Using Zsh to build a productive developer terminal experience

One of the first things I do on any new computer is set up my terminal. This blog post is simply a reference guide for myself, listing the tools and config required for my perfect setup.

For me, this setup is productive and colorful, yet information dense, giving me the everything I need at a quick glance.

If you want to build your own interface similar to this, and have no idea where to start, I recommend Wes Bos’ course “Command Line Power User”, or his related blog post on Smashing Magazine as a jumping off point.

Required links

• Oh My Zsh
• Starship: Cross-Shell Prompt
• My dotfiles repo

Optional extras

• iTerm2
• Snazzy theme for iTerm
• BlexMono Nerd Font

Setup steps

1. Check you’re using Zsh terminal, which is the default on macOS, starting with Catalina (10.15)
2. Install Oh My Zsh
3. (Optional) Add the z (for “frecent” folder jumping), zsh-autosuggestions, [zsh-syntax-highlighting](zsh-syntax-highlighting not found) plugins to your .zshrc file
4. Install Starship and and eval "$(starship init zsh)" to the end of your .zshrc file
5. Create a config file for Starship
6. (Optional) Configure iTerm2 to use Snazzy theme and BlexMono nerd font

Screenshots