my current local dev setup in april 2026

a few months ago i was still using windows for development. i decided to switch to linux because everyone kept saying it was “meant for developers”. i tried mint, ubuntu, and fedora first. eventually i landed on arch linux and stuck with it because of the flexibility and freedom it gives.

terminal

i mainly use kitty as my terminal emulator. i like it because it’s minimal, highly customizable, and doesn’t have any annoying context menus or extra stuff. sometimes i also use gnome terminal. my shell is zsh, and i manage configurations through my dotfiles for things like autocomplete and theming.

editor

my primary editor is vscode. i keep it very minimal i only have the github theme and the official golang extension installed. when i need to quickly edit a single file without opening the whole project, i just use plain nano which is often pre-installed on linux.

languages and tools

these are the main things i work with every day:

• languages: nodejs, go, python
• package managers: npm, pnpm, go modules, pip
• databases: mongodb, postgresql, supabase
• other cli tools: vercel cli
• browser: chrome (for testing)

i don’t use docker or any container tools yet, but i’m considering adding them soon.

daily workflow

when i’m working, i usually have multiple kitty windows open. one for running the dev server, another for git operations and installing modules.

the command i run the most is gitaid, it's my own simple git ai assistant daemon which i created with golang. you can check it out here: gitaid on github

one thing that improved my life recently: i was tired of entering git credentials every time i pulled or pushed. gemini suggested switching from https to ssh. i set it up once and now authentication just works. small change, but it feels much smoother on linux.

that’s my current local dev setup in april 2026. nothing fancy or over-engineered just the tools and setup that help me get work done every day.