macOS Defaults experimental

mise can declare macOS user defaults (preferences) in the [bootstrap.macos.defaults] section of mise.toml and apply them with mise bootstrap macos-defaults apply:

[bootstrap.macos.defaults]
NSGlobalDomain = { KeyRepeat = 2, InitialKeyRepeat = 15, ApplePressAndHoldEnabled = false }
"com.apple.dock" = { autohide = true, tilesize = 48, orientation = "left" }
"com.apple.finder" = { ShowPathbar = true, AppleShowAllFiles = true }

Each key under [bootstrap.macos.defaults] is a preferences domain. Quote domains containing dots. Values map to the matching defaults write type:

TOML value	written as	example
boolean	-bool true/false	autohide = true
integer	-int <n>	tilesize = 48
float	-float <n>	scale = 1.5
string	-string <s>	orientation = "left"

Other plist shapes (arrays, dicts, dates, data) are not supported; entries using them parse fine but are skipped with a warning, so configs written for newer mise versions still work.

Semantics

[bootstrap.macos.defaults] follows the same rules as [bootstrap.packages]:

• Declarative and additive — (domain, key) pairs merge across the config hierarchy (global → project) as a union; a more local config overrides the value of a pair the global config declared but cannot remove it. mise never deletes a default.
• OS-filtered — on anything other than macOS the section is inert: mise bootstrap macos-defaults status and mise doctor list the entries as skipped (so nothing is silently invisible) and mise bootstrap macos-defaults apply ignores them, so a shared config authored for both Linux and macOS just works.
• Manual application only — mise never writes defaults implicitly; only mise bootstrap macos-defaults apply does, after the usual confirmation prompt.
• Strictly typed — an existing value only counts as in sync when both the value and the plist type match: an integer 1 does not satisfy a configured true. mise bootstrap macos-defaults apply converges it to the typed value.

User defaults are per-user, so unlike system packages no sudo is ever involved. Host-scoped preferences (defaults -currentHost) and sudo defaults system domains are not supported.

Commands

mise bootstrap macos-defaults status            # shows defaults drift
mise bootstrap macos-defaults status --missing  # exit 1 if anything is unset or differs

mise bootstrap macos-defaults apply           # writes unset/differing defaults
mise bootstrap macos-defaults apply --dry-run # print the `defaults write` commands
mise bootstrap macos-defaults apply --yes     # skip the confirmation prompt

mise bootstrap macos-defaults status reports each entry as set (matches), differs (a value exists but doesn't match — the current value is shown), or unset. mise doctor summarizes the same drift.

App restarts

Some applications only pick up changed defaults after a relaunch — mise prints a reminder after writing. The usual suspects:

killall Dock
killall Finder
killall SystemUIServer

mise deliberately does not kill applications itself.

Finding keys

To discover a setting's domain and key, change it in System Settings and diff the output of defaults read before and after, or read a domain directly:

defaults read com.apple.dock
defaults read-type com.apple.dock tilesize