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A fast, asynchronous Zsh prompt with color ASCII indicators of Git, exit, SSH, virtual environment, and vi mode status. Framework-agnostic and customizable.

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agkozak Zsh Prompt

MIT License GitHub tag Zsh version 4.3.11 and higher GitHub stars Chat on Gitter

The agkozak Zsh Prompt is an asynchronous color Git prompt that uses basic ASCII symbols to show:

  • the exit status of the last command, if it was not zero
  • the execution time of the last command
  • the username
  • whether a session is local, or remote over SSH or mosh; the latter state is indicated by the name of the remote machine
  • an abbreviated path
  • any active virtual environment
  • Git branch and status
  • the number of background processes
  • if vi line editing is enabled, whether insert or command mode is active

This prompt has been tested on numerous Linux and BSD distributions, as well as on Solaris, and in Windows environments (MSYS2, Cygwin, and WSL). It should also work perfectly on macOS.

The agkozak Zsh Prompt

Table of Contents

News

Here are the latest features and updates.
  • v3.11.4
    • An oversight in the function prompt_agkozak-zsh-prompt_setup was preventing final partial lines from being displayed (#46). Many thanks to Josh Rosen for jogging my memory of default Zsh handling of such situations.
  • v3.11.3
    • A bug was fixed in Zsh 5.8 itself that had required the subst-async method to do extra forking as a workaround. The code for subst-async has been updated to reflect the bug fix. The majority of users default to the usr1 async method, however, which is unaffected.
  • v3.11.2
    • zsh-async v1.8.6 is included.
    • The behavior of $AGKOZAK_SHOW_STASH has been fixed.
  • v3.11.1
    • Bug fix: The background jobs indicator was not updating immediately when a job ended. The prompt now uses the native Zsh %j escape to fetch the number of background jobs. Please update your custom prompts accordingly; the examples below have all been updated.
  • v3.11.0
    • Added a background jobs indicator (props to @crai0).
    • The usr1 async method is used preferred whenever possible, as it reduces command lag considerably (props to @romkatv for sharing his benchmarking system).
  • v3.10.4
    • Mere orthographical changes: "ZSH" is now "Zsh" throughout.
  • v3.10.3
    • Fixed a bug associated with unloading the prompt on Zsh < v5.30.
  • v3.10.2
    • The unload function now works on Zsh versions earlier than 5.3.0 without any error messages.
  • v3.10.1
    • The prompt now supports promptinit's prompt_cleanup function.
  • v3.10.0
    • The prompt is now fully compatible with Zsh's promptinit function.
  • v3.9.0
    • The characters used to signify path abbreviation with AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM (... by default) can now be overridden with AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM_STRING.
  • v3.8.1 (November 23, 2020)
    • WSL2 now uses the subst-async method, while WSL1 continues to use usr1 for reasons of speed.
    • The error message permission denied: /proc/version is no longer produced in termux on Android.
    • zsh-async v1.8.5 is included.
  • v3.8.0 (July 9, 2020)
    • The prompt no longer defaults to zsh-async on Solaris and Solaris-derived operating systems, as I have noticed that zsh-async's performance can be quirky on underperforming systems.
  • v3.7.3 (May 14, 2020)
    • Updated to use zsh-async 1.8.3.
  • v3.7.2 (May 6, 2020)
    • _agkozak_precmd was triggering a warning on Zsh v5.0.0-2. This has been fixed.
    • Version 1.8.0 of zsh-async is now being used.
  • v3.7.1 (January 24, 2020)
    • AGKOZAK_CMD_EXEC_TIME_CHARS and AGKOZAK_VIRTUALENV_CHARS were being set back to default if they were set before the prompt was sourced.
  • v3.7.0 (January 21, 2020)
    • The agkozak Zsh Prompt now includes an indicator for Python virtual environments created with virtualenv, python -m venv, pipenv, poetry, and conda.
    • I have moved the command execution time indicator back towards the beginning of the prompt, right after the exit status indicator.
  • v3.6.0 (January 4, 2020)
    • There is now a command execution time indicator.
    • There are more psvar elements available to custom prompts. See the new documentation of psvar prompt strings.
    • By popular demand, it is now possible to use AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY=1 with AGKOZAK_MULTILINE=0, although the two options together may be visually unappealing on a slow system or when working with very large Git repos.
