zenify-my-terminal

---

name: zenify-my-terminal description: Set up a fast, calm, focused terminal on macOS. Use when the user asks to "zenify my terminal", "make my terminal nice/pretty/awesome", "set up zsh / shell", "upgrade my terminal experience", "fast track my terminal setup", "just set me up", or "set up starship / oh-my-posh / zinit / wezterm / ghostty / alacritty / kitty". Two modes — guided (walks through choices: terminal app between WezTerm/Ghostty/Alacritty/Kitty/iTerm2/Apple Terminal, prompt between Starship/Oh My Posh, plugins, optional extras) or fast-track (one question — which terminal — then applies opinionated optimal defaults). Writes ~/.zshrc, the chosen prompt's config, and the chosen terminal's config with macOS-specific gotchas already handled (skip brew shellenv, skip the deprecated homebrew/command-not-found tap, BSD ls vs GNU ls, sub-process PATH, zinit turbo mode for fast startup). Ends with a summary of what was installed plus the most important keyboard shortcuts.

Zenify My Terminal

Walk the user through setting up a fast, calm zsh + chosen-terminal + Starship/Oh-My-Posh + zinit-managed plugins on macOS. Don't blindly run a script — ask the decisions one at a time, apply the gotchas already learned, verify, and finish with a clean cheat-sheet of how to use what you built.

Stay terminal-neutral. Don't push WezTerm or any other choice. The bundled assets cover six terminals; pick the per-terminal reference based on what the user wants.

Mode selection

After step 1 (inspecting state), ask the user which mode:

Guided (default): walk through every decision in step 2. Best when the user wants control, has opinions about prompt or terminal, or has an unusual existing setup.

Fast track: ZERO questions. Apply the exact opinionated stack the skill was built around. Triggered by phrases like "fast track", "just set me up", "use the defaults", "one-shot", "quickest setup". Best when the user trusts the skill's defaults and wants a working zenful terminal in a few minutes.

The fast-track stack is fixed — this is the "what we set up the day this skill was born" recipe, distilled. Don't substitute or ask preference questions. If the user wants something different, send them to guided mode.

Decision	Fast-track value
Terminal	WezTerm (brew install --cask wezterm)
Font	JetBrainsMono Nerd Font
Color scheme	Tokyo Night Moon
Prompt	Oh My Posh with the bundled pure.omp.json theme
Plugin manager	zinit (turbo mode — wait lucid)
Big three	zsh-syntax-highlighting, zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-completions
Tab completion	fzf-tab
Directory jumper	zoxide (replaces autojump if present — confirm before overwriting)
omz snippets	git, sudo, aws, kubectl (all in — fixed)
Sub-process PATH	Set in wezterm.lua so brew tools resolve in spawned panes
Bottom status bar	Project name (active tab title) on left + cwd on right
Pane splits	Cmd-D / Cmd-Shift-D ; Cmd-Opt-Arrow to focus
Pane close	Cmd-Shift-W (Cmd-W still closes the whole tab, with confirm)
Project switcher	Cmd-P — fuzzy over ~/projects/*, tab-based (not workspaces). Each project = a tab with shell + viddy split.
Live git status	Cmd-G — viddy pane on right (25%)
Lazygit	Cmd-Shift-G — pane below (50%)
Workspace nav	Cmd-Shift-] / Cmd-Shift-[ cycle, Cmd-Shift-O overview
Kill workspace	Cmd-Shift-Q — closes every tab in the active workspace
Claude Code statusline	Installed if and only if ~/.claude/ exists — themed bundled script (default theme: rainbow to match the OMP rainbow prompt). Other themes: pure, powerline, minimal. See references/claude-statusline.md.
Neovim + NvChad	Not included in fast-track — it's opt-in only since it overwrites ~/.config/nvim and many users have an existing config. Available in guided mode (decision #7).
Verification	Run all checks in step 7
Summary	Print the cheat-sheet from step 9

Fast-track still requires:

• The current-state inspection (step 1) — never skip this
• The .zshrc backup (step 4) — never skip this
• The verification (step 7) — never claim success without proof
• The post-setup summary (step 9) — the user needs to know what they got
• The brew install of wezterm cask (Gatekeeper prompt on first launch)
• The brew install of viddy and lazygit (without these, Cmd-G and Cmd-Shift-G won't work)

If anything fails during fast-track (a brew install errors out, a syntax check fails, the verification doesn't pass), stop and drop into guided mode at that decision point — don't keep barreling through silently. If the user already has a different terminal/prompt installed and configured, ask whether to overwrite or use guided mode instead.

