the-stack
The real 19Keys tool stack — forensically inventoried straight off the machine (brew formulae, brew casks, /Applications, npm globals, Claude skills, cloned external repos, MCP servers, Ollama models). Not a listicle of "tools I heard about." This is what is actually installed and actually gets used.
The philosophy underneath it: build, don't spend. Own the machine. Self-host what you can. Reach for an open-source or local tool before a subscription. Where a paid or hosted service is genuinely the right call (Vercel, Supabase, Cloudflare), it's here too — sovereignty means choosing your dependencies on purpose, not avoiding them on principle.
Every entry below links to the tool's official site or canonical repo. Install commands are given where there's a real one-liner.
Terminal & CLI power tools
Installed via Homebrew. Pure library dependencies (brotli, cairo, giflib, ca-certificates, etc.) are skipped — this is the user-facing layer only.
| Tool | What it is | Install |
|---|---|---|
| bat | cat clone with syntax highlighting and git integration |
brew install bat |
| btop | Resource monitor (CPU/mem/disk/net) with a terminal UI | brew install btop |
| bun | Fast all-in-one JavaScript runtime, bundler, and package manager | brew install bun |
| eza | Modern replacement for ls, with git status and icons |
brew install eza |
| fd | Fast, friendly alternative to find |
brew install fd |
| ffmpeg / ffmpeg-full | The video/audio conversion and processing engine everything else is built on | brew install ffmpeg |
| fzf | Command-line fuzzy finder for files, history, and processes | brew install fzf |
| gh | Official GitHub CLI — PRs, issues, releases from the terminal | brew install gh |
| cloudflared | Cloudflare Tunnel client — expose a local server without opening ports | brew install cloudflared |
| flyctl | CLI for deploying apps to Fly.io | brew install flyctl |
| gnupg | GPG — encryption and signing (commit signing, secrets) | brew install gnupg |
| claude-squad | Terminal app for running multiple AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, etc.) in parallel isolated sessions | brew install claude-squad |
| engram | Persistent memory layer for AI coding agents — SQLite-backed recall across sessions, MCP server included | brew install engram |
| lazygit | Terminal UI for git — stage, commit, branch, rebase without leaving the keyboard | brew install lazygit |
| neovim | Extensible, terminal-based text editor | brew install neovim |
| ripgrep | Extremely fast recursive text search (rg) |
brew install ripgrep |
| starship | Fast, customizable shell prompt | brew install starship |
| tmux | Terminal multiplexer — persistent sessions, split panes | brew install tmux |
| tree-sitter | Incremental parsing library used for code-aware syntax highlighting and tooling | brew install tree-sitter |
| zoxide | Smarter cd that learns your most-used directories |
brew install zoxide |
| shellcheck | Static analysis / linter for shell scripts | brew install shellcheck |
| tesseract | OCR engine — pull text out of images and scanned documents | brew install tesseract |
| httrack | Website copier — mirror a site to disk for offline study | brew install httrack |
| supabase (CLI) | Local dev, migrations, and project management for Supabase | brew install supabase/tap/supabase |
| terminal-notifier | Send macOS notifications from the command line (used to flag when a long job finishes) | brew install terminal-notifier |
| zsh-autosuggestions | Fish-style command autosuggestions for zsh | brew install zsh-autosuggestions |
| zsh-syntax-highlighting | Real-time syntax highlighting for zsh commands as you type | brew install zsh-syntax-highlighting |
Apps
The GUI layer. Installed from the App Store or a direct download.