    • Asynchronous method improvements: subst-async has been tweaked to provide more stability and speed on all systems. usr1 has been made faster through the elimination of a subshell. It is now the default asynchronous method in all Windows environments.
    • I have provided the code for my own Zenburn custom prompt.
  • v3.5.0 (November 15, 2019)
    • The prompt now supports the zdharma Zsh plugin unload function standard which is currently implemented by the zplugin framework. When the function agkozak-zsh-prompt_plugin_unload is invoked, the state of the shell before agkozak-zsh-prompt was loaded is restored.
    • For debugging purposes, WARN_CREATE_GLOBAL is now applied to individual functions whether or not debugging mode is enabled. On Zsh v5.4.0+ and when AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DEBUG is set to 1, all functions have WARN_NESTED_VAR applied to them.
    • Measures have been taken to avoid problems when the shell options KSH_ARRAYS and SH_WORD_SPLIT have been enabled.
    • When loaded on terminals without color, the prompt avoids using subshells when eliminating color codes from the PROMPT and RPROMPT strings.
  • v3.4.0 (November 6, 2019)
    • Stashed changes are now displayed by default (set AGKOZAK_SHOW_STASH=0 to turn this feature off).
    • In a single-line prompt, AGKOZAK_PRE_PROMPT_CHAR allows you to change the space before the prompt character to any character or characters you like; setting AGKOZAK_PRE_PROMPT_CHAR='' eliminates the space entirely.
  • v3.3.0 (July 20, 2019)
    • If AGKOZAK_USER_HOST_DISPLAY=0, the username and hostname will not be displayed.
  • v3.2.2 (July 8, 2019)
    • When the local git version is 2.15.0 or greater, git status will not run unnecessary optional operations that require locks.
  • v3.2.1 (May 6, 2019)
    • For Zsh v5.0.2, subst-async now works correctly, but usr1 will be used as the default async method, as it should be slightly faster.
  • v3.2.0 (February 28, 2019)
    • By default, a space precedes the Git branch status indicator. The space can now be eliminated by setting AGKOZAK_BRANCH_STATUS_SEPARATOR='', or changed to another character or characters (e.g., AGKOZAK_BRANCH_STATUS_SEPARATOR='--').
  • v3.1.0 (February 5, 2019)
    • The array AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR allows the user to specify prompt characters for regular user, superuser, and vi command mode.
    • Setting AGKOZAK_COLORS_PROMPT_CHAR can change the color of the prompt character.
    • The array AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_SYMBOLS contains user-specified symbols for displaying the Git status.
  • v3.0.2 (December 26, 2018)
    • The external command cat is no longer used.
    • The prompt now uses the latest commit of zsh-async.
  • v3.0.1 (November 26, 2018)
    • I have restored the _agkozak_vi_mode_indicator function as a legacy feature, as many people people use it in custom prompts. The default indicator can be expressed as '%(4V.:.%#)', though, and variations on this will be preferable to '$(_agkozak_vi_mode_indicator)', which entails a subshell.
  • v3.0.0 (November 26, 2018)
    • The asynchronous Git status is now available via process substitution in all supported versions of Zsh and on all supported systems (props to @psprint). For reasons of speed, zsh-async remains the default asynchronous method in WSL and Solaris, and usr1 is default in MSYS2/Cygwin.
    • When AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY is set to 1, the Git status is displayed in the left prompt, and the right prompt is left blank.
    • The prompt script loads up to 4x faster.
    • The left prompt is displayed ~2x faster.

Installation

For users without a framework

The agkozak Zsh prompt requires no framework and can be simply sourced from your .zshrc file. Clone the git repo:

git clone https://github.com/agkozak/agkozak-zsh-prompt

And add the following to your .zshrc file:

source /path/to/agkozak-zsh-prompt.plugin.zsh

For promptinit users

Zsh comes with a built-in way of handling prompts, the promptinit function. You can load the agkozak Zsh prompt by running

fpath+=( /path/to/agkozak-zsh-prompt )  # The directory where the prompt's
                                        # files are kept
autoload promptinit; promptinit
prompt agkozak-zsh-prompt

For antigen users

Add the line

antigen bundle agkozak/agkozak-zsh-prompt

to your .zshrc, somewhere before the line that says antigen apply. Be sure to use antigen bundle and not antigen theme.