Workflow

1. Inspect the current state

Before asking any question, check what's already there. Don't ask things you can answer by looking.

echo $SHELL; which zsh; zsh --version
ls -la ~/.zshrc ~/.zshenv ~/.zprofile ~/.p10k.zsh ~/.config/starship.toml ~/.wezterm.lua ~/.config/ghostty/config ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf 2>/dev/null
which brew && brew --version | head -1
for t in fzf zoxide nvim eza bat starship oh-my-posh wezterm ghostty alacritty kitty viddy lazygit jq; do which $t 2>/dev/null; done
ls ~/Library/Fonts | grep -i nerd | head -3
echo "TERM_PROGRAM=$TERM_PROGRAM"
[[ -d ~/.claude ]] && echo "Claude Code: yes ($(ls ~/.claude/statusline-command.sh 2>/dev/null && echo 'has custom statusline' || echo 'no custom statusline'))" || echo "Claude Code: no"
cat ~/.zshrc 2>/dev/null

If the user already has a working .zshrc, read it before deciding what to preserve.

2. Ask the decisions one at a time

Don't dump all questions at once. Walk through these in order. Present terminals neutrally — each has trade-offs; let the user choose based on their priorities.

1. Terminal app — six real options:

   • WezTerm — most powerful (Lua scripting, custom workspaces/tabs/panes, project switchers). Heavier resource use. → terminals/wezterm.md
   • Ghostty — fast, native macOS, simple key = value config, native tabs/splits, no scripting. Newer. → terminals/ghostty.md
   • Kitty — mature middle ground; native tabs/splits + Python "kittens" for extensibility. → terminals/kitty.md
   • Alacritty — minimal, GPU-accelerated, no tabs/splits (pair with tmux). → terminals/alacritty.md
   • iTerm2 — established, GUI-configured (no text config file), full-featured. → terminals/iterm2.md
   • Apple Terminal — built-in, limited. Glyph rendering quirks; ~1.5s session-restore overhead. → terminals/apple-terminal.md

   Briefly state the trade-offs and let the user pick. Don't anchor to a recommendation.

2. Prompt — Starship (actively maintained, simpler config, slightly faster) / Oh My Posh (125 themes including P10K-style ports, ~1s slower startup) / Powerlevel10k (in maintenance mode since 2024 — usable but not actively developed). See references/prompts.md for full comparison.

   If the user picks Oh My Posh, offer to preview themes live: run bash <skill-dir>/scripts/preview-themes.sh — renders a curated set of ~15 themes (including the four powerlevel10k_* ports) to the terminal so the user can pick by sight. Variants: --p10k for just the P10K-style ports, --all for all 125 themes, or pass theme names to preview specific ones. Then set the chosen theme's path in the oh-my-posh init line.

3. Replace autojump? If they have it, default to yes — replace with zoxide. zoxide is faster and actively developed.

4. omz snippets — common opt-ins: git, sudo, aws, kubectl. Always skip command-not-found — the tap is dead.

5. Power-user extras — opt-in (terminal-dependent — see the chosen terminal's reference for what's available):

   • All terminals: a project switcher (some need tmux as the layer, others have it native)
   • Terminals with native splits (WezTerm, Kitty, iTerm2, Ghostty): viddy git-status side pane, lazygit diff viewer
   • WezTerm only: programmable status bar with project name, kill-workspace shortcut, workspace overview launcher

6. Claude Code statusline (only if [[ -d $HOME/.claude ]] — otherwise skip silently): bundled statusline shows model name, context-window usage bar, rate-limit percentages, worktree+branch, effort level. Four themes available — pure (default, dim labels + color-coded bar), powerline (filled segments + Nerd Font arrows), rainbow (bright fixed colors per segment), minimal (model · pct · branch). Offer to preview themes side-by-side via bash <skill-dir>/scripts/preview-statusline-themes.sh. See references/claude-statusline.md.

