Automated backup for macOS dev environments

Time Machine is great for general backups, but it doesn’t solve the problem of knowing what matters in a developer setup. This script does.

The problem: Before a clean macOS reinstall, I needed to make sure everything important was captured — not just files, but configuration, package lists, credentials, and the various pieces of state scattered across a developer machine.

What it backs up:

The script runs through each category systematically:

  • SSH keys — copies ~/.ssh/ and warns if any key lacks a passphrase
  • Dotfiles — .zshrc, .zprofile, .gitconfig, .npmrc, and other configuration
  • Claude agent configs — the full ~/.claude/ directory with agents, memory structures, and skills
  • Homebrew — formulas, casks, taps, and a full Brewfile for one-command restore via brew bundle install
  • LaunchAgents — property lists for background services
  • VS Code / Cursor — extension lists, settings, keybindings, and snippets
  • npm / Python / pyenv — global packages and version lists
  • Docker — lists volumes and prints exact dump commands for each (doesn’t auto-dump due to potential size)
  • Git repos — checks for uncommitted changes rather than copying entire repos

At the end, it prints a manual checklist for things a script can’t automate — deactivating licensed apps, signing out of iCloud, disabling Find My Mac.

Stack: Bash