This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Pepe
If you spend a good chunk of your day in the terminal, you know how much difference a well-tuned shell can make. For years, I worked with the default Bash setup. Yeah, it got the job done, but it always felt a bit… dull. Then I discovered Zsh, a powerful, extensible shell that turns the command line into a fast, elegant, and personalized workspace.
This blog post is my personal guide to configuring the command line with all the tools I use most often. So, let's start.
My preferred distro for development is Ubuntu (either as WSL or a standalone version)
First things first - update:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
Then we can download the latest zshell from the repository:
sudo apt install zsh
and make it your default shell
chsh -s $(which zsh)
I’m using a combination of Oh My Zsh and Oh My Posh to take my Zsh setup to the next level. Oh My Zsh handles the core customization like managing plugins, aliases, and shell behavior, making the terminal faster and more capable. On top of that, Oh My Posh adds a beautiful, information-rich prompt with support for Git status, context awareness, and dynamic themes. Using both gives me the best of both worlds. However, in future I might end up with Oh My Posh only.
To display the icons correctly, we need to install Nerd Fonts. I am using MesloLG Nerd Font.
In WSL Terminal Settings, you have to configure it in your Ubuntu profile > Appearance > Font Face [MesloLGM Nerd Font].
Oh My Zsh installation
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
in your ~/.zshrc file create ZSH_CUSTOM environment variable. It will be used as a path to custom plugins.
export ZSH_CUSTOM="$HOME/.zsh_custom"
Installation of plugins for autosuggestion and syntax highlighting:
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions.git $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting
Again, let's update our ~/.zshrc config file
plugins=(git zsh-autosuggestions zsh-syntax-highlighting)
Now we can install Oh My Posh:
curl -s https://ohmyposh.dev/install.sh | bash -s
Changing our ~/.zshrc for the last time
export PATH=$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH
eval "$(oh-my-posh init zsh)"
exec zsh
Now we should have a prompt which looks like this:
I really love the default theme because it has everything I need for my job, including username, current folder, branch name, and current Git status, as well as providing visual information about the last successful/failed command.
Thanks for reading, and see you in my next blog post.
Happy coding!
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Pepe
Pepe | Sciencx (2025-10-23T12:26:02+00:00) Zshell [My Dev Environment]. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/10/23/zshell-my-dev-environment/
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