7. Neovim + NvChad (opt-in only — don't push it): modern Neovim setup with NvChad framework (file tree, fuzzy finder, LSP, treesitter, polished theme out of the box). Installs neovim, ripgrep, fd; clones the NvChad starter to ~/.config/nvim; aliases vim/vi to nvim; sets EDITOR=nvim. Backs up any existing ~/.config/nvim first. Only suggest this if the user explicitly asks for a "better vim", asks about Neovim, or otherwise indicates they want it. See references/neovim-nvchad.md.

3. Install dependencies

Detect Apple Silicon vs Intel by checking /opt/homebrew/bin/brew vs /usr/local/bin/brew.

Always:

brew install fzf zoxide
brew install --cask font-jetbrains-mono-nerd-font

Prompt:

brew install starship          # OR
brew install oh-my-posh        # ← fast-track uses this

Terminal — install only the chosen one (if it isn't Apple Terminal, which is built-in):

brew install --cask wezterm    # ← fast-track uses this; or ghostty / alacritty / kitty / iterm2

Power-user extras (only if opted in or in fast-track):

brew install viddy lazygit     # for git-status pane + diff viewer (fast-track requires both)
brew install tmux              # if terminal needs it for splits (Alacritty / Apple Terminal only)
brew install jq                # required by the bundled Claude Code statusline (only if Claude Code is detected)
brew install neovim ripgrep fd # if user opted into NvChad (decision #7) — not in fast-track

Do not run brew tap homebrew/command-not-found — it was deprecated and the tap is empty.

4. Back up the existing .zshrc

cp ~/.zshrc ~/.zshrc.bak.$(date +%Y%m%d)
diff -q ~/.zshrc ~/.zshrc.bak.$(date +%Y%m%d) && echo "OK: backup identical"

This is the rollback path. Don't proceed past this step until the diff confirms the backup is identical.

5. Write the configs

The zsh + prompt configs are terminal-agnostic. The terminal config comes from the per-terminal reference.

Always:

• assets/zshrc.zsh — generic .zshrc skeleton (zinit + plugins + tool init)

Prompt (pick one based on step 2):

• assets/starship-pure.toml → ~/.config/starship.toml
• For Oh My Posh: in .zshrc, replace the eval "$(starship init zsh)" line with:

  eval "$(oh-my-posh init zsh --config $HOMEBREW_PREFIX/opt/oh-my-posh/themes/pure.omp.json)"
  

Terminal (pick one based on step 2):

• WezTerm: assets/terminals/wezterm.lua → ~/.wezterm.lua — see terminals/wezterm.md
• Ghostty: assets/terminals/ghostty.config → ~/.config/ghostty/config — see terminals/ghostty.md
• Alacritty: assets/terminals/alacritty.toml → ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml — see terminals/alacritty.md
• Kitty: assets/terminals/kitty.conf → ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf — see terminals/kitty.md
• iTerm2 / Apple Terminal: no asset file — walk the user through the manual GUI steps in their reference

Always preserve from the existing .zshrc: PATH additions for tools the user actually has installed (flutter, fnm, herd, openjdk, gcloud, bun, etc.), and any tool-specific completion sources. List them explicitly to the user before overwriting.

Claude Code statusline (only if ~/.claude/ exists and the user opted in, or fast-track):

cp <skill-dir>/assets/claude/statusline-command.sh ~/.claude/statusline-command.sh
chmod +x ~/.claude/statusline-command.sh

Pick a theme — in guided mode, run bash <skill-dir>/scripts/preview-statusline-themes.sh to show all four side-by-side and let the user choose. In fast-track, default to rainbow. Then merge the statusLine block into ~/.claude/settings.json (use jq, don't overwrite the file):

THEME=rainbow   # or: pure | powerline | minimal
tmp=$(mktemp)
if [[ -f ~/.claude/settings.json ]]; then
  jq --arg cmd "sh ~/.claude/statusline-command.sh $THEME" \
     '. + {statusLine: {type: "command", command: $cmd}}' \
     ~/.claude/settings.json > "$tmp" && mv "$tmp" ~/.claude/settings.json
else
  mkdir -p ~/.claude
  printf '{"statusLine": {"type": "command", "command": "sh ~/.claude/statusline-command.sh %s"}}\n' "$THEME" > ~/.claude/settings.json
fi

See references/claude-statusline.md for what each segment means, what each theme looks like, and how to customize.