For oh-my-zsh users

Execute the following commands:

[[ ! -d $ZSH_CUSTOM/themes ]] && mkdir $ZSH_CUSTOM/themes
git clone https://github.com/agkozak/agkozak-zsh-prompt $ZSH_CUSTOM/themes/agkozak
ln -s $ZSH_CUSTOM/themes/agkozak/agkozak-zsh-prompt.plugin.zsh $ZSH_CUSTOM/themes/agkozak.zsh-theme

And set ZSH_THEME=agkozak in your .zshrc file.

For zcomet users

Add

zcomet load agkozak/agkozak-zsh-prompt

to your .zshrc (below where you source zcomet.zsh and above where you run zcomet compinit). If you like to use promptinit for prompt-switching, you can do

zcomet fpath agkozak/agkozak-zsh-prompt
autoload promptinit; promptinit
prompt agkozak-zsh-prompt

For zgen users

Add the line

zgen load agkozak/agkozak-zsh-prompt

to your .zshrc somewhere before the line that says zgen save.

For Zinit (formerly zplugin) users

Run the command

zinit load agkozak/agkozak-zsh-prompt

to try out the prompt; add the same command to your .zshrc to load it automatically when the shell starts.

The prompt now supports zinit's unload feature; you may restore the shell to its state before loading the prompt by running

zinit unload agkozak/agkozak-zsh-prompt

For Znap users

Simply put

znap prompt agkozak/agkozak-zsh-prompt

in your .zshrc somewhere after you source znap.zsh.

For zplug users

Add the line

zplug "agkozak/agkozak-zsh-prompt"

to your .zshrc somewhere before the line that says zplug load.

Exit Status

If the exit status of the most recently executed command is other than zero (zero indicating success), the exit status will be displayed at the beginning of the left prompt:

Exit status

Command Execution Time

Command Execution Time

The prompt will display the execution time of the last command if it exceeds a certain threshold (AGKOZAK_CMD_EXEC_TIME, which defaults to 5 seconds). Setting AGKOZAK_CMD_EXEC_TIME=0 will disable the display of this indicator entirely. The color can be set using AGKOZAK_COLORS_CMD_EXEC_TIME, which is normally default (the default text color). An array, AGKOZAK_CMD_EXEC_TIME_CHARS, can contain two strings to prepend and append to the command execution time string. For example,

AGKOZAK_CMD_EXEC_TIME_CHARS=( '[' ']' )

will surround the time string with square brackets.

Local and Remote Sessions

When a session is local, only the username is shown; when it is remote over SSH (or mosh), the hostname is also shown:

Local and remote sessions

Note: It is exceedingly difficult to determine with accuracy whether a superuser is connected over SSH or not. In the interest of providing useful and not misleading information, this prompt always displays both username and hostname for a superuser in reverse video.

Abbreviated Paths

By default, the agkozak Zsh Prompt emulates the behavior that bash uses when PROMPT_DIRTRIM is set to 2. A tilde (~) replaces the name of the home directory. Then, if more than two directory elements need to be shown, only the last two are displayed, preceded by an ellipsis, so that

/home/pi/src/neovim/config

is displayed as

~/.../neovim/config

whereas

/usr/src/sense-hat/examples

is displayed as

.../sense-hat/examples

that is, without a tilde.

If you would like to display a different number of directory elements, set the environment variable AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM in your .zshrc file as shown below:

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM=4     # Or whatever number you like

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM

Setting AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM=0 will turn off path abbreviation, with the exception of ~ for $HOME and named directories (see immediately below).

By default, static named directories created with hash -d will be used as base directories in the path the prompt displays. For example, if you have executed

hash -d wp-content=/var/www/html/wp-content

then /var/www/html/wp-content will appear in the prompt as wp-content, and /var/www/html/wp-content/plugins/redirection/actions will be represented as ~wp-content/.../redirection/actions. If you prefer to have named directories displayed just like any others, set AGKOZAK_NAMED_DIRS=0.

If you want to use a string other than ... to signify that a path has been abbreviated, you may specify it using AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM_STRING. For example,

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM_STRING=$'\u2026'

will replace the default three dots (...) with a Unicode ellipsis (), which can free up a little screen space if your terminal font supports it.

