The Stack I Use

Here's the current setup. Most of it is oriented around running AI coding agents effectively — keeping them alive, keeping them connected, and giving them the right context to work with. This isn't a recommendations list. It's what I reach for every day.

CLI Tools

Shell

Oh My Zsh — The standard zsh framework. Makes terminal pretty.

Terminal Multiplexing

tmux — The reason I can kick off an agent run on a remote server, close my laptop, and come back hours later to a session that's been running the whole time. SSH into any machine, attach to the session, and everything is exactly where I left it — output, panes, working directory, all of it. screen technically does some of this, but it feels like it was designed in 1987 and nobody told it the world moved on. tmux is what you actually want.

AI Coding

Claude Code and Codex — If you're reading this, you know what these are. I run both; they have different strengths and it's worth having each in reach.

Media Processing

ffmpeg — The standard for video and audio manipulation. Nothing replaces it when you need it. Powerful tool that Claude Code can control to make edits to your will.

Mac Desktop Apps

Browser

Brave — Privacy-first, no ads by default, and it runs Chrome extensions. Gets out of the way.

Terminal

Ghostty — A fast, native Mac terminal. GPU-accelerated and minimal.

Notes & Research

Obsidian — Where I do research, but not alone. I use it alongside Claude as a research machine: Claude generates leads, surfaces connections, and synthesises across sources; Obsidian is where those outputs land and get linked together into a knowledge graph I can actually navigate. The combination is surprisingly powerful — Claude draws relationships between ideas, Obsidian makes them persistent and traversable. Research that used to take days compresses significantly.

Communication

Discord — For communities and async conversations. Also where I run Hermes, a personal assistant bot I've been building out.

AI & Local Models

LM Studio — Run open-source LLMs locally. Good for experimentation, offline use, and anything where I don't want data leaving the machine.

Claude — The desktop app. For longer conversations, document work, and anything where a full UI is better than the CLI. Good for housing longer form conversations and research before jumping in to claude code for implementation.

Codex — OpenAI's coding agent in desktop form. Useful to have both Claude and Codex in rotation.

Coding

Cursor — AI-powered editor and my everyday code editor. Not just for the AI features — it's where I live in the codebase, including quick .env edits and anything else that needs direct file access.

Virtualisation

UTM — macOS virtualisation for sandboxed environments. Useful when running automated agents on riskier tasks and I want them contained.

Networking

Tailscale — Zero-config VPN that makes all my devices reachable by name. Running agents across machines is significantly less painful with this in place.

Productivity & System

Amphetamine — Keeps the Macbook awake with the lid closed. Essential when agents are mid-run and I need to move.

CodexBar — Menu bar app that tracks current Codex and Claude quota usage and reset times. Small app, saves a lot of unnecessary tab-switching.

Magnet — Window snapping via keyboard shortcuts. Shouldn't require a third-party app on macOS in 2026, but here we are.

Chrome Extensions

Productivity

GoFullPage — Full-page screenshots with one click. Scrolls and stitches automatically. Useful for capturing designs, documenting references, or sending someone a complete view of a page.

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The setup shifts — when something stops earning its place, it goes. If you're running something interesting that's not here, hello@plainbuilt.co.