a quietly opinionated macOS workflow

Nadeem Shabir · Staff Engineer at BibliU

Editor · Shell · Window Manager · Status Bar · Terminals · Hyper Key · Borders · About

A keyboard-driven macOS setup built around Neovim (Lua), Nushell, AeroSpace, and SketchyBar. Tokyo Night palette, JetBrains Mono everywhere, one Hyper key to rule them all.

The Stack

Layer	Tool	Why
Editor	Neovim · Lua	Native LSP, lazy.nvim, no VimScript
Shell	Nushell	Structured data, real types, sane completions
Window manager	AeroSpace	Tiling, persistent workspaces, scriptable
Status bar	SketchyBar	Per-pixel control; no Apple menu compromises
Terminals	Ghostty + WezTerm	GPU-accelerated, identical Catppuccin look
Keyboard	Karabiner-Elements	§ → Hyper
Borders	JankyBorders	Active/inactive window outlines
History	Atuin + zoxide	Encrypted shared history; frecency cd

Install

git clone https://github.com/kiyanwang/dotfiles ~/dotfiles
cd ~/dotfiles
./bootstrap.sh

bootstrap.sh installs Homebrew, every tool above, nvm, and the Rust toolchain — then symlinks each subdirectory into the place its tool expects to find it:

dotfiles/nushell/    → ~/Library/Application Support/nushell/
dotfiles/nvim/       → ~/.config/nvim/
dotfiles/aerospace/  → ~/.aerospace.toml
dotfiles/ghostty/    → ~/.config/ghostty/
dotfiles/karabiner/  → ~/.config/karabiner/

Karabiner-Elements and AeroSpace need accessibility permissions in System Settings → Privacy & Security before they'll wake up properly.

VimScript and CoC are out. The whole config is Lua, lazy-loaded, and uses Neovim 0.11's native LSP API.

• lazy.nvim plugin manager with a committed lockfile
• Native LSP via vim.lsp.config / vim.lsp.enable — no CoC
• Mason auto-installs servers: ts_ls, lua_ls, jsonls, yamlls, bashls, eslint, intelephense, dockerls, ansiblels, cssls, html. Nushell LSP via nu --lsp.
• nvim-cmp + LuaSnip with the supertab pattern
• Telescope (fzf-native, ui-select, undo) for anything findable
• Conform formats on save — prettier, stylua, php-cs-fixer
• Treesitter for syntax + textobjects, Gitsigns, Flash, Which-Key
• Catppuccin Mocha, transparent, alpha-nvim dashboard

Keymap

Keys	What
jj	exit insert mode
,w	save
,ff / ,fg	find file / live grep
// / ??	live grep / word under cursor
gd / gr / K	definition / references / hover
,rn / ,a	rename / code actions
[d / ]d	previous / next diagnostic
,gg	lazygit in a new tab
Tab	completion (supertab)
Ctrl-h/j/k/l	move between splits and tmux panes

Bash is gone. Everything is structured data — ls returns rows, ps returns rows, http get returns parsed JSON. Pipelines read like queries:

ps | where cpu > 5 | sort-by cpu --reverse | first 10

• zoxide for z jumps
• atuin for shared, encrypted, fzf-style history
• eza powering ll and tree
• Homebrew + nvm's default Node bin on PATH (set in env.nu so zoxide init can find them)
• vi / vim / view all alias to nvim — no muscle memory tax

Aliases worth knowing

Alias / command	Does
ll [path]	ls -a sorted by type and name
tree	eza --tree --level=2 --long --icons --git
whatsmyip	http get ipecho.net/plain
clc	claude --allow-dangerously-skip-permissions --chrome

Tiling, scriptable, no SIP disable. Workspaces 1–6 live on the main monitor, 7–9 on the secondary. They persist whether they hold windows or not. Mouse follows focus across monitors.

Why ctrl-alt-cmd-shift and not plain alt-1..9? UK ISO keyboards type # on alt-3. So workspace switching moved to Hyper (via the § key), freeing alt-3 to actually type a hash.

Keymap

Keys	Action
alt-h/j/k/l	focus left / down / up / right
alt-shift-h/j/k/l	move window
alt-shift-1..9	move window to workspace
ctrl-alt-cmd-shift-1..9	switch workspace (Hyper-1..9 via Karabiner)
alt-tab	last workspace
alt-y	toggle floating ↔ tiling
alt-/ / alt-,	tiles ↔ accordion layout
alt-f	fullscreen
alt-= / alt--	resize
alt-enter	new Ghostty window
alt-shift-enter	new WezTerm window
alt-b	new Chrome window
alt-shift-;	enter service mode (r reset, f float, ← close-others, joins)

Apple's menu bar is non-negotiable about layout. SketchyBar isn't.

• Workspace pills, grouped: [ 7 8 9 │ 1 2 3 4 5 6 ]. Active workspace highlights on whichever monitor it lives on.
• Front-app pill with the app's icon glyph (sketchybar-app-font).
• Volume slider on hover, scroll-to-adjust, click to open Sound settings.
• Mic mute toggle, battery, RAM, CPU.
• Clock formatted Thu 2 Apr · 14:32.
• Tokyo Night palette, blurred background, rounded brackets.

Workspace updates trigger from AeroSpace via sketchybar --trigger aerospace_workspace_change.

Same face on both. Catppuccin Macchiato, SauceCodePro Nerd Font, 80% opacity with blur, blinking red block cursor, hidden titlebar.

• alt-enter → new Ghostty window (via osascript so it actually opens a new window, not just focuses)
• alt-shift-enter → new WezTerm window

Ghostty is the daily driver. WezTerm comes out for SSH multiplexing or Lua-scripted layouts.

The trick: I never use § (the section sign). On UK ISO Macs it sits where US keyboards put backtick. Karabiner remaps it to Hyper = ctrl + opt + shift + cmd — a chord nothing else binds.

• Tap § → ` (you still get a backtick)
• Hold § → Hyper modifier

Works on the Keychron and the built-in MacBook ISO keyboard — the laptop reports § as non_us_backslash, so there's a device-scoped manipulator for that case.

Round corners. Active red #f7768e. Inactive blue #7aa2f7. Subtle — the sort of thing you only stop noticing because it's always right.

Aesthetic

	Token	Hex
	bg	#1a1b26 Tokyo Night
	accent	#7aa2f7 blue
	highlight	#f7768e salmon
	site	#ff8400 orange (kiyanwang.github.io)

Code in JetBrains Mono, terminals in SauceCodePro Nerd Font.

About

Built and maintained by Nadeem Shabir — Staff Engineer at BibliU. Platform builder, team grower, occasional startup advisor.

→ kiyanwang.github.io → github.com/kiyanwang

MIT — see LICENSE.