macfig

macOS hidden defaults manager — browse, search, and apply system preferences with presets from the terminal.

Install

brew tap lu-zhengda/tap
brew install macfig

Usage

$ macfig list
Categories:

  🚢 Dock  (10 settings)
  📁 Finder  (9 settings)
  📷 Screenshots  (5 settings)
  💻 Keyboard  (6 settings)
  🤚 Trackpad  (3 settings)
  🎬 Animations  (2 settings)
  🔒 Privacy  (2 settings)
  🔧 Misc  (4 settings)

Use 'macfig list <category>' to view settings.

$ macfig list dock
🚢 Dock

  Auto-hide Dock                      0 -> recommended: true
    Automatically hide and show the Dock  (com.apple.dock autohide)
  Auto-hide delay                     0 -> recommended: 0
    Delay before Dock auto-hides (seconds)  (com.apple.dock autohide-delay)
  Auto-hide animation speed           0.2 -> recommended: 0.2
    Speed of the Dock show/hide animation (seconds)  (com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier)
  Show recent apps                    0 -> recommended: false
    Show recent applications in the Dock  (com.apple.dock show-recents)
  Bounce animation                    0 -> recommended: false
    Animate opening applications (bounce)  (com.apple.dock launchanim)

Commands

Command	Description	Example
list	List preset categories	macfig list
list <category>	Show settings in category with current values	macfig list dock
get <domain> <key>	Read a specific defaults value	macfig get com.apple.dock autohide
set <domain> <key> <value>	Write a defaults value	macfig set com.apple.dock autohide true
preset <name>	Apply a named preset bundle	macfig preset dev-setup
backup	Backup all tracked settings to JSON	macfig backup
restore <file>	Restore from backup file	macfig restore ~/.config/macfig/backup.json
reset <domain> <key>	Delete a key (restore macOS default)	macfig reset com.apple.dock autohide
search <query>	Search keys across all domains	macfig search animation

Built-in Presets

Preset	Effect
dock-speed	Faster Dock animations and autohide delay
finder-dev	Show hidden files, extensions, path bar, status bar
keyboard-fast	Faster key repeat rate and shorter delay
no-animations	Disable most macOS animations
privacy	Disable analytics, Siri suggestions, ad tracking
dev-setup	Combined developer-friendly defaults

Safety

• Always backup first — run macfig backup before applying presets or bulk changes
• Use presets over raw set — presets handle type inference and process restart automatically
• Use search to discover — run macfig search <term> instead of guessing domain/key pairs
• Revert with restore — if something breaks, macfig restore <backup-file> reverts all changes

TUI

Launch macfig without arguments for interactive mode — browse categories, toggle settings, and preview changes.

Claude Code

Available as a skill in the macos-toolkit Claude Code plugin. Ask Claude "show hidden files" or "apply dev preset" and it runs macfig automatically.

License

MIT