The toolbox
Every tool and app the reference workstation installs and configures, what each is for, and the keys that matter.
zc-workstation does not choose your tools; your config does. This section describes the setup it was built for: a macOS developer workstation for Go, Java, Vue and Flutter work with Claude Code at its centre. Each page says what a tool is for, how the workstation sets it up, and the keys and commands worth knowing. Take what you like into your own Brewfile.
Every tool here is declared in a Brewfile or mise.toml with a comment saying
why it is there, so zc-workstation list shows the same reasons:
$ zc-workstation list -kind cask,brewThe colours, terminal, prompt and bar themes live in this repository under
assets/theme. The shell, git, app settings and keyboard config live in a
private config repository, applied by the dotfiles provider. See
A new Mac in one command for that layout.
How the pieces fit
Karabiner (Hyper+T) -> Ghostty -> tmux (dev) -> Claude Code | lazygit | zsh
starship · atuin · fzf · zoxide
SketchyBar <- macmon, ZCBar JankyBorders around the focused window
Raycast -> repos, branches, zcbar:// URLs
A typical start: Hyper+D opens Ghostty running dev, you pick a repository,
and tmux opens Claude Code, lazygit and a shell in it. ZCBar in the menu bar
says when packages are outdated or something drifted, and ZC Care keeps the
disk clean. See Menu bar app and ZC Care.
Terminal and shell
| Tool | What it is for |
|---|---|
Ghostty, the terminal: GPU-rendered, native on macOS, with a drop-down quick terminal. |
|
tmux, the session manager: panes, windows, popups and the dev layout. |
|
zsh with antidote: the shell, its plugins, aliases and helper functions. |
|
Starship, the prompt: folder, git state, pull request and versions at a glance. |
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Atuin, shell history: searchable, per folder, and free of secrets. |
Command line
| Tool | What it is for |
|---|---|
fzf, the fuzzy finder behind completion, the session picker and dev. |
|
zoxide, a smarter cd that learns the folders you use. |
|
eza, ls with icons, git status and trees. |
|
bat, cat with syntax highlighting and git changes; also the man page pager. |
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fd and ripgrep, fast find and grep that respect .gitignore. |
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jq and yq, query and edit JSON and YAML from the command line. |
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Yazi, a terminal file manager with previews. |
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Convert and shrink video, audio, images and PDFs. |
|
Project recipes, HTTP calls, benchmarks, command examples, Python scripts and shell linting. |
|
Signatures, one-time codes and mail accounts kept in a file. |
Git and GitHub
| Tool | What it is for |
|---|---|
git and its helpers: delta diffs, structural diffs, automatic fixups and secret scanning. |
|
lazygit, git in a terminal UI. |
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gitleaks, the secret scanner that runs before every commit. |
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gh, GitHub from the terminal: pull requests, issues, Actions and auth. |
Runtimes and dotfiles
| Tool | What it is for |
|---|---|
mise, the runtime manager: Java, Node, Python and Gradle versions. |
|
chezmoi, the dotfiles engine behind the dotfiles provider. |
|
direnv, per-folder environment variables. |
|
The Go toolchain, its language server, debugger and linter. |
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The Java and TypeScript language servers, and CocoaPods for Flutter on iOS. |
Containers and data
| Tool | What it is for |
|---|---|
Colima, Docker, lazydocker, dive and the Kubernetes tools. |
|
A local PostgreSQL 17 server, pgcli and TablePlus. |
|
AWS, Google Cloud, Hetzner, Cloudflare Tunnel, Fly.io, Neon, Supabase and the other deploy tools. |
Desktop
| Tool | What it is for |
|---|---|
SketchyBar, the menu bar replacement, and JankyBorders around the focused window. |
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Karabiner-Elements: Caps Lock as Escape and Hyper, and Hyper shortcuts for apps. |
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Raycast, the launcher, with clipboard history and script commands. |
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Chrome, the default browser, with a small set of extensions. |
|
Shottr, Handy, Bruno, Obsidian, Proxyman, the meeting apps and the fonts. |
Editors
| Tool | What it is for |
|---|---|
VS Code, the editor, with settings that follow the system theme. |
|
IntelliJ IDEA through JetBrains Toolbox, and Neovim in the terminal. |
AI
| Tool | What it is for |
|---|---|
Claude Code, Codex, the AI desktop apps, CodexBar, Ollama, and how the workstation wires them in. |
Keeping the Mac well
| Tool | What it is for |
|---|---|
btop, macmon and fastfetch: what the Mac is doing. |
|
asimov, pam-reattach, mkcert and the other helpers that fix small Mac annoyances. |
The menu bar app
ZCBar and ZC Care are part of zc-workstation itself, not a separate install.
The panel shows the Mac’s vitals, the plan, outdated packages, doctor
findings and services. ZC Care cleans junk and AI clutter, uninstalls apps
with their leftovers and finds idle dependencies. See Menu bar app and ZC Care.
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