MacDevOps comes to Montréal (MDOYUL 2026)

MacDevOpsYUL 2026 is the latest version of the conference for Mac Admins leveraging DevOps, which this year moved to Montréal. MacDevOps (MDO) sits at the intersection of a shift in how MacAdmins are doing their work. I've attended from afar (virtually) the past few years, and this was my first time in person and it did not disappoint. Catch up on a few of the standout sessions below.

Why MacDevOps is Unique#

MacDevOpsYUL is organized by Mat X, Nick Zolotko, and JD Strong and they've created a conference with a rich speaker line-up  Interesting topics abound in the session list, and no session overstays its welcome because of the short format of the conference. 

The agenda is overwhelmingly impressive. Quick Talks are in some ways the star of the day, where very short and often quickly assembled presentations appear between longer sessions. These often come up from someone mentioning something cool they did to the emcee, Mat, who adds them to the schedule. It's a unique part of MDO, which makes the event stand out.

Like past years, the first day is primarily focused on typical MacAdmin management sessions while the second day is focused on macOS Security. The entire conference draws attention to an ongoing shift which MDO has played a meaningful part in accelerating: The Mac platform is growing, and with that growth we as MacAdmins need to move towards modern, automated, and secure workflows.

Session Highlights#

Keynote: The new Mac Admin#

Mike McNeil(Fleet), Adam Anklewicz & Alan Lee (Thumbtack)

In the opening keynote, Mike McNeil of Fleet spoke about The new Mac Admin and one slide stuck with me: “What does it mean to be a Mac admin?” This slide goes beyond that alone, and gets towards the heart of “What makes the Mac Admin community great”. So many of the traits Mike pointed out are what describes this community and everyone in it. Despite its title, it really speaks beyond this and more towards “What makes the Mac Admin community great”. I've been in this community exclusively focused on macOS for the past fifteen years, and these things perfectly describe so many of us. We fill in the gaps ourselves, we build community, and we adapt to new ways of working. We are open to change and do not simply stick with what we or the industry has done before. It's part of what makes this part of the IT world so great.

Quick Talk: smokedmeat – The YUL Supply Chain Special#

Guillaume Ross, Caffeine Security

In the first Quick Talk of the day, Guillaume kicked things off by introducing Bagel and SmokedMeat. Bagel is a CLI that inventories developer configuration metadata, available in Homebrew with brew install bagel. SmokedMeat is a CI/CD framework for red teams, and Guillaume demoed SmokedMeat across some example repositories.

Quick Talk: EDR Freeze Tag#

Pete Markowsky, (North Pole Security)

Another standout Quick Talk (can you tell I like this format?), Pete detailed a recent discovery with the Endpoint Security library: Anything the Endpoint Security client can't respond to within a deadline defaults to allowed. The reasoning behind this default is clearly user-focused, but it doesn't change the impact to organizations. Pete explained how an attacker could intentionally freeze ES Client, and how to defend against it. Notably, there is a new es_set_deadline_miss_mode value which Apple has added to the Endpoint Security Library in macOS 27 Golden Gate.

Zen and the Art of Managing Windows the MacAdmin Way#

Rod Christiansen, (Emily Carr University of Art + Design)

At the pre-conference social I met Rod Christiansen who introduced a whole slew of new tools for WindowsAdmins… aimed at doing things the MacAdmin way. As someone with minimal experience in the Windows world, it was incredibly interesting to hear a preview of what we'd see the next day. In his session, Rod covered the tools he's used to using on the Mac, and how he created equivalents on Windows so that he could manage things in a “sane” and familiar way.

Contributing to Open Source Projects Without Writing Code#

Vaughn Miller, (Lafayette College)

Vaughn gave a short version of a talk that will appear at MacAdmins Conference next week, encouraging non-code contributions to open source projects. It's a great way to become more familiar with tools like GitHub, and contribute back to projects that you benefit from.

Quick Talk: Pique Your Interest – Expose, Validate, Create#

Henry Stamerjohann, (FleetDM)

While he couldn't attend in person this year, Henry Stamerjohann still got a Quick Talk in, where he talked about two recent additions to Mac Admins Open Source. Pique is a Quick Look plugin that is designed to fill in the gaps that MacAdmins notice from existing plugins. This means a slew of file types are supported, and MacAdmins and developers alike will want to add this to their list. Contour normalizes and validates files that MacAdmins deal with often, like .mobileconfig profiles, as well as modern declarations.

See You Next Time#

MacDevOpsYUL was just as good as expected, and I'm so glad I got to attend in person for the first time. While the livestream for virtual attendees is great — seriously, if you can't attend, join the stream! — nothing matches the in-person aspect of this conference. From the extended hallway track to the quick talk format, there is ample time to hear about the interesting and cool work people are doing.

I can't wait to see where MDO takes place next year. Up next on the conference agenda for Workbrew is the MacAdmins Conference at PSU. We're proud to return as a Cabin Sponsor for 2026. This year we're showcasing how Workbrew has leveled up with new capabilities, sharper tooling, and better answers to the fleet management challenges you're actually dealing with.