What I Use

Primary editor. Fast, extensible, and the ecosystem is unbeatable for TypeScript/Node.

For heavier refactoring sessions where the smarter static analysis pays off.

Terminal with split panes and proper tmux support.

Zsh config framework. Plugins: git, zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-syntax-highlighting.

My primary backend runtime and framework. TypeScript-first, opinionated enough to scale.

Local Postgres, Redis, and service dependencies without polluting the host.

The best native GUI for Postgres, MySQL, and Redis. Native macOS, snappy.

API testing and collection sharing across teams.

Postman alternative — stores collections as files in the repo, no cloud sync required.

Architecture docs, ADRs, and project notes.

Issue tracking. The fastest issue tracker I've used — keyboard-first and opinionated.

Spotlight replacement. Script commands, clipboard history, window management.

Password manager, SSH key management, and secrets in the CLI.

UI mockups and component handoff. I read Figma more than I write it.

Quick system design diagrams. Whiteboard feel, exports cleanly.

More formal architecture diagrams and ERDs when documentation matters.

ECS Fargate, RDS, ElastiCache, SQS, S3, CloudFront, Secrets Manager.

For Next.js frontends and this site. Zero-config deploys, edge functions.

CI/CD pipelines — lint, test, build, deploy. Keeps the workflow in the repo.

APM, distributed tracing, and log aggregation in production.

Apple Silicon. The battery life and performance-per-watt is hard to beat for dev work.

Wide display for side-by-side editor + terminal + browser.

Tactile switches. The single best quality-of-life upgrade for a developer.