curl -s "https://get.sdkman.io" | bash
source "$HOME/.sdkman/bin/sdkman-init.sh"
sdk install java 25.0.2-tem
sdk default temurin 25.0.2-tem
sdk install maven
sdk install gradle

Vibe Coding Tools

Claude Code

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

After installation, add to PATH:

echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.zshrc && source ~/.zshrc

Other AI Coding Tools

• CodeX - OpenAI’s code generation tool
• Gemini CLI - Google’s AI assistant CLI
• OpenClaw - Open-source AI coding assistant

SSH Keys

If you move from old workstation, and keep keys that still active

Copy ~/.ssh keys
Copy ~/.kube configuration
Copy ~/.bash_profile, .bash_history
Copy ~/.zshrc, .zprofile, .zsh_history
Copy ~/.m2/settings.xml

If you want to create brand new keys

KEY_TYPE=github
KEY_NAME=`whoami`-$KEY_TYPE-`date +%Y-%m-%d`
mkdir -p ~/.ssh/$KEY_TYPE

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048 -C $KEY_NAME -f ~/.ssh/$KEY_TYPE/$KEY_NAME
ssh-keygen -l -E md5 -f ~/.ssh/$KEY_TYPE/$KEY_NAME

chmod 600 $KEY_NAME
chmod 644 $KEY_NAME.pub

ssh-add --apple-use-keychain --apple-load-keychain ~/.ssh/$KEY_TYPE/$KEY_NAME
# macOS reboot service
vi ~/.ssh/config
Host *
   AddKeysToAgent yes
   UseKeychain yes
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/$KEY_TYPE/$KEY_NAME

Multi-Git Identities Setup

Update .ssh config

vi ~/.ssh/config
# default config
Host github.com
   HostName github.com
   User git
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/$KEY_TYPE/$KEY_NAME

# removes all ssh entries from the ssh-agent, and add the only you want to use
ssh-add -D
ssh-add --apple-use-keychain --apple-load-keychain ~/.ssh/$KEY_TYPE/$KEY_NAME

Configure Git Identities

# list all global git config
git config --global -l

# update global git config
vi ~/.gitconfig
[user]
   name = WorkIdentity
   email = work@gmail.com
[includeIf "gitdir/i:~/Workspace/GitHub/"]
   path = ~/.github.gitconfig

# create specific config for the personal identity
vi ~/.github.gitconfig
[user]
   name = PersonalIdentity
   email = personal@gmail.com

Git Repo

# This will use personal Git Identity
cd ~/Workspace/GitHub/
git clone git@github.com:xxxxxxxx/yyyyyyyyyy.git

# This will use work Git Identity
cd ~/Workspace/AnyOtherFolders
git clone git@github.com:xxxxxxxx/yyyyyyyyyy.git

GUI Applications

• JetBrains/Intellij
• VS Code
• Sublime
• Postman
• Docker Desktop
• Studio3T (MongoDB)
• pgAdmin (PostgreSQL)
• Youdao (Chinese Dictionary)
• CreateStudio3
• Luminar NEO
• LM Studio

CLI Tools

Azure, Kubernetes, K9s, Terraform

brew install azure-cli,
brew install kubectl
brew install derailed/k9s/k9s
brew install Azure/kubelogin/kubelogin
brew install tfenv
tfenv install (terraform-cli)
tfenv use x.y.z

MongoDB CLI

brew tap mongodb/brew
brew install mongodb-community-shell
brew install mongocli
brew install mongodb-database-tools

# Upgrade
brew upgrade mongodb-database-tools

Cloud Commands

Azure AKS

az login
az account set --subscription "Subscription Name"
az aks get-credentials --name kube-cluster-name --resource-group group-name
# set default namespace
kubectl config set-context kube-cluster-name --namespace=application
# switch between k8s clusters
kubectl config use-context kube-cluster-name

GCP

brew install --cask google-cloud-sdk

# zsh
export CLOUDSDK_PYTHON="/usr/local/opt/python@3.8/libexec/bin/python"
source "/usr/local/Caskroom/google-cloud-sdk/latest/google-cloud-sdk/path.zsh.inc"
source "/usr/local/Caskroom/google-cloud-sdk/latest/google-cloud-sdk/completion.zsh.inc"

# gcloud
gcloud init

# k8s
gcloud container clusters get-credentials cluster1 --region europe-west2 --project project-name

Others

brew install tree fzf ack