Show Notes
A quick, punchy rundown of practical tweaks to modernize your dev environment—no fluff, just what works.
Window management
- Level 1: Rectangle for manual window tiling.
- Level 2: Aerospace (window manager) to auto-align apps into preset layouts.
- Use case: dedicate workspaces (e.g., Chrome vs. Chrome Canary) to keep dev tools tidy and reproducible.
- Quick note: you can trigger the layout with a keystroke; the setup can be overspecified, so start small.
Keyboard automation and macros
- Create a hyper key with Caps Lock and map common actions to simple keys.
- Tool: Karabiner-Elements (import templates, add predefined rules).
- Practical bindings:
- Caps+1 → product requirement prompt
- Caps+2 → debugging prompt
- Why it helps: reduces copy-paste frictions, keeps your hands on the keyboard.
- Quick setup tip:
- In Karabiner-Elements, add a predefined rule, then import templates from the internet, and bind a couple of prompts to Caps plus a number.
Screenshot and capture workflow
- Tool: Shotter ( Shottr in practice) for annotated screenshots.
- Features to use:
- Callouts, color changes, blur for sensitive data
- OCR hotkey to grab text from a page
- Save to clipboard automatically for quick AI-fed images
- Takeaway: a capable, pay-for tool beats endless free versions for production work.
Vim-style navigation in Cursor
- Cursor + Vim emulation lets you stay keyboard-centric.
- Key concepts:
- Vimium-like hotkeys show up via a prompt (press a trigger to view shortcuts)
- Harpoon for pinning files (navigate between pins)
- Classic Vim motions (J/K to move, D I to delete inside nested structures)
- Practical tips:
- Use the built-in Vim motions to reduce mouse usage
- Enable Vim emulation in Cursor via Extensions
Prompting and AI workflow (hotkeys and agents)
- Hotkeys to trigger AI prompts (hyper key approach helps you avoid context switching)
- Tools mentioned:
- Whisper Flow for speech-to-text pacing (write more naturally)
- Descript for screencasting and editing
- Loom for quick workplace videos
- Warp vs Ghosty: choosing when you want AI to assist vs when you want full manual control
- Takeaway: have a few reliable prompts ready (PRDs, debugging, etc.) so you can invoke AI at the right moment rather than constantly asking for help.
Dotfiles, ZSH, and shell polish
- Dotfiles repository: a personal scaffolding you refine over time
- ZSH setup with:
- Starship prompt for a clean, fast CLI look
- Auto-suggestions and syntax highlighting
- Small, focused functions (e.g., n to bootstrap a new project)
- New project helper example:
- n → sets up a project with Turbo, Tailwind, TypeScript, Bun, no ESLint, biome init, etc.
- Helper concepts:
- Use dollar signs in paths for cross-machine consistency
- Tweak a workflow piece at a time; don’t try to carry the entire farm at once
TMux, navigation, and cross-tool harmony
- TMux with a plugin manager (tpm) and tmux-navigator to sync pane navigation with Vim-like shortcuts
- Vim + TMux navigation mirrors across environments, reducing context switches
- Practical pointers:
- Keep a minimal TMux setup; one or two handy panes is enough to start
- If you rely on a Vim setup inside Cursor, ensure the Vim navigation plugins line up with TMux navigation
Notes on structure and mindset
- Dotfiles are personal experiments; start with one piece you want to replicate and build from there
- The real win is knowing when to drive with AI and when to take the wheel
- Your goal: a stable, repeatable setup that accelerates you, not a perfect, sprawling lab
Takeaways
- Start with window management automation to remove layout friction.
- Bind a few hyper-key prompts to reduce copy-paste and context switching.
- Pick a solid screenshot+annotation tool and lean into OCR for AI-friendly workflows.
- Use Vim-style navigation in Cursor to stay keyboard-first; learn the core motions.
- Build a lean dotfiles workflow with a strong shell prompt and a small, repeatable project bootstrap.
- Use TMux navigation to keep you productive across splits and terminals.
- Treat your setup as an evolving system: iterate, don’t overfit, ship one improvement at a time.
Links
- Rectangle (window manager)
- Aerospace (tiling window manager for macOS)
- Karabiner-Elements (macOS key remapping)
- Shottr (screenshot tool)
- Cursor (AI coding assistant)
- Vimium (hotkey-driven browsing)
- Harpoon (Vim-style file pinning)
- Starship (shell prompt)
- Zsh
- tmux
- tmux plugin manager (tpm)
- vim-tmux-navigator
- Ghostty (terminal emulator)
- Descript
- Loom
- Warp
- Obsidian
If you want the exact dotfiles or a starter template, check the creator’s GitHub for the dotfiles repo and forks.