| Tool | What it is | Install |
|---|---|---|
| Obsidian + Obsidian Web Clipper | Local-first markdown knowledge base; the clipper saves web pages straight into the vault | Download from site |
| Notion | Docs, wikis, and databases in one workspace | Download from site |
| Bear | Fast native macOS/iOS markdown notes app | App Store |
| Docker | Container runtime — packages and runs services in isolated environments | Download from site |
| DaVinci Resolve | Professional color grading, editing, and audio post — free tier is genuinely pro-grade | Download from site |
| Descript | Edit video/audio by editing the transcript; screen recording and podcast tools | Download from site |
| OBS | Free, open-source screen recording and live streaming | brew install --cask obs |
| Tailscale | Zero-config mesh VPN — private network between all your machines | Download from site |
| Telegram | Messaging app; also the transport for several bot integrations in this stack | Download from site |
| Claude | Anthropic's desktop app for Claude | Download from site |
| ChatGPT | OpenAI's desktop app for ChatGPT | Download from site |
| Proton Mail Bridge | Lets standard mail clients talk to end-to-end encrypted Proton Mail | Download from site |
| Pixelmator Pro | Native macOS image editor — a real Photoshop alternative | App Store |
Local AI
Runs on-machine, no API key required, no data leaving the laptop.
| Tool | What it is | Install |
|---|---|---|
| Ollama | Runs open LLMs locally; simplest way to self-host inference | brew install ollama |
| — llama3.2:3b | Small general-purpose chat/completion model, pulled via Ollama | ollama pull llama3.2:3b |
| — nomic-embed-text | Text embedding model for local semantic search / RAG | ollama pull nomic-embed-text |
| whisper.cpp | C++ port of OpenAI Whisper — fast local speech-to-text, no cloud call | brew install whisper-cpp |
| Chatterbox | Open-source text-to-speech / voice cloning by Resemble AI, runs locally | See repo for setup |
| mlx-audio | Audio generation and TTS on Apple Silicon via Apple's MLX framework | pip install mlx-audio |
| LM Studio | GUI for downloading and running local LLMs — an option alongside Ollama | Download from site |
MCP servers & agent infrastructure
MCP (Model Context Protocol) is the open standard that lets an AI agent call out to external tools and data sources — it's how Claude Code (or any MCP-compatible client) gets hands on a filesystem, a database, a design tool, or a browser instead of just talking.
| Server | What it connects the agent to |
|---|---|
| Desktop Commander | Filesystem, process, and terminal control on the local machine |
| Engram memory — see engram above | Persistent memory across agent sessions |
| Figma MCP | Reads design files, components, and variables directly from Figma |
| Supabase MCP | Runs migrations, queries, and project admin against a Supabase project |
| ElevenLabs | Text-to-speech, voice cloning, sound effects generation |
| Shopify | Store, product, and order operations against a Shopify shop |
| Gamma | Generates and edits slide decks and documents |
| Webflow | Reads and edits Webflow site structure, CMS, and styles |
| Playwright-based browser tools — see Playwright | Drives a real browser: navigate, click, read page content, screenshot |
| Higgsfield | AI image, video, and audio generation studio — the tool behind every cover image on this hub. Join the Academy + set up the MCP → /higgsfield-setup |
| Canva | Generates and edits Canva designs, brand templates, and exports |
| Hugging Face | Model, dataset, paper, and Space search across the HF Hub |
| container-use | Gives each agent an isolated containerized dev environment |
| Docker MCP Toolkit | Docker Desktop's gateway that runs a whole catalog of MCP servers in containers |
Open-source repos studied or adopted
Cloned locally for reference, forking, or direct reuse.