Virtual Environments

Virtual environments

If a virtual environment created by virtualenv, python -m venv, pipenv, poetry, or conda is activated, by default it will be displayed to the right of the path. Display of the virtual environment indicator may be disabled with AGKOZAK_SHOW_VIRTUALENV=0. The color of the indicator can be changed using the variable AGKOZAK_COLORS_VIRTUALENV (default: green). The virtual environment name is normally surrounded by square brackets, but the characters used can be changed using the array AGKOZAK_VIRTUALENV_CHARS. For example,

AGKOZAK_VIRTUALENV_CHARS=( '(' ')' )

will use parentheses, while

AGKOZAK_VIRTUALENV_CHARS=( '' '' )

will display just the virtual environment name without any surrounding characters.

Git Branch and Status

If the current directory contains a Git repository, the agkozak Zsh Prompt displays the name of the working branch, along with some symbols to show changes to its status:

Git examples

Git Status Symbol
Diverged &*
Behind &
Ahead *
New file(s) +
Deleted x
Modified !
Renamed >
Untracked ?
Stashed changes $

Background Jobs Status

If you have background jobs running (a suspended editor, for example), the prompt will display the number of such jobs followed by a j:

Background jobs status You can customize the background jobs display by setting AGKOZAK_COLORS_BG_STRING to the color you would like it to have or AGKOZAK_BG_STRING to the character or characters you want to use to denote background jobs (for example, you could set AGKOZAK_BG_STRING=bg).

vi Editing Mode

The agkozak Zsh Prompt indicates when the user has switched from vi insert mode to command mode by turning the % or # of the prompt into a colon:

Zsh line editing

agkozak does not enable vi editing mode for you. To do so, add

bindkey -v

to your .zshrc.

This prompt will still work perfectly if you use the default Zsh Emacs editing mode; in that case, the prompt character will not change.

Asynchronous Methods

The agkozak Zsh Prompt chooses the fastest and most reliable of three different methods for displaying the Git status asynchronously. The default usr1 method, first described by Anish Athalye, creates and disowns child processes that calculate the Git status and then kill themselves off, triggering SIGUSR1 in the process. The Zsh TRAPUSR1 trap function then displays that Git status. Since other scripts or the user could conceivably define TRAPUSR1 either before or after this prompt is loaded, it regularly checks to see if that is the case and, if so, falls back to the slower but entirely reliable subst-async method, which is also used if SIGUSR1 is not available.

I have tweaked @psprint's subst-async technique to work on all known platforms and with all supported versions of Zsh. It uses process substitution (<( ... )) to fork a background process that fetches the Git status and feeds it to a file descriptor. A zle -F callback handler then processes the input from the file descriptor and uses it to update the prompt.

This prompt also supplies a zsh-async method that relies on the zsh-async library, which uses Zsh's zsh/zpty module to spin off pseudo-terminals that can calculate the Git status without blocking the user from continuing to use the terminal. zsh/zpty does not work well with Cygwin or MSYS2, however, and it can be quirky on Solaris and related operating systems, so it is no longer used by default, and is only provided for those who want it.

If you want to force the agkozak Zsh Prompt to use a specific asynchronous method (or none at all), execute export AGKOZAK_FORCE_ASYNC_METHOD=subst-async, zsh-async, usr1, or none before sourcing it. If you want more insight into how the prompt is working in your shell, put export AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DEBUG=1 in your .zshrc before the code loading this prompt.

Customization

In addition to setting AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM and AGKOZAK_NAMED_DIRS to change how the working directory is displayed (see above), you can use other settings to alter how the prompt is displayed. For some examples of prompt configurations people have created using simple combinations of options, see "Using Basic Configuration Settings".

Custom Colors

If you would like to customize the prompt colors, change any of the AGKOZAK_COLORS_* variables from their defaults to any valid color and add it to your .zshrc. The following are the available color variables and their defaults:

AGKOZAK_COLORS_EXIT_STATUS=red
AGKOZAK_COLORS_USER_HOST=green
AGKOZAK_COLORS_PATH=blue
AGKOZAK_COLORS_BRANCH_STATUS=yellow
AGKOZAK_COLORS_PROMPT_CHAR=default      # Default text color
AGKOZAK_COLORS_CMD_EXEC_TIME=default    # Default text color
AGKOZAK_COLORS_VIRTUALENV=green
AGKOZAK_COLORS_BG_STRING=magenta

Custom colors

Blank Lines Between Prompts

If you prefer to have a little space between instances of the prompt, put AGKOZAK_BLANK_LINES=1 in your .zshrc:

AGKOZAK_BLANK_LINES

Optional Single-Line Prompt

If you prefer a single-line prompt with a right prompt that disappears when it is typed over, put

AGKOZAK_MULTILINE=0

in your .zshrc.

