Laptop setup · do this before kickoff
One command. Go get a snack.
Paste one line into your terminal and your laptop installs everything we build with: PHP, Flutter, Node, an emulator, the works. It's about 20 GB, so run it at home on good Wi‑Fi a few days early. When it prints ✅ Done, screenshot it and send it to us.
Open Terminal (⌘ Space, type "Terminal"), paste, Enter.
curl -fsSL https://monkeybars.dev/mac | bashIt will ask for your Mac password once so Homebrew can install things. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Before you climb on
The script checks all of these first and stops with a plain‑English fix if one fails. Save yourself a round trip:
~40 GB free disk
Emulators and SDKs are big. Empty the Downloads folder, you know the one.
Recent macOS
Current Xcode needs a recent macOS. Run Software Update first if you’ve been putting it off.
Signed in to an Apple ID
System Settings → Apple ID. Xcode is fetched with your Apple account (no App Store queue).
Power + Wi‑Fi
Plug in and stay on a fast connection. Budget 30 to 60 minutes.
What lands on your laptop
| Tool | Mac | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| Herd ProPHP, Composer, local sites | Yes | Yes |
| TablePlusDatabase GUI | Yes | Yes |
| Flutter via fvmPinned Flutter version per project | Yes | Yes |
| Node via nvmnpm included (nvm‑windows on PC) | Yes | Yes |
| ExposeShare a local site over the internet | Yes | Yes |
| Android Studio + SDKPlus one ready‑to‑go emulator | Yes | Yes |
| Xcode + iOS SimulatoriPhone testing | Yes | not possible |
What the script actually does
- 1
Pre‑flight checks
macOS version, ~40 GB free, Apple ID signed in. If anything fails it stops right away and tells you exactly what to fix.
- 2
Install everything
Homebrew installs the whole list in one go, and xcodes pulls down Xcode and a simulator runtime without touching the App Store.
- 3
Skip the wizards
Accepts the Android SDK licenses, installs platform‑tools and one system image, creates an emulator, boots a simulator once, runs fvm install stable and nvm install --lts. All the first‑run screens people get stuck on.
- 4
Prove it worked
Clones the starter project into ~/playground/starter, prints ✅ Done and the exact commands to run it.
Prove it worked
The script clones the starter project for you. Open a fresh terminal and run:
cd ~/playground/starter
fvm flutter runPick the iOS Simulator or the Android emulator when it asks for a device; both exist now. If a hello‑world app shows up, you're done. Screenshot the ✅ Done line and the running app, and send both to your mentor.
The one manual step
License keys: Herd Pro, TablePlus, Expose
The script installs them but can't sign you in. We'll hand out keys and enter them together in the first 30 minutes of kickoff. Don't buy anything.
Fell off the bars?
It stopped with a red message
That's a pre‑flight check. Read the fix it printed, do that, then run the same command again. It picks up where it left off.
It's been an hour and it's still going
Xcode alone is about 12 GB and Apple’s servers are what they are. Leave it. Closing the window is the only way to break it.
Something else
Screenshot the whole terminal window (not just the last line) and post it in the cohort channel. We triage the day before kickoff, and bring installers on a USB drive just in case.