Show HN: OpenBoot – 2 commands to replace a 3-hour Mac setup ritual

Setting up a new Mac shouldn't take two hours of your weekend.

openboot.dev

You know the drill. New Mac, same two-hour ritual:

Here's the alternative:

Pick what you need in a terminal UI. Takes minutes. Or snapshot your current Mac and share it—your whole team gets the same setup with one command.

No tracking. No telemetry. Just works.

Fresh project, proven demand — 2 weeks old, already trending on Reddit (100K+ views) and growing fast.

Brewfiles are manual YAML editing. Nix has a brutal learning curve. Shell scripts break silently. Dotfile repos become unmaintainable after six months.

OpenBoot is the first tool that handles everything — packages, dotfiles, shell config, macOS preferences, git identity — in an interactive TUI you can actually navigate. No config files to learn. No YAML to write. Just pick what you need and go.

openboot.dev — if you'd rather click than type commands.

Three starting points. Pick one, adjust in the TUI. Full list →

Most people start with developer and uncheck what they don't need.

Already have a Mac set up the way you like? Save it.

This captures everything: Homebrew packages, macOS settings, shell config, git identity. Upload it to openboot.dev for a shareable URL, or save it locally with --local.

When you restore a snapshot, you get everything back exactly as it was. Docs →

Installed too much? Clean up what's not in your config.

New hire runs one command, gets the same environment as everyone else. Guide →

Make your config on the dashboard, put this in your onboarding docs. When your stack changes, update the config. The install command stays the same.

Or with the one-line installer:

Do I need anything installed first?

macOS 12.0 or newer. Homebrew if you have it, but the installer will get it for you if not.

What if I already have some of these tools?

It checks what's installed and skips anything you already have.

Is my data tracked?

No. No telemetry, no analytics. Code is open source, check for yourself.

📖 openboot.dev/docs — Quick Start · Presets · Snapshot · Custom Configs · Teams

Bug reports and feature requests: open an issue. Pull requests welcome.

openboot.dev · Dashboard · Docs · Dotfiles template

License: MIT