Single-line prompt

If you prefer to have a character or characters other than a space appear before the prompt character, set AGKOZAK_PRE_PROMPT_CHAR to that character or characters -- or set AGKOZAK_PRE_PROMPT_CHAR='' to eliminate the space.

Optional Left-prompt-only Mode

If you want to have the Git status displayed in the left prompt (with no right prompt -- this is how pure does it), set

AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY=1

Note: it is possible to combine AGKOZAK_MULTILINE=0 with AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY=1, but the result may be visually unappealing.

Left-prompt-only mode

Custom Prompt Character

The classic prompt for Bourne-style shells is $; for csh it is %, and Zsh borrows the latter because it inherits features from both types of shell. agkozak-zsh-prompt uses % to show where the prompt ends and where input should begin, although a superuser will see #, and either sort of user will see : when vi command mode is active. If you want to change any or all of these symbols, you can do so using the array AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR, whose three elements are 1) the normal prompt character; 2) the superuser prompt character; and 3) the vi command mode character. The default behavior of the prompt can be represented as

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR=( %# %# : )

If you want your prompt to look more like a bash prompt (i.e. terminating in $), you can simply put the following in your .zshrc:

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR=( $ %# : )

Some people prefer to spruce up their prompts with unicode characters. You can approximate the appearance of the popular pure prompt by using

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR=( ❯ ❯ ❮ )

Closer still to pure would be

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR=( ❯ ❯ ❮ )
AGKOZAK_COLORS_PROMPT_CHAR='magenta'

which is the equivalent of

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR=( '%F{magenta}❯%f' '%F{magenta}❯%f' '%F{magenta}❮%f' )

Note that you can change one of those %F{magenta}...%f strings to another foreground color for a more striking visual reminder of what you are doing at any given moment.

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR demo

Custom Git Symbols

If, through the use of another prompt, your muscle memory has been trained to react immediately to a particular set of Git status symbols, or if you have an aesthetic preference for symbols other than the default ASCII ones, you can specify them in the array AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_SYMBOLS. The default set is

AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_SYMBOLS=( '&*' '&' '*' '+' 'x' '!' '>' '?' '$')

If you prefer the pure symbols for the "diverged," "behind," and "ahead" states, you can use the following settings:

AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_SYMBOLS=( '⇣⇡' '⇣' '⇡' '+' 'x' '!' '>' '?' 'S')

Other Settings

AGKOZAK_USER_HOST_DISPLAY

AGKOZAK_USER_HOST_DISPLAY demo

For a more streamlined prompt, you can choose to suppress the display of the username and hostname by setting

AGKOZAK_USER_HOST_DISPLAY=0

AGKOZAK_BRANCH_STATUS_SEPARATOR

By default, when you set AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY=1, a space precedes the Git branch status indicator, typically right between it and the directory name. You can eliminate the space by setting

AGKOZAK_BRANCH_STATUS_SEPARATOR=''

Alternatively, you can set AGKOZAK_BRANCH_STATUS_SEPARATOR to any other character or characters that you prefer.

AGKOZAK_SHOW_STASH

If you prefer not to have stashed changes displayed, you can set AGKOZAK_SHOW_STASH=0.

Advanced Customization

If you want to make further customizations to your prompt, you can use the variables AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT and AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT to specify the exact strings to be used for the left and right prompts. The default prompts, with the default settings, can be expressed as

# The left prompt

# Exit status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT='%(?..%B%F{red}(%?%)%f%b )'
# Command execution time
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(9V.%9v .)'
# Username and hostname
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(!.%S%B.%B%F{green})%n%1v%(!.%b%s.%f%b) '
# Path
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+=$'%B%F{blue}%2v%f%b'
# Virtual environment
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(10V. %F{green}[%10v]%f.)'
# Background jobs indicator and newline
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+=$'%(1j. %F{magenta}%jj%f.)\n'
# Prompt character
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(4V.:.%#) '

# The right prompt

# Git status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT='%(3V.%F{yellow}%3v%f.)'

In general, you will not need to change these settings to achieve a custom prompt. If, for example, you want to move the Git status into the left prompt, you can do so simply with AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY=1. If you want to make it your favorite shade of grey, you can add AGKOZAK_COLORS_BRANCH_STATUS=243.

