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Customizing my Zsh Prompt

Cassidy Williams on May 31, 2022

I have a little .zshrc file to customize my terminal, and I've always wanted a fun prompt besides the default, but haven't really done much to lear...

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Nik F P • Jun 1 '22

This is a really nice trick! In trying to figure this out I ended up giving up and going with a prompt styler - the script syntax was too dense for me at the time.

If you are interested, you should check out Oh-my-posh, it's been awesome to use. Here's a pic of the prompt I've been using:

This is my custom prompt that has the current username, which shell I'm using, current directory, Node version in use, and the end with the heart is the exit code status of the last command. (turns red if the exit code is non-zero) The second line is git status and only appears if I'm in a repo.

Setting these up can be tricky though, and the nice thing about what you built is it's easier to sync between machines since it's just a script. Nothing needs to be installed. I think I'll try to do something similar to what you have for shell I use on a few places and see if it comes easier to me this time.

Templar++ • Jun 8 '22

It's really awesome. I love this. Except I use a theme based on the paradox theme, but I added a few more sections. Being a front-end dev lately and using different node versions for different projects it's a must to see the current npm version as well... especially if direnv somehow messes up loading the the right version for some reason every now and then)

Narendra Kumar Vadapalli • Jun 7 '22

I use this one and its pretty great out of the box

Steve Klassen (They/Them) • Jun 6 '22

I love that you went through the bare bones configuration. I just assumed 'starship' or something like that when you mentioned it in the newsletter. This was much more cool!

Cassidy Williams • Jun 6 '22

Thanks!

Lucas Perez • May 31 '22 • Edited

Really nice!

I remember having a very confusing bash code to get the last exit code on my prompt and a somewhat messy code to get the git branch name and status to color it accordingly. When I decided to try zsh I was delighted to learn that it has some very usefull builtins, like vcs_info_msg_0_ and the %? that gets the last exit code. My prompt is not as minimalistic as yours, but I guess I'm going to go more minimal for a few days and see if I like it.

Worth saying that %0(?..%?) will show the last exit code but only if it was not 0. You can even style it like %0(?.. %F{green} exit code: <%?> %f) and so on.

I don't know how to upload images here, please help 😅

dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/up...

Branch in red: nothing changed
Branch in yellow: something changed
Branch in light blue: something in staging area (can commit)
The error code appears in purple and inside brackets

There are also some experimental things, like highlighting, underlining and putting the letter D before the branch when the local branch is ahead, behind or have diverged, but they don't seem to work all that well.

Here is the code I used to get this prompt.

I actually like a lot the different colors for different states of the repo.

gist.github.com/lucassperez/bc04af...

Cassidy Williams • May 31 '22

Oh whoa that is so cool!! Thank you for sharing!

❮ ZI ❯ • Jun 1 '22 • Edited

🧙‍ Nice post! Would like to propose the advanced level experience of Zsh for Zsh lovers 🧙‍‍♀️
A Swiss Army Knife for Zsh - Unix Shell ⚡
z.digitalclouds.dev ⚡

Patrick Wendo • May 31 '22

Definitely going to try this now. This is something I really want to try and work out

Michael Cain • Jul 20 '22

Super helpful and easy to use. I was able to sidestep Powerlevel10k (no shame in that game, just a "little much" for me) and get a lean prompt with just what I wanted.

Cassidy Williams • Jul 24 '22

Thanks! Yeah simplicity was what I wanted, too.

Faisal Islam • Jun 2 '22

I have just tried it and Oh gosh! my prompt looks so clean now. Thank you Cassidy.

Cassidy Williams • Jun 6 '22

I'm so glad it's helpful for you!

Asanka • Jun 2 '22

While a vanilla solution is always nice, my go-to is Prezto!

github.com/sorin-ionescu/prezto

Lot of options and themes with minimal effort :)

Chris Greening • May 31 '22

I've got a similar prompt w/ branch name and I never realize how much I rely on it until I'm in a place without it and have to git branch every 3 seconds to remember where I am 😅

Great post - thanks Cassidy!

Cassidy Williams • May 31 '22

My git st to figure out the branch is CONSTANT if I don't have it in the prompt hahaha! Thank you!

xgqfrms • Sep 23 '23 • Edited

# apeend $ symbol ✅
➜  ~ echo $PS1   
%(?:%{%}➜ :%{%}➜ ) %{$fg[cyan]%}%c%{$reset_color%} $(git_prompt_info)

➜  ~ vim ~/.zshrc
➜  ~  . ~/.zshrc  
➜  ~ $ echo $PS1   
%(?:%{%}➜ :%{%}➜ ) %{$fg[cyan]%}%c%{$reset_color%} $(git_prompt_info)$ 

➜  ~ $ cat ~/.zshrc | grep PROMPT
# DISABLE_UPDATE_PROMPT="true"
setopt PROMPT_SUBST
# PROMPT='%F{green}%*%f %F{blue}%~%f %F{red}${vcs_info_msg_0_}%f$ '
# PROMPT='%{$fg[green]%}%~%{$reset_color%} $(ruby_prompt_info) $(git_prompt_info)%{$reset_color%}%B$%b ✅'
# PROMPT=' ✅'
PROMPT='%(?:%{%}➜ :%{%}➜ ) %{$fg[cyan]%}%c%{$reset_color%} $(git_prompt_info)$ '

Hardeep Kumar • Jun 10 '22

Nice post, i also did something similar for my root shell.

BTW those who wanting that jazzy snazzy cool looking terminal with all the goodness and those juicy icons, this is what y'all need github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k

Rich Soule • Jun 1 '22

I've always added an extra line ( \n ) right before the $ at the end so that all my commands start right at the left edge of the screen. This way if I navigate down a bunch of folders, the long path names don't get in the way.

Bluemont • Jun 9 '22

But wait, isn't the CLI supposed to be cryptic and colorless? LOL

Hardeep Kumar • Jun 10 '22

Yes and must have that curve of crts and scan lines and stuff like it's from 1980s

Templar++ • Jun 8 '22

Nice article, but why reinvent the wheel? How about using ohmyposh.dev/ ?

Tawhid • May 31 '22

Man powerlevel10k is lit with kitty/alcattra

Cassidy Williams • May 31 '22

I truly thought this was a spam comment until I realized these are all technical terms 😆

Tawhid • Jun 1 '22

haha 😆 but does my profile look like spam .-.

John N Underwood • Jun 1 '22

I've tried some of the other prompts mentioned here, but I have settled on Starship (starship.rs/). Highly recommended!

Cassidy Williams • Jun 6 '22

This looks cool thanks for sharing!

O. AlQudah • Jun 1 '22

An easier way to me would be using powerlevel10K zsh theme, it has a more user-friendly configuration process.

Cassidy Williams • Jun 6 '22

A few folks have mentioned that now, I should check it out!

IngridGomez • Sep 29 '22

How do I change the prompt on a Mac? comment le rendre accro

Gergely Máté • Apr 25

Awesome, thank you!

Mario Gutierrez • Jun 11 '22

Stopped wasting time with custom prompts when there are faster, more portable solutions, namely starship. Works with zsh, powershell, bash ... on linux, mac and windows.