Setup Mac

Automatically install environment and development tools for your machine.

Prerequisites

1. Apple command line tools — run xcode-select --install.
2. Homebrew — run /bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)".
3. Ansible — run brew install ansible.

Installation

1. Clone this repo: git clone https://github.com/huynextlevel/setup-mac
2. Run ansible-playbook -i hosts.yml ansible.yml

The playbook will prompt for your sudo password once at the start (handled via vars_prompt in ansible/initialize.yml); no need to pass --ask-become-pass.

Optional: setup MacBook as a local server

Run this only when you want to turn a machine into a local server (prevent sleep on lid close, enable SSH, install + configure Tailscale). It is not part of the main flow — invoke it manually when needed:

ansible-playbook -i hosts.yml ansible/server.yml

Notes:

• Heat: a closed-lid machine that keeps running will accumulate heat — place it on a ventilated stand.
• FileVault: if enabled, after reboot the machine is stuck at the unlock screen and SSH is unreachable until manually unlocked. Consider disabling it on a server-only machine.
• Tailscale key expiry: disable it in the admin console, otherwise the machine will disconnect after ~180 days.
• The first time Tailscale runs, it requires auth — the playbook prints a sudo tailscale up ... command. Run that, log in via browser, then re-run the playbook to verify.

What gets installed

Folders

• ~/Sources
• ~/Projects

Homebrew packages

• git
• openssl
• pnpm

Shell environment

• zsh set as the default shell
• oh-my-zsh cloned to ~/Sources/oh-my-zsh (symlinked from ~/.oh-my-zsh)
• Plugins: zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-syntax-highlighting
• Theme: Powerlevel10k cloned to ~/powerlevel10k
• Fonts: MesloLGS NF (Regular / Bold / Italic / Bold Italic) installed to ~/Library/Fonts/ — required for p10k icons. Set this as the font in your terminal (iTerm2 → Preferences → Profiles → Text → Font).
• Static configs deployed to home: ~/.zshrc, ~/.p10k.zsh
• Homebrew shellenv appended to ~/.zshrc

Node toolchain

• nvm v0.40.4 installed to ~/.nvm
• Node 20.19.4 installed via nvm and set as default
• eas-cli installed globally via npm

React Native (ansible/react-native.yml)

• watchman
• cocoapods
• zulu@17 (OpenJDK 17 cask)
• JAVA_HOME, ANDROID_HOME, and Android emulator / platform-tools PATH entries appended to ~/.zshrc

Local server (ansible/server.yml, opt-in)

• pmset settings: disable sleep / disk sleep / Power Nap, enable Wake-on-LAN, auto-restart on power failure
• systemsetup -setremotelogin on (SSH)
• tailscale-app cask