how to setup series — part 1: basic terminal config

in this series I want to show how I do things on my computer for my work life and my overall digital being. i’m currently using an m5 macbook pro for work and therefore use macos. i’m happy to be working with a unix-like system as my daily machine at work.

basic config + addons

the first point i want to start is my zsh config. zshell is the default one for macos and i was never missing a feature that only a different shell was able to offer, so I never really thought about switching. but the plain shell could be upgraded really easily with some little add-ons.

first i want to configure zsh itself, just expand the history and optimize search

HISTSIZE=50000               # Lines kept in memory per session (macOS default: 2000)
SAVEHIST=50000               # Lines saved to ~/.zsh_history (macOS default: 1000)
setopt HIST_IGNORE_ALL_DUPS  # Remove older duplicate when a command is repeated (default: off)
setopt HIST_FIND_NO_DUPS     # Skip duplicates when searching history (default: off)
setopt HIST_REDUCE_BLANKS    # Strip superfluous spaces before saving (default: off)
setopt SHARE_HISTORY        # Write and share history immediately across open tabs (default: off)

then I add addons to customize my prompt, improve how I’m able to search the history, and add syntax highlighting. most of them can be installed via homebrew (and fzf-tab cloned as a lightweight git repo):

brew install jandedobbeleer/oh-my-posh/oh-my-posh zsh-completions fzf direnv zoxide zsh-autosuggestions zsh-syntax-highlighting
git clone https://github.com/Aloxaf/fzf-tab ~/.config/zsh/plugins/fzf-tab

here is what each addon does and the exact order they need to be loaded in ~/.zshrc:

the examples below use my own oh-my-posh theme and Ghostty colors: a blue folder name, a green git branch, and a cyan prompt on the next line. i’m using MesloLGM Nerd Font Mono for the icons. these are small illustrations of each addon in use; most change how the shell behaves while the prompt stays the same.

• oh-my-posh

  • renders a custom, fast prompt showing the current path, git branch, and active cloud/tool context (like Azure, AWS, Terraform, or Node) only when inside relevant project folders

  eval "$(oh-my-posh init zsh --config ~/.config/oh-my-posh/minimal.omp.json)"

    lindlau.dev-workspace ·  main
  ❯ 

• zsh-completions

  • Adds completion definitions to $fpath.
  • has to be run first, otherwise the following step compinit can’t add the completions
  • comes with completions for things like macos native utils like networkQuality, or nvm, tsc, direnv, etc.

  fpath=(/opt/homebrew/share/zsh-completions $fpath)

    lindlau.dev-workspace ·  main
  ❯ networkQuality -

• compinit

  • initialize the completion engine and configure case-insensitive matching

  autoload -Uz compinit; compinit
  zstyle ':completion:*' menu no                          # Let fzf-tab handle the menu
  zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}' # Case-insensitive matching

    lindlau.dev-workspace ·  main
  ❯ networkQuality -
  -h  -- Show help
  -s  -- Run tests sequentially instead of parallel upload/download
  -v  -- Verbose output

• fzf shell integration (requires fzf which you can install via brew)

  • Binds Ctrl+R (history search), Ctrl+T (file picker), and Opt+C (directory jump).

  source <(fzf --zsh)

    lindlau.dev-workspace ·  main
  ❯
    git status --short
  > git status
    2/2
  > status

• fzf-tab

  • Replaces Zsh’s standard Tab completion menu with an interactive fzf popup and directory preview

  source ~/.config/zsh/plugins/fzf-tab/fzf-tab.plugin.zsh
  zstyle ':fzf-tab:complete:cd:*' fzf-preview 'ls -G $realpath'

    lindlau.dev-workspace ·  main
  ❯ cd apps/
  > port
    1/5
  > portfolio/    │ README.md
                  │ astro.config.mjs
                  │ src

• direnv

  • loads .envrc on folder switch

  eval "$(direnv hook zsh)"

  ❯ cd ~/Code/example-project
  direnv: loading ~/Code/example-project/.envrc
  direnv: export +PROJECT_ENV
    example-project
  ❯ 

  a new .envrc needs direnv allow before it can run. this example only exports PROJECT_ENV; cloud segments in my prompt appear when the matching context is configured.

• zoxide

  • provides smart directory jumping (z <folder> and zi)

  eval "$(zoxide init zsh)"

    ~
  ❯ z lindlau.dev-workspace
    lindlau.dev-workspace ·  main
  ❯ 

• zsh-autosuggestions

  • shows command predictions based on history

  source /opt/homebrew/share/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh

    lindlau.dev-workspace ·  main
  ❯ git status

• zsh-syntax-highlighting

  • colors valid and invalid commands
  • must always be the last thing in the zsh config

  source /opt/homebrew/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh

    lindlau.dev-workspace ·  main
  ❯ git status
  ❯ gti status
  ❯ echo "hello"

now we have a set up terminal :)