| Repo | What it is |
|---|---|
| gbrain by Garry Tan | Self-wiring knowledge-graph memory layer for AI agents |
| palmier-pro | Open-source AI-native macOS video editor |
| clipsai | Python library that automatically turns long video into short clips |
| colly | Go web-scraping and crawling framework |
| taste-skill | Skill files that push AI-generated frontends away from generic "AI slop" toward real design taste |
| system.css | CSS design system for retro classic-Mac-style interfaces |
| AI-Youtube-Shorts-Generator | Open-source long-form-to-shorts pipeline: highlight detection, Whisper transcription, auto vertical crop |
| postiz-app | Self-hostable, open-source social media scheduling and analytics platform |
| build-your-own-x | Curated guides for building your own database, web server, shell, etc. from scratch |
| hermes-agent by Nous Research | Open-source self-improving AI agent with a persistent skill-learning loop — setup guide at /ai-agents-setup |
| OpenClaw ("Clawd") | Always-on personal agent gateway: persistent memory, Telegram/WhatsApp/Discord channels, runs as a daemon on your own hardware — setup guide at /ai-agents-setup |
| TimesFM | Google Research's pretrained time-series forecasting model |
| RuView by rUv | Turns ordinary WiFi into a contactless sensor — reads Channel State Information off cheap ESP32 nodes to detect presence, breathing, heart rate, falls, and room activity through walls, no cameras or wearables. Edge-only, no cloud, MIT. |
| lenis | Buttery smooth-scroll library — this very site's scroll runs on it |
| react-bits | Large collection of animated, ready-to-paste React UI components |
| GSAP | The industry-standard web animation library; fully free since the Webflow acquisition, plugins included |
| vanta | Animated 3D WebGL backgrounds (waves, fog, birds, net) you drop into any page |
| liquid-glass-carousel by Yousuf Soomro | Infinite scroll-driven portfolio carousel in three.js + GSAP, drawn through a liquid-glass lens shader — chromatic dispersion, shimmer ring, fluid rim. Carousel core is framework-free plain JS. MIT code, but its demo images are Behance work and are not MIT — swap them before shipping. See /design-stack |
| thinking-orbs by Jakub Antalik | React "AI is thinking" loaders — dotted thought-orbs with six tuned states, two sizes, auto dark/light. Drop-in for chat/agent UIs. Demo |
| transitions.dev by Jakub Antalik | 21 free, portable pure-CSS transitions — dropdowns, modals, page slides, success checks, error shakes, staggered reveals. Namespaced t-*, reduced-motion guarded, drop into any project. Demo · installable as a Claude Code skill. |
| ponytail by Dietrich Gebert | The "lazy senior dev" skill — makes coding agents write the minimal solution that works (native <input type="date"> over a flatpickr wrapper). Works across ~20 agents; installed globally here. Honest agentic benchmark: −54% LOC / −22% tokens / 100% safety preserved (Haiku 4.5, n=4) |
| codex-plugin-cc by OpenAI | Claude Code plugin that delegates coding, review, and diagnosis to the Codex / GPT-5 CLI on your own machine — a second-opinion reviewer and task-runner inside your agent. Installed here; uses your local Codex sign-in. |
| humanizer by Siqi Chen | Portable skill that strips the tells of AI writing — em-dash overuse, rule-of-three, "not just X but Y," inflated symbolism, filler — from Wikipedia's Signs of AI writing. Plain Markdown, runs in any agent; installed globally here. Best on your own copy, not as a fact-preserving rewriter. |
Cloud services
Hosted infrastructure used on purpose, where self-hosting isn't the right tradeoff yet.
| Service | Role in the stack |
|---|---|
| Vercel | Hosting and deploys for frontend/Next.js projects |
| Supabase | Postgres database, auth, and storage backend |
| Cloudflare Tunnel | Exposes local services to the internet securely, no port forwarding |
| Tailscale | Private mesh network across every machine in the fleet |
| ElevenLabs | Cloud text-to-speech and voice generation when local TTS isn't enough |
| Twelve Labs | Video understanding and search API for the long-form video library |
Design & polish references
The taste layer — the sources that shape how our surfaces feel, not just what they do.
| Reference | What it teaches |
|---|---|
| Motion | The animation library (formerly Framer Motion) behind premium React micro-interactions |
| Amicro — Micro-transitions | Curated, paste-ready React transition components powered by Motion |
| "Make Your App Look & Feel 10x Better" cheatsheet by Satya / Kree8.studio | 8 rules for premium feel: purposeful motion, never-empty empty states, physical/acknowledged actions, icon consistency, perceived speed, human copy. Applied live across this hub. |
| GSAP · Lenis | The motion engine + smooth scroll this hub runs on (see them above) |
Start here
New to this stack and don't know where to begin? Install these five first, in this order:
- git — version control, the foundation everything else sits on
- A real terminal setup — see /terminal-setup on this archive
- Claude Code — the AI coding agent this whole workflow is built around
- Ollama — local AI, no API key needed — see /local-ai-setup
- Obsidian — your second brain — see /obsidian-second-brain
Everything else in this table is optional, situational, or swap-in-later. These five are not.