Dev Environment Setup

The exact setup I use across all my projects. Reproducible, fast, low-maintenance.

What you'll get

• Node version manager (no more nvm use pain)
• pnpm for fast installs
• VS Code extensions that actually help
• Git hooks that catch bugs before CI does

Node with fnm

I switched from nvm to fnm — same idea, 40× faster.

# macOS
brew install fnm

# Linux / WSL
curl -fsSL https://fnm.vercel.app/install | bash

Add to your shell (~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc):

eval "$(fnm env --use-on-cd)"

Now create a .node-version file in each project:

20.11.0

fnm will switch versions automatically when you cd in.

pnpm

npm install -g pnpm

The only package.json change needed:

{
  "packageManager": "pnpm@8.15.0"
}

Project scaffold

Every new project starts from the same justfile:

# justfile

default:
  just --list

dev:
  pnpm dev

db-push:
  pnpm prisma db push

db-studio:
  pnpm prisma studio

lint:
  pnpm eslint . && pnpm tsc --noEmit

deploy:
  git push dokku main

Install just: brew install just

Git hooks with lefthook

pnpm add -D lefthook

lefthook.yml:

pre-commit:
  parallel: true
  commands:
    lint:
      glob: "*.{ts,tsx}"
      run: pnpm eslint {staged_files}
    types:
      run: pnpm tsc --noEmit

pre-push:
  commands:
    tests:
      run: pnpm test --passWithNoTests

pnpm lefthook install

Done — commits won't go through if lint or types fail.

VS Code settings

.vscode/settings.json (commit this):

{
  "editor.formatOnSave": true,
  "editor.defaultFormatter": "esbenp.prettier-vscode",
  "editor.codeActionsOnSave": {
    "source.fixAll.eslint": true
  },
  "typescript.preferences.importModuleSpecifier": "non-relative"
}

Recommended extensions (.vscode/extensions.json):

{
  "recommendations": [
    "esbenp.prettier-vscode",
    "dbaeumer.vscode-eslint",
    "prisma.prisma",
    "bradlc.vscode-tailwindcss"
  ]
}