kdeldycke/dotfiles

Kevin's dotfiles

Dot-files and system configuration for Python developers on macOS with Apple Silicon hardware.

Features

• Aimed at Python programmers using Neovim and VisualStudio Code.
• Targets ZSH shell (now the default since Catalina).
• Produce colored output for most of shell commands.
• All color schemes are based on Monokai. The terminal uses the Monokai Soda variant instead of the official Monokai Pro terminal themes: all Pro variants map orange to the ANSI blue slot, which breaks any tool relying on blue semantically (ls directory listings, git diff headers, man highlights, dircolors). Monokai Soda keeps purple in the blue slot and has higher contrast on dark backgrounds.
• Terminal and coding font is Source Code Pro.
• Keeps macOS fast, lean and secure.

Pre-installation

We will reinstall macOS from scratch.

1. Download macOS from the App Store.app.

2. Plug a USB drive to your machine, format it with the Disk Utility app, double-check it is mounted at /Volumes/Untitled, and finally flash it with the macOS image:

   $ sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Tahoe.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --nointeraction
   

3. Reboot your machine, reinstall macOS, create a user.

4. Login to your new user, and launch System Preferences.app.

5. Go to Security & Privacy → Privacy → Click the lock to make changes, and then unlock with touch ID or password:

   

6. Go to Full Disk Access, click the + button, go to Applications → Utilities, and choose Terminal.app:

   

Install

1. First, you need a local copy of this project.

   If you're lucky and have git already installed on your machine, do:

   $ cd ~
   $ git clone --recursive https://github.com/kdeldycke/dotfiles.git
   

   If you don't have git yet, fetch an archive of the repository:

   $ mkdir ~/dotfiles
   $ cd ~/dotfiles
   $ curl -fsSL https://github.com/kdeldycke/dotfiles/tarball/main | tar --strip-components 1 -xvzf -
   

2. Now you can install the dotfiles on your system:

$ cd ~/dotfiles
$ /bin/zsh ./install.sh 2>&1 | tee ./install.log

Post-installation

Manual setup required to finish up the perfect configuration.

This is a list of manual post-installation steps required to fully configure the system. Haven't found any way to automate them all.

System Preferences.app

1. In Displays, set external monitor scale:

   

2. In Touch ID → Add other fingerprints.

3. In Security & Privacy → Privacy → Accessibility, activate:

   • Amethyst.app
   • Logi Options Daemon
   • Logi Options
   • MonitorControl.app

   

4. In Security & Privacy → Privacy → Full Disk Access, click the + button. Then go to Applications → Utilities, to add:

   • BlockBlock.app
   • KnockKnock.app

5. In Security & Privacy → Privacy → Analytics & Improvements: uncheck all options to disallow analytics sharing.

   

6. In Security & Privacy → Privacy → Apple Advertising: uncheck Personalized Ads option.

   

7. In Security & Privacy → Privacy → Developer Tools, activate Terminal:

   

SSH

Copy the SSH folder (./dotfiles/dotfiles/.ssh/) from Time Machine backups. After restoring, add the public key to GitHub as both an "Authentication key" and a "Signing key" at https://github.com/settings/keys.

Safari

In Preferences... → Extensions, activate:

• AdGuard Assistant
• Archive Page
• Consent-O-Matic
• SimpleLogin

AdGuard

In Preferences... → Filters, click the + button and subscribe to all filter lists:

Claude Code

~/.claude/settings.json is symlinked to this repo and committed. There is no global settings.local.json: ~/.claude/settings.local.json is not a supported file.

enableWeakerNetworkIsolation: true is set in the sandbox config to work around a macOS sandbox limitation: the sandbox blocks Security.framework IPC to trustd, breaking TLS certificate verification for all CGO-compiled Go binaries (gh, terraform, tofu, etc.) and Keychain access. SSL_CERT_FILE does not help because these binaries use Security.framework directly and ignore file-based certs (anthropics/claude-code#34876).

Logi Options

For productivity, setup custom trackball shortcuts with macOS desktop management tools and Amethyst windows commands.

Page-up button assignment → Smart zoom:

Page-down button assignment → Shift + Opt + Ctrl + J:

Wheel click button assignment → Mission Control:

Wheel left click assignment → Desktop (left):

Wheel right click assignment → Desktop (right):

Side button assignment → Shift + Opt + Space:

Upgrade

I'm trying to make the install procedure idempotent so you'll just have to call the script again to upgrade your system:

$ ./install.sh 2>&1 | tee ./install.log

Maintenance

It mainly consist in refreshing some assets at every macOS major release:

• Regenerate Monokai Soda.terminal profile.