If you made those customizations, however, the right prompt would no longer do anything, so you could use the AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT variable to have it do something new, such as to display the time:

 AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT='%*'

So far, you will have used only the following code:

AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY=1
AGKOZAK_COLORS_BRANCH_STATUS=243 
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT='%*'

The same result could be achieved by starting with the default code given at the top of this section and altering it to produce

# The left prompt

# Exit status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT='%(?..%B%F{red}(%?%)%f%b )'
# Command execution time
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(9V.%9v .)'
# Username and hostname
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(!.%S%B.%B%F{green})%n%1v%(!.%b%s.%f%b) '
# Path
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%B%F{blue}%2v%f%b'
# Virtual environment
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(10V. %F{green}[%10v]%f.)'
# Background jobs indicator and newline
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(1j. %F{magenta}%jj%f.)'
# Git status and newline
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+=$'%(3V.%F{243}%3v%f.)\n'
# Prompt character
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(4V.:.%#) '

# The right prompt

# Git status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT='%*'

Obviously, this code is considerably harder to read, but you might use it if you wanted to do something not supported by the basic configuration options, such as displaying the exit status immediately before the prompt character:

# The left prompt

# Command execution time
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT='%(9V.%9v .)'
# Username and hostname
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(!.%S%B.%B%F{green})%n%1v%(!.%b%s.%f%b) '
# Path
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%B%F{blue}%2v%f%b'
# Virtual environment
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(10V. %F{green}[%10v]%f.)'
# Background jobs indicator and newline
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+=$'%(1j. %F{magenta}%jj%f.)\n'
# Exit status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(?..%B%F{red}(%?%)%f%b )'
# Prompt character
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(4V.:.%#) '

# The right prompt

# Git status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT='%(3V.%F{yellow}%3v%f.)'

Note that once AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT or AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT is set, it can override the simpler settings such as AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY.

For some examples of prompt configurations that people have created using AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT and AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT, see "Using AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT and AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT".

Examples of agkozak Zsh Prompt Customization

Note: If you see your custom prompt here, I may have rewritten it a bit (often to include new features of the prompt) or even simplified it for educational purposes.

Using Basic Configuration Settings

downtrip

AGKOZAK_COLORS_BRANCH_STATUS=248
AGKOZAK_BLANK_LINES=1
AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY=1
# Make the unicode prompt character red when superuser
# and reversed when in vi command mode
AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR=( '%F{magenta}❯%f' '%F{red}❯%f' '%F{magenta}❮%f' )
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_SYMBOLS=( '⇣⇡' '' '' '+' 'x' '!' '>' '?' )
AGKOZAK_USER_HOST_DISPLAY=0

borekb

AGKOZAK_COLORS_BRANCH_STATUS=243
AGKOZAK_BLANK_LINES=1
AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY=1
# Make the prompt character more like that of bash
AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR=( '$' '#' ':' )
AGKOZAK_USER_HOST_DISPLAY=0

donkebap

AGKOZAK_MULTILINE=0
AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR=( ❯ ❯ ❮ )

andeee

AGKOZAK_COLORS_PROMPT_CHAR='magenta'
AGKOZAK_MULTILINE=0
AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR=( ❯ ❯ ❮ )
AGKOZAK_USER_HOST_DISPLAY=0

DFG

AGKOZAK_COLORS_PATH=grey
AGKOZAK_COLORS_BRANCH_STATUS=cyan
AGKOZAK_COLORS_PROMPT_CHAR=white
AGKOZAK_COLORS_PROMPT_CHAR=cyan

AGKOZAK_BLANK_LINES=1

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR=( ❯ ❯ ❮ )

amenbreakfast

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM=0

AGKOZAK_BLANK_LINES=1
AGKOZAK_MULTILINE=0
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_SYMBOLS=( '⇣⇡' '' '' '+' 'x' '!' '>' '?' )
AGKOZAK_USER_HOST_DISPLAY=0

Using AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT and AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT

My Zenburn Custom Prompt

My Zenburn Custom Prompt

My Zenburn prompt tests first to make sure that the terminal has 256 colors; if not, the default colors of the prompt are used.