Neovim + NvChad (only if user opted in at decision #7 — never in fast-track):

1. Back up any existing ~/.config/nvim first (and ~/.local/share/nvim, ~/.local/state/nvim, ~/.cache/nvim if present). Confirm with the user before moving them.
2. brew install neovim ripgrep fd
3. git clone https://github.com/NvChad/starter ~/.config/nvim --depth 1
4. Add to .zshrc aliases section: alias vim='nvim', alias vi='nvim', export EDITOR='nvim', export VISUAL='nvim'
5. Tell the user to run nvim once — first launch auto-installs plugins (~30s), then run :MasonInstallAll for LSP servers.

See references/neovim-nvchad.md for keybindings and customization.

6. Apply the gotchas — see references/gotchas.md

Critical macOS-specific issues that will eat hours if missed. Read that file before writing the configs. Summary:

• Don't use brew shellenv — costs ~1.7s on every shell startup. Set HOMEBREW_PREFIX/CELLAR/REPOSITORY env vars manually instead.
• Use ls -G, not ls --color — macOS ships BSD ls, not GNU.
• Set LS_COLORS with a hardcoded portable string — coreutils isn't installed and not worth installing just for colors.
• Use zinit turbo mode (wait lucid) for plugins — synchronous loading adds ~500ms per plugin.
• Defer slow third-party completions (gcloud, bun, entire CLI) via zinit wait — these can each cost 1-2s synchronously.
• Skip the deprecated homebrew/command-not-found tap — it was removed.

Plus terminal-specific gotchas (in the per-terminal reference): WezTerm needs an explicit sub-process PATH, Apple Terminal needs ~/.bash_sessions_disable for fast startup, etc.

7. Verify before claiming done

Run these and inspect the output. Never declare success without seeing the verification pass.

zsh -n ~/.zshrc && echo "OK: syntax clean"

# Trigger zinit bootstrap (first run only — clones plugins, can take 30-60s)
zsh -i -c 'echo BOOTSTRAP_OK' 2>&1 | tail -5

# Smoke-test a fresh shell
zsh -i -c 'echo OK'

# Verify each preserved integration still resolves
zsh -i -c 'for t in flutter fnm bun gcloud git; do command -v $t >/dev/null && echo "OK $t" || echo "GONE $t"; done'

# Verify the prompt renders
zsh -i -c 'starship prompt --status=0' | head -3   # or oh-my-posh equivalent

# Cold startup time (3 runs, measure from /bin/sh to avoid wrapper noise)
for i in 1 2 3; do /bin/sh -c 'TIMEFORMAT="%R s"; time zsh -i -c exit' 2>&1 | tail -1; done

Realistic targets:

• Apple Terminal: ~2-3s (Apple's session restore is ~1.5s of that — unavoidable there)
• All other terminals: well under 1s perceived time-to-first-prompt with turbo plugins

If startup is over 5s, profile. Add zmodload zsh/zprof at top of .zshrc, zprof | head -30 at end, run zsh -i -c true. Then revert. Common culprits: GCloud SDK completion (2.3s), entire completion (1.9s), brew shellenv (1.7s), bun completion (0.7s). All can be deferred via zinit wait — see references/gotchas.md.

8. Manual smoke test (user opens the terminal)

The user must open the chosen terminal themselves (Gatekeeper prompt on first launch for any non-builtin) and verify:

• Two-line prompt with ❯ — if boxes appear, the Nerd Font isn't being picked up
• cd <Tab> opens fzf-tab with directory previews
• Ctrl-R opens fuzzy fzf history search
• Typing a command they've used before shows a grey autosuggestion; End accepts it

9. Print the post-setup summary (REQUIRED — do not skip)

End every successful run with a structured cheat-sheet. The user has just made many choices and the skill walked through many steps — they need a single anchor message that tells them what they have and how to use it.