• Keep list of packages up-to-date:

  $ mpm snapshot --update-version ./packages.toml
  

• Update screenshots. 😖

• Run the security audit below.

Security audit

At every macOS major release, I audit macos-config.sh against the NIST macOS Security Compliance Project (mSCP) to catch security settings that the new release moved, renamed or retired. Security-related lines in the script are tagged with their stable mSCP rule id (like system_settings_firewall_enable) so a failing rule maps straight back to the line to update.

1. Clone the mSCP branch named after the macOS release (tahoe for macOS 26, sequoia for macOS 15, and so on):

   $ git clone --branch tahoe --depth 1 https://github.com/usnistgov/macos_security.git
   $ cd macos_security
   

2. Build a tailored CIS level 1 baseline. The interactive prompts let me exclude the deliberate exemptions listed below and set my own organization-defined values (like the 600 seconds screen saver timeout, the 30 days audit retention, or time.euro.apple.com as time server):

   $ uv run --with-requirements requirements.txt scripts/generate_baseline.py --keyword cis_lvl1 --tailor
   

3. Generate the compliance script from the tailored baseline and run it in check-only mode:

   $ uv run --with-requirements requirements.txt scripts/generate_guidance.py --script build/baselines/cis_lvl1.yaml
   $ sudo zsh build/cis_lvl1/cis_lvl1_compliance.sh --check
   $ sudo zsh build/cis_lvl1/cis_lvl1_compliance.sh --stats
   

4. Reconcile every failing rule: port the rule's fix command into macos-config.sh (tagged with its mSCP rule id), or add the rule to the exemption list below. Then re-run macos-config.sh and check again: macOS upgrades silently reset some settings (launchd service overrides and pmset values in particular), and re-running the script is the intended remedy. Rules marked "implemented by a Configuration Profile" have no CLI equivalent: generate the profiles with --profiles (or --consolidated-profile) and import them via System Settings.app → Privacy & Security → Profiles.

Deliberate exemptions, to exclude when tailoring the baseline:

• os_airdrop_disable: AirDrop stays enabled, on all interfaces.
• os_gatekeeper_enable: Gatekeeper assessments stay on, but I disable the LSQuarantine prompt, and the SIP_DISABLED branch of the script adds a Developer Tools bypass for Terminal.
• os_handoff_disable: Handoff between my devices stays enabled.
• os_loginwindow_adminhostinfo_disabled: I show the hostname at the login window on purpose.
• pwpolicy_*: no password lockout, history or rotation policy on a personal machine.
• system_settings_firewall_enable and system_settings_firewall_stealth_mode_enable: enforced with socketfilterfw instead of a configuration profile, so the check (which reads the managed preference) can report a false failure while the firewall is actually on.

Rules that stay check-only without an MDM, to carry into the generated configuration profile instead of macos-config.sh: os_mail_summary_disable, os_notes_transcription_disable, os_notes_transcription_summary_disable, os_on_device_dictation_enforce, os_software_update_deferral, os_writing_tools_disable, system_settings_external_intelligence_disable and system_settings_external_intelligence_sign_in_disable. A few others (Siri, AirPlay receiver, Internet Sharing) are set by macos-config.sh through their real preference keys, but only the corresponding profile payload prevents re-enablement. system_settings_time_machine_encrypted_configure stays manual: encryption is picked when selecting the backup disk.

Versions

Only the current default main branch is supported and actively maintained. Older branches are available for archive.

• macOS 26 (Tahoe) (current)
• macOS 15 (Sequoia)
• macOS 14 (Sonoma)
• macOS 13 (Ventura)
• macOS 12 (Monterey)
• macOS 11 (Big Sur)
• macOS 10.15 (Catalina)
• macOS 10.14 (Mojave)
• macOS 10.13 (High Sierra)
• macOS 10.12 (Sierra)

Former support of Kubuntu and Ubuntu Server Linux distributions has been dropped. You can still find these as dedicated branches, but all are quite ancient (2016).

Resources

• Awesome macOS command line
• ingrino's dotfiles
• Mathias Bynens .macos

License

For convenience, some third party code and assets are hard-copied in place. These particular items have their own license and copyright:

• Monokai Soda.

The rest of the content is configuration and code I accumulated over years. Some was heavily inspired by other dotfiles repositories. But each time I borrow something, I try to credit the author and/or point to the source. You should be able to trace back the origin of things by looking at the commit history.

If you can't find any clue about an external source, then assume it is original content I produced, which I released under the BSD 2-Clause License.