Tip: Create ~/Developer in Your Mac User Folder for AI Projects

If you're building with a Terminal chatbot, make yourself a Developer directory to store all your projects.
Tip: Create ~/Developer in Your Mac User Folder for AI Projects

If you’re dabbling with tools like Claude Code, you might not have the mental models as typical developers who use the Terminal – I know I don’t, coming from the Shortcuts world.

One simple tip to help you get started is creating a home directory for all your projects, so instead of running claude on your entire user folder, you can run “choose directory” on that folder with cd ~/Developer and then activate your AI bot from there.

Why Developer? Because, when added to your user folder, Apple automatically adds the hammer glyph, giving the folder icon a nice “Apple Developer” vibe both in the Finder view and sidebar.

From there, you can create new projects in their own respective folders and tap into each when necessary, while not immediately granting an AI access to the contents of your entire computer.

To make the Developer directory with the Terminal1, run mkdir -p ~/Developer.

  1. The P in -p stands for “create parent directories if they don’t exist” in case you don’t have a typical user folder structure. ↩

 

Posts You Might Like

Here are Apple’s WWDC25 Developer Sessions on the Foundation Models Framework
Here are Apple’s WWDC25 Developer Sessions on the Foundation Models Framework
Discover WWDC25’s Machine Learning & AI sessions for developers—Foundation Models, MLX, Vision, and SpeechAnalyzer, all focused on private AI
WWDC26 Sessions: Discover new capabilities in the App Intents framework
WWDC26 Sessions: Discover new capabilities in the App Intents framework
From Apple Developer: Level up your App Intents adoption with advanced features to make it faster, more flexible, and more relevant.
Teach Siri AI to Share Structured Types Without Known Formats Across Apps with ValueRepresentation
Teach Siri AI to Share Structured Types Without Known Formats Across Apps with ValueRepresentation
Some apps have unique types that Siri AI can't understand by default – ValueRepresentation helps teach the system about your type.
Apple Recognizes Developer Community Members
Apple Recognizes Developer Community Members
Apple has recognized 50 developer community members who are making an impact – many of which have welcomed me into the community. Well deserved!