The kit and software I use every day.

I get asked now and then what I use to build things. Here's the current setup — the machine, the tools, and the bits and pieces that keep the work moving.

Workstation

  • Mac mini (M4 Pro, 24GB RAM)

    My main machine — small, silent, and plenty of power for client sites and product work.

  • 32” external monitor

    The main display. Enough room to keep the editor, the browser and the terminal all in view at once.

  • 16” second monitor

    A second screen off to the side for docs, reference, and anything I want to keep half an eye on.

  • Apple Magic Keyboard

    Low-profile and tidy — keeps the desk clean.

  • Apple Magic Mouse

    Whatever the internet thinks of it, I get on with it fine.

  • Sit-stand desk

    So I'm not glued to the chair all day. I switch to standing when I need a reset.

Development

  • VS Code

    My editor of choice. A handful of extensions, a calm theme, and not much else.

  • Claude

    My pair programmer for the fiddly bits — it takes the boilerplate so I can think about the hard parts.

  • Osaurus

    For running local LLMs on the Mac when I'd rather not send everything off to the cloud.

  • Cloudflare

    Where a lot of my sites live now — static at the edge, fast and cheap to run.

  • Vercel

    For the Next.js apps — push a branch, get a preview URL, ship when it's ready.

  • Netlify

    Still my go-to for quick static sites and the odd client deploy.

Productivity

  • Things 3

    Every task, project and half-formed idea lives here. The one app I couldn't work without.

  • Mimestream

    A proper native Gmail client for the Mac — fast, keyboard-first, and out of the way.