👢 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.