The Lean Mac Setup: Every Tool I Use as a Solo Software Engineer

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Back in 2022, I bought a MacBook Pro M1 2021 (the 13-inch, 8 GB RAM, 256 GB storage model). At the time, the price was way beyond what I was earning monthly. But looking back, it turned out to be one of the best investments I’ve ever made. I’ve put this machine through a lot, and it still runs perfectly today.

So in this post, I want to walk you through the software I use daily, the tools I’ve settled on after plenty of trial and error.

Spotlight Replacement: Raycast

I swapped out macOS’s built-in Spotlight for Raycast, and I genuinely can’t imagine going back. Out of the box, I use it for unit conversions, currency exchange, quick math, app and settings search, and window management. That alone already makes it worth it.

On top of that, I’ve added a handful of extensions:

  1. Bitwarden Vault, password manager that doubles as an authenticator
  2. Brew, install apps without leaving Raycast
  3. Coffee, keeps my Mac awake when I need it to
  4. Google Translate, quick translations on the fly
  5. Image Modification (SIPS), resize, scale, remove background, rotate images
  6. Paste as Plain Text, bound to Cmd + Shift + V, a lifesaver
  7. Speedtest, quick internet speed checks

Browser: Brave

My browser journey has been a long one. I started with Chrome, moved to Arc when Chrome felt too bloated, then hopped to Zen Browser. Both Arc and Zen have great customization, but all those features made my Mac run noticeably hot during heavy browsing sessions.

Eventually I landed on Microsoft Edge, and honestly, it’s more underrated than people think. It’s fast on Mac, works great, and has a built-in scrolling screenshot feature I haven’t seen in any other browser. But as a software engineer, I sometimes need to test apps across multiple user sessions, so I kept Firefox around as a secondary browser just for its Multi-Account Containers extension.

Then in July 2026, something interesting happened: Brave introduced a native container concept, something I hadn’t seen in any other Chromium-based browser. That changed everything for me.

I’ve been on Brave ever since, both for daily browsing and development. My extension stack:

  1. Bitwarden, open-source password manager; I use it across all my devices to autofill credentials securely
  2. Obsidian Web Clipper, clip any webpage directly into my Obsidian vault as a markdown note, perfect for saving articles and research
  3. Wappalyzer, instantly reveals the tech stack behind any website; incredibly useful for competitive analysis and curiosity
  4. FireShot, full-page screenshot tool that captures entire scrollable pages in one shot, exports to PDF or image

What I love beyond containers: solid default ad blocking, reliable fingerprint protection, and a clean vertical tab experience. The only downside? All the built-in crypto features, which I’ve disabled entirely. After about a month of daily use, everything has been smooth, and Brave is officially my main browser.

Terminal: Termius

As someone managing multiple apps across several VPS instances and hosting providers, I needed more than just a place to store usernames and passwords. I needed something that handles SSH keys (both public and private) cleanly.

Termius does that, plus SFTP, one-click SSH connections, and most importantly: multi-tab layouts. I can set up a single view with 4+ terminal tabs at once. If you’re running multi-agent coding tasks or juggling multiple servers, this is incredibly useful.

Local Dev Environment: ServBay

One of the most important things as a developer is keeping your local environment clean and sane. My answer to that is ServBay.

I’ve tried XAMPP, MAMP, Docker, and Homebrew. With the limitations of my machine (8 GB RAM), ServBay won. It lets me run multiple versions of PHP, Node.js, Go, Python, Java, .NET, and even Rust, all in one place. Web servers include Apache, Nginx, and Caddy. Databases cover MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, and more. There’s even local AI development via Ollama now.

I think this tool is seriously underrated.

“But can’t Docker do the same thing?” Well, technically, yes. But Docker runs on a Linux VM, which means it’s not native, and that overhead eats into your resources noticeably. ServBay is native, and switching between PHP versions per project (or any other runtime) is painless. SSL is handled automatically too, so no headaches just for local dev.

Note-Taking: Obsidian

I’ve tried Apple Notes (too locked into the ecosystem, not great if you’re on Android), and Notion (decent sync, but requires being online and doesn’t integrate well with local tools). Neither stuck.

Then I found Obsidian, and it genuinely changed how I work. The day I committed to it was the day I actually started building a note-taking habit, something I’d struggled with for years. It’s now my second brain.

I use it with a custom folder structure (no PARA), a tight set of plugins like Templater and Dataview, and my blog’s content folder is actually symlinked straight into the vault. So I draft posts natively in Obsidian without switching tools.

📝 Want the full breakdown? I wrote a dedicated post on how I set it all up: How I Set Up My Second Brain in Obsidian

Code Editor: Antigravity IDE

AI development is moving fast, and I think it’s worth leaning into it. I’m currently using Antigravity IDE as my primary code editor, though Cursor or VS Code would work fine too. I have a Google subscription, so Antigravity is what I reach for these days.

I use it to review code changes, open terminals, manage source control, handle branching, and configure dev environments.

Other Dev Tools

  • DBeaver, direct query access to databases; works with local, remote, and SSH tunnel connections
  • CotEditor, my Notepad++ replacement on Mac

Other Daily Apps

  • Pearcleaner, free, open-source app uninstaller; also handles updates and orphan file removal
  • LinearMouse, my scroll wheel was acting up, and this app literally saved my sanity
  • LocalSend, cross-OS, cross-device file sharing with no accounts needed
  • Syncthing, syncs my Obsidian vault between my Mac and Android phone
  • TickTick, free task manager; I use it mainly for recurring reminders like AC maintenance, vehicle checkups, and bill payments
  • Claude, ChatGPT, OnlyOffice, WhatsApp, Google Drive, the usual suspects

That’s the full picture of what’s running on my M1 Mac. None of these are sponsored, just tools I’ve genuinely settled on after a lot of switching around. If any of them resonate with your workflow, give them a shot.