Format:

## What you have now

| Component | Choice | Where it lives |
|---|---|---|
| Terminal | <chosen> | <config path> |
| Prompt | <Starship or Oh My Posh + theme> | <config path> |
| Shell config | zsh + zinit | ~/.zshrc |
| History/autosuggest | zsh-autosuggestions + zsh-syntax-highlighting | (auto-loaded by zinit) |
| Tab completion | fzf-tab + zsh-completions | (auto-loaded by zinit) |
| Directory jumper | zoxide | `z <partial>` |

(plus rows for every opt-in extra they enabled)

## Most important keyboard shortcuts

### Shell (works in any terminal)
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Tab | Fuzzy completion menu (fzf-tab) |
| Ctrl-R | Fuzzy history search |
| Ctrl-P / Ctrl-N | Prefix-matched history search (only commands starting with what's typed) |
| → or Ctrl-F | Accept ONE character of autosuggestion |
| Alt-F | Accept WORD of autosuggestion |
| End or Ctrl-E | Accept WHOLE autosuggestion |
| Ctrl-A | Jump to start of line |
| Ctrl-W | Delete word backward |
| Ctrl-U | Delete from cursor to start of line |
| z <partial> | Jump to frecency-matched directory |

### Terminal-specific shortcuts
(Pull from the chosen terminal's reference. Include only the keys that are actually configured for the user — don't list features they didn't opt into.)

For WezTerm with all extras: tab/pane/split/project switcher/viddy/lazygit/workspace nav/kill workspace.
For Ghostty: tab/split/zoom.
For Kitty: tab/split/layout.
For Alacritty / Apple Terminal: "Use tmux for tabs/splits — see <terminal>.md for the tmux cheat-sheet".

## Rollback

`mv ~/.zshrc.bak.YYYYMMDD ~/.zshrc` (insert today's date) restores the previous shell config. The terminal config can be deleted (~/.wezterm.lua, ~/.config/<terminal>/...) to revert that.

## What's next

- Theme tweaks: see <prompt>'s docs to swap the prompt theme; see <terminal>.md for theme browsing
- Add more plugins: `zinit light <user/repo>` then reload
- Profile if slow: `zsh -i -c 'zmodload zsh/zprof; source ~/.zshrc; zprof' | head -30`

Build the table from the actual decisions the user made — don't list options they declined.

Helping users explore Oh My Posh themes

If the user picked Oh My Posh and wants to change theme later (or in-skill, before settling on one), offer the preview script:

bash <skill-dir>/scripts/preview-themes.sh        # curated representative set
bash <skill-dir>/scripts/preview-themes.sh --p10k # only the powerlevel10k_* ports
bash <skill-dir>/scripts/preview-themes.sh --all  # all 125 themes (long output)
bash <skill-dir>/scripts/preview-themes.sh atomic montys catppuccin

Each rendered theme appears with its name as a heading + the actual prompt. The user picks one by name; you update the --config path in the oh-my-posh init line of ~/.zshrc.

For users coming from Powerlevel10k who want a familiar look, suggest powerlevel10k_lean (closest to Pure) or powerlevel10k_rainbow (the most colorful P10K style).

For deeper customization (custom segments, color tweaks, dropping the time module, transient prompts), see references/prompts.md.

What NOT to do

• Don't push a "recommended" terminal — the choice is the user's. Be neutral.
• Don't run brew tap homebrew/command-not-found — it's deprecated and empty.
• Don't chsh if $SHELL is already /bin/zsh (it usually is on modern macOS).
• Don't touch ~/.zshenv if it exists and is root-owned — leave it alone.
• Don't suggest a 300ms startup target — Apple Terminal alone adds 1.5s. Use realistic targets per terminal app.
• Don't promise a one-shot script. The user has existing .zshrc integrations that will get clobbered. Walk them through, show the diff, get approval.
• Don't enable zsh-syntax-highlighting before fzf-tab — order matters and breaks completions.
• Don't call compinit more than once — collapse any duplicates from the user's existing config into a single call.
• Don't skip the post-setup summary in step 9 — it's how the user remembers what they got.