diff --git a/nix/dev-shell.nix b/nix/dev-shell.nix
--- a/nix/dev-shell.nix
+++ b/nix/dev-shell.nix
@@ -40,7 +40,6 @@
 , sops
 , sqlite
 , terraform
-, watchman
 , rustfmt
 , wasm-pack
 , yarn
@@ -66,7 +65,6 @@
     mariadb
     nodejs
     yarn
-    watchman # react native
     python3
     redis
     wasm-pack
@@ -143,6 +141,8 @@
     wait "$mariadb_pid" "$redis_pid"
 
     ${../scripts}/install_homebrew_macos.sh
+
+    ${../scripts}/install_homebrew_deps.sh watchman
   '' + ''
 
     # Render default configuration for keyserver
diff --git a/scripts/install_homebrew_deps.sh b/scripts/install_homebrew_deps.sh
new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/install_homebrew_deps.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,20 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+if ! command -v brew >/dev/null; then
+  echo "Homebrew is required to run this script" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+install_if_missing() {
+  local package="$1"
+
+  if ! command -v "$package" >/dev/null; then
+    brew install "$package"
+  fi
+}
+
+for dep in "$@"; do
+  install_if_missing "$dep"
+done