👢 Strap

A script to bootstrap a minimal macOS development system with the minimal set of settings and software every macOS developer will want.

Motivation

Replacing Boxen in GitHub with a better tool (see mikemcquaid.com/replacing-boxen).

☕️ Workbrew

In 2023 I started a company, ☕️ Workbrew, to provide the missing features and support for companies using Homebrew.
Workbrew is now available in public beta and has a Workbrew Bootstrap feature that’s basically Strap v2.
Additionally, Workbrew provides MDM integration, fleet configuration, remote brew command execution and much more.
Please try it out or book a demo.

Features

Enables sudo using TouchID
Enables the macOS screensaver password immediately (for better security)
Enables the macOS application firewall (for better security)
Enables full-disk encryption and saves the FileVault Recovery Key to the Desktop (for better security)
Installs the Xcode Command Line Tools (for compilers and Unix tools)
Agree to the Xcode license (for using compilers without prompts)
Installs Homebrew unless you already have Workbrew installed (for installing software)
Installs the latest macOS software updates (for better security)
Updates dotfiles in a ~/.dotfiles Git repository. If they exist and are executable: runs script/setup to configure the dotfiles and script/strap-after-setup after setting up everything else.
Installs software from a user’s Brewfile in their ~/.homebrew-brewfile Git repository or .Brewfile in their home directory.
Idempotent

Out of Scope Features

Enabling any network services by default (instead enable them when needed)
Installing Homebrew formulae by default for everyone in an organisation (install them with Brewfiles in project repositories instead of mandating formulae for the whole organisation)
Opting-out of any macOS updates (Apple’s security updates and macOS updates are there for a reason)
Disabling security features (these are a minimal set of best practises)
Most other things: Strap is now considered feature-complete

Usage

Open strap.mikemcquaid.com in your web browser.

Instead, to run Strap locally run:

git clone https://github.com/MikeMcQuaid/strap
cd strap
bash strap.sh # or bash strap.sh --debug for more debugging output

Instead, to run the web application locally run:

git clone https://github.com/MikeMcQuaid/strap
cd strap
./script/bootstrap
./script/server

Status

Feature complete. No further development planned.

License

Licensed under the AGPLv3 License.
The full license text is available in LICENSE.txt.