Rebuilding Mac setups from config instead of cloning them
A roughly 75-person all-Mac workplace runs into broken developer setups whenever new laptops are upgraded with . The copied setup brings over Homebrew, nvm, and other version managers, but the does not work cleanly after the move.
The planned re is to stop cloning machines and rebuild each Mac from . A shared would hold a Brewfile and script for the common base setup, while each developer’s personal dotfiles would be added with chezmoi.
Iru would trigger the setup, secrets would stay in 1Password, and personal data would move through . The main open questions are what breaks during the move from cloning to rebuilding, whether Ansible or Nix is worth the extra complexity, how to keep personal differences manageable, and how Iru should start the setup process.
Key points
- can carry over a Mac development setup but leave tools like Homebrew, nvm, and version managers broken.
- The proposed approach is to rebuild a fresh Mac from a Brewfile and script instead of cloning the old one.
- Personal settings would be managed separately with dotfiles and chezmoi.
- Secrets would live in 1Password, while normal files would move through .
- Ansible and Nix may help at larger scale, but they can add complexity for a small .