# Make sure the zsh/terminfo module is loaded
(( ${+modules[zsh/terminfo]} )) || zmodload zsh/terminfo
# If there are 256 colors, use the following colors; otherwise use the defaults
if (( ${terminfo[colors]:-0} >= 256 )); then
  AGKOZAK_COLORS_USER_HOST=108
  AGKOZAK_COLORS_PATH=116
  AGKOZAK_COLORS_BRANCH_STATUS=228
  AGKOZAK_COLORS_EXIT_STATUS=174
  AGKOZAK_COLORS_CMD_EXEC_TIME=245
  AGKOZAK_COLORS_VIRTUALENV=188
  AGKOZAK_COLORS_BG_STRING=223
fi
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT=''
# Command execution time
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(9V.%F{${AGKOZAK_COLORS_CMD_EXEC_TIME}}%b%9v%b%f .)'
# Exit status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(?..%B%F{${AGKOZAK_COLORS_EXIT_STATUS}}(%?%)%f%b )'
# Username and hostname
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(!.%S%B.%B%F{${AGKOZAK_COLORS_USER_HOST}})%n%1v%(!.%b%s.%f%b) '
# Virtual environment indicator
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(10V.%F{${AGKOZAK_COLORS_VIRTUALENV}}[%10v]%f .)'
# Path
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%B%F{${AGKOZAK_COLORS_PATH}}%2v%f%b'
# Background job status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(1j. %F{${AGKOZAK_COLORS_BG_STRING}}%jj%f.)'
# Git status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+=$'%(3V.%F{${AGKOZAK_COLORS_BRANCH_STATUS}}%3v%f.)\n'
# SHLVL and prompt character
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='[%L] %(4V.:.%#) '
AGKOZAK_COLORS_BRANCH_STATUS=228

# No right prompt
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT=''

gnumoksha

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM=4
AGKOZAK_COLORS_BRANCH_STATUS=243
AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY=1
# The prompt character is always $
AGKOZAK_PROMPT_CHAR=( '$' '$' '$'  )

# Display the time in the right prompt
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT='%*'

pjcj

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM=0
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_SYMBOLS=( '⇣⇡' '' '' '+' 'x' '!' '>' '?' )

AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT='%(?..%B%F{red}(%?%)%f%b )'
# Command execution time
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(9V.%9v .)'
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(!.%S%B.%B%F{32})%n%1v%(!.%b%s.%f%b)'
# Display the current history event number
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+=' %B%F{13}%h%f%b'
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+=$'\n%F{13}%(4V.:.%#)%f '

# Git status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT='%(3V.%F{yellow}%3v%f.) '
# Background jobs indicator
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT+='%(1j.%F{magenta}%jj%f .)'
# Virtual environment indicator
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT+='%(10V.%F{green}[%10v]%f .)'
# Display the path (substituting ~ for $HOME and in named directories)
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT+='%B%F{blue}%~%f%b '
# Display the time
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT+='%F{32}%*'

AGitBoy

AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT='%(?..%B%F{red}(%?%)%f%b)'
# Command execution time
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(9V.[%9v].)'
# Username and hostname
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(!.%S%B.%B%F{green})%n%1v%(!.%b%s.%f%b):'
# Path
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%B%F{blue}%2v%f%b'
# Virtual environment indicator
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(10V.:%F{green}%10v%f.)'
# Background jobs indicator
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(1j.:%F{magenta}%jj%f.)'
# Use > as the prompt character when in vi command mode
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(4V.>.%(!.#.$))'

steinex_

AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM=5

# Output the prompt character (normally %; %% for active kerberos principal)
krbprinc() {
  if klist -s; then
    print '%B%%%%%b'
    else
    print '%B%%%b'
  fi
}

AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT=''
# Command execution time
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(9V.%9v .)'
_agkozak_is_ssh && AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(!.%S%B.%B)%m%(!.%b%s.%b) '
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%F{blue}%2v%f%b'
# Virtual environment indicator
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(10V. %F{default}[%10v]%f.)'
# Background jobs indicator
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='%(1j. %F{magenta}%jj%f.)'
# Git status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+=$'%(3V.%F{green}%3v%f.)\n'
# Kerberos status
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT+='$(krbprinc) '

AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT=''

Options Index

Option Default Meaning
AGKOZAK_BG_STRING j The symbol or symbols to display next to the background jobs count
AGKOZAK_BLANK_LINES 0 Display a blank line before displaying the prompt
AGKOZAK_BRANCH_STATUS_SEPARATOR Character or characters preceding the Git status indicator
AGKOZAK_CMD_EXEC_TIME_CHARS ( '' '' ) Strings to prepend and append to the command execution time indicator
AGKOZAK_CMD_EXEC_TIME 5 Threshold beyond which to display command execution time (in seconds)
AGKOZAK_COLORS_BG_STRING magenta Color of the background jobs indicator
AGKOZAK_COLORS_BRANCH_STATUS yellow Color of Git status
AGKOZAK_COLORS_CMD_EXEC_TIME default Color of command execution time indicator
AGKOZAK_COLORS_EXIT_STATUS red Color of exit status
AGKOZAK_COLORS_PATH blue Color of path
AGKOZAK_COLORS_PROMPT_CHAR default Color of prompt character
AGKOZAK_COLORS_USER_HOST green Color of username and hostname
AGKOZAK_COLORS_VIRTUALENV green Color of the virtual environment indicator
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_PROMPT Code for custom left prompt
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_RPROMPT Code for custom right prompt
AGKOZAK_CUSTOM_SYMBOLS ( '&*' '&' '*' '+' 'x' '!' '>' '?' '$' ) Array containing custom Git symbols for the statuses Diverged, Behind, Ahead, New file(s), Deleted, Modified, Renamed, Untracked, Stashed changes
AGKOZAK_FORCE_ASYNC_METHOD Forces the asynchronous method to be subst-async, zsh-async, usr1 or none
AGKOZAK_LEFT_PROMPT_ONLY 0 Display a two-line prompt with the Git status on the left side
AGKOZAK_MULTILINE 1 Display a two-line prompt
AGKOZAK_NAMED_DIRS 1 Display named (hashed) directories thus: ~foo
AGKOZAK_PRE_PROMPT_CHAR For a single-line prompt, the character or characters to display before the prompt character
AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DEBUG 0 Show debugging information
AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM 2 Number of directory elements to display; 0 turns off directory trimming
AGKOZAK_PROMPT_DIRTRIM_STRING ... Ellipsis string used in directory trimming
AGKOZAK_SHOW_BG 1 Display the number of background jobs you have running
AGKOZAK_SHOW_STASH 1 Display stashed changes
AGKOZAK_SHOW_VIRTUALENV 1 Display virtual environments
AGKOZAK_USER_HOST_DISPLAY 1 Display the username and hostname
AGKOZAK_VIRTUALENV_CHARS ( '[' ']' ) Characters to put around the virtual environment name

psvar Index

psvar Element Prompt String Equivalent Usage
psvar[1] %1v "@" sign and abbreviated hostname, displayed for SSH connection (e.g., @machine)
psvar[2] %2v Working directory or abbreviation thereof
psvar[3] %3v Working Git branch and indicator of changes made, surrounded by parentheses and preceded by AGKOZAK_PRE_PROMPT_CHAR (usually a space), e.g., (master !?)
psvar[4] %4v vicmd when vi command mode is enabled; otherwise empty
psvar[5] %5v Empty only when AGKOZAK_USER_HOST_DISPLAY is 0 (deprecated; kept for legacy custom prompts)
psvar[6] %6v Just the Git branch name, e.g., master
psvar[7] %7v Just the Git symbols, e.g., !?
psvar[8] %8v Previous command's execution time in seconds; only set if AGKOZAK_CMD_EXEC_TIME > 0 and if the execution time exceeded AGKOZAK_CMD_EXEC_TIME
psvar[9] %9v psvar[8] pretty-printed as days, hours, minutes, and seconds, thus: 1d 2h 3m 4s
psvar[10] %10v Name of any virtual environment that has been activated
psvar[11] %11v The number of background jobs running (deprecated; please use %j instead)

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