44 Tools an AI Builder Installs on a New Mac, From Terminal to Agent Workflows
A new-machine setup list that skips the usual "install your favorite editor" and instead maps the actual toolchain of someone building AI agents, MCP servers, and Cloudflare-deployed projects in 2025. The layer-by-layer structure lets a developer copy the base, then bolt on only what their current project demands.
The list splits into a universal base layer — Xcode CLT, Homebrew, Git + Fork, NVM + pnpm, uv, ripgrep/fd/jq/fzf/bat/delta — and optional layers for AI coding, containers, browser automation, and content processing. The AI layer pairs Claude Code with OpenAI Codex CLI, managed through cmux for multi-agent sessions, and adds MCP Inspector plus a config switcher. Cloudflare work gets Wrangler; multimodal work gets ffmpeg, ImageMagick, 1Capture, and the Doubao input method for voice-to-prompt.
Container tooling is deliberately split: Docker Desktop for GUI convenience, Colima + Docker CLI for a lighter Homebrew-native setup. Playwright is treated as a per-project dependency, not a global install. System maintenance tools like Mole (disk analysis) and UU Remote round out the stack with warnings about previewing deletions and restricting permissions.
Three ready-made combos are provided: a general AI builder stack centered on Cursor, a Cloudflare/indie-dev variant that adds Wrangler and containers, and a multimodal variant that layers on media processing tools. The guidance is pragmatic — don't install containers until a project needs them, don't migrate from VS Code just for AI features, and manage API keys separately even when using a config switcher.
The list reflects a shift in developer toolchains where AI coding agents are now first-class installs alongside Git and a package manager, not experimental add-ons.
Pairing Claude Code with Codex CLI and a session manager like cmux suggests multi-model workflows are becoming the norm — different agents for different tasks, running concurrently.
Treating Playwright as per-project rather than global is a small but telling detail: it signals that browser automation is now a routine project dependency, not a specialized QA tool.
The explicit split between Docker Desktop and Colima acknowledges that many macOS developers are moving away from Docker Desktop's resource footprint and licensing changes toward lighter, CLI-native alternatives.
Voice input via Doubao for prompting is a distinctly Chinese-market workflow that has no obvious Western equivalent in developer toolchains, highlighting a regional difference in how multimodal AI is integrated into daily work.