powerlevel9k Theme for ZSH

Powerlevel9k is a theme for ZSH which uses Powerline Fonts. It can be used with vanilla ZSH, Oh-My-Zsh, or Prezto, and can also be installed using antigen.

Look like a bad-ass. Impress everyone in 'Screenshot Your Desktop' threads. Use powerlevel9k.

There are a number of Powerline ZSH themes available, now. The developers of this theme focus on four primary goals:

1. Give users a great out-of-the-box configuration with no additional configuration required.
2. Make customization easy for users who do want to tweak their prompt.
3. Provide useful segments that you can enable to make your prompt even more effective and helpful. We have prompt segments for everything from unit test coverage to your AWS instance.
4. Optimize the code for execution speed as much as possible. A snappy terminal is a happy terminal.

Table of Contents generated with DocToc

• Features
• Installation
  • Step 1: Install Powerlevel9k
    • Option 1: Install for Vanilla ZSH
    • Option 2: Install for Oh-My-ZSH
    • Option 3: Install for Prezto
    • Option 4: Install for antigen
  • Step 2: Install Powerline Fonts
    • Option 1: Install Powerline Fonts
    • Option 2: Install Awesome Powerline Fonts
    • Option 3: Compatible Mode
• Segment Customization
  • The AWS Profile Segment
  • The 'context' Segment
  • The 'dir' segment
  • The 'ip' segment
  • The 'time' segment
  • Unit Test Ratios
  • The 'vcs' Segment
    • Symbols
• Styling
  • Double-Lined Prompt
  • Disable Right Prompt
  • Light Color Theme
  • Icon Customization
  • Segment Color Customization
  • Special Segment Colors
• Troubleshooting
  • Gaps Between Segments
  • Segment Colors are Wrong
  • Strange Characters in prompt
• Meta
  • Kudos
  • Developing
  • Contributions / Bugs / Contact

Features

• Supports git and mercurial repo information through ZSH's VCS_INFO:
  • branch / tag name
  • current action status (rebasing, merging, etc.,)
  • being behind / ahead of your remote by some number of commits
  • number of stashes (git only)
  • conditionally shows remote tracking branch if the name differs from local
  • current active bookmark (mercurial only)
  • various working tree statuses (e.g., unstaged, staged, etc.,)
• Shows return-code of the last command if it is an error code
• Indicates background jobs with a gear icon
• Can conditionally display the user@host string when needed (e.g., SSH)
• Provides segment for command history (so you can $ !<num> to re-run)
• Plenty of additional segments to choose from (e.g., AWS, ruby)
• Can be used as a single or double-lined prompt (see screenshots below)
• Several built-in color configurations to choose from

If you would like an OMZ theme that provides some of the same features but doesn't require Powerline fonts, check out the sister font, hackersaurus.

Here is a detailed screenshot showing powerlevel9k with default settings and varying terminal status indicators:

Installation

There are two steps to start using this theme:

1. Install the Powerlevel9k theme.
2. Install Powerline-patched fonts.
3. [Optional] Configuration

To get the most out of Powerlevel9k, you need to install both the theme as well as Powerline-patched fonts, if you don't have them installed already. If you cannot install Powerline-patched fonts for some reason, follow the instructions below for a compatible install.

No configuration is necessary post-installation if you like the default settings, but there is plenty of segment configuration available if you are interested.

Step 1: Install Powerlevel9k

There are four ways to install and use the Powerlevel9k theme: vanilla ZSH, Oh-My-Zsh, Prezto, and antigen. Do one of the following:

Option 1: Install for Vanilla ZSH

If you use just a vanilla ZSH install, simply clone this repository and reference it in your ~/.zshrc:

$ git clone https://github.com/bhilburn/powerlevel9k.git
$ echo 'source  powerlevel9k/powerlevel9k.zsh-theme' >> ~/.zshrc

Option 2: Install for Oh-My-ZSH

To install this theme for Oh-My-Zsh, clone this repository into your OMZ custom/themes directory.

$ cd ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom
$ git clone https://github.com/bhilburn/powerlevel9k.git themes/powerlevel9k

You then need to select this theme in your ~/.zshrc:

ZSH_THEME="powerlevel9k/powerlevel9k"

Option 3: Install for Prezto

To install this theme for use in Prezto, clone this repository into your Prezto prompt/external directory.

$ cd ~.zprezto/modules/prompt/external
$ git clone https://github.com/bhilburn/powerlevel9k.git
$ ln -s powerlevel9k/powerlevel9k.zsh-theme ../functions/prompt_powerlevel9k_setup

You then need to select this theme in your ~/.zpreztorc:

zstyle ':prezto:module:prompt' theme 'powerlevel9k'

Option 4: Install for antigen

If you prefer antigen, just add this theme to the antigen config in your ~/.zshrc:

$ echo 'antigen theme bhilburn/powerlevel9k powerlevel9k' >> ~/.zshrc
$ echo 'antigen apply' >> ~/.zshrc

Note that you should define any customizations before calling antigen theme (i.e. setting the POWERLEVEL9K_* variables) in your .zshrc.

Step 2: Install Powerline Fonts

Technically, you don't have to install Powerline fonts. If you are using a font that has some of the basic glyphs we need, you can use the theme in compatible mode - see the third option, below.

To get the most out of theme, though, you'll want Powerline-patched fonts. There are two varieties of these: 'Powerline Fonts' and 'Awesome Powerline Fonts'. The latter includes additional glyphs that aren't required for a normal install.

Do one of the following:

Option 1: Install Powerline Fonts

You can find the [installation instructions for Powerline Fonts here] (https://powerline.readthedocs.org/en/latest/installation/linux.html#fonts-installation). You can also find the raw font files in this Github repository if you want to manually install them for your OS.

After you have installed Powerline fonts, make the default font in your terminal emulator the Powerline font you want to use.

This is the default mode for Powerlevel9k, and no further configuration is necessary.

N.B.: If Powerlevel9k is not working properly, it is almost always the case that the fonts were not properly installed, or you have not configured your terminal to use a Powerline-patched font!

Option 2: Install Awesome Powerline Fonts

Alternatively, you can install Awesome Powerline Fonts, which provide a number of additional glyphs.

You then need to indicate that you wish to use the additional glyphs by defining the following in your ~/.zshrc:

POWERLEVEL9K_MODE='awesome-fontconfig'

If you chose to use already patched fonts, use instead :

POWERLEVEL9K_MODE='awesome-patched'

If you choose to make use of this, your prompt will look something like this:

Note that if you prefer flat segment transitions, you can use the following with Awesome Powerline Fonts installed:

POWERLEVEL9K_MODE='flat'

Which looks like this:

Option 3: Compatible Mode

This option is best if you prefer not to install additional fonts. This option will work out-of-the-box if your your terminal font supports the segment separator characters \uE0B0 (left segment separator) and \uE0B2 (right segment separator).

All you need to do to in this case is install the Powerlevel9k theme itself, as explained above, and then define the following in your ~/.zshrc:

POWERLEVEL9K_MODE='compatible'

Note that depending on your terminal font, this may still not render appropriately. This configuration should be used as a back-up.

Segment Customization

Customizing your prompt is easy! Select the segments you want to have displayed, and then assign them to either the left or right prompt. The segments that are currently available are:

• aws - The current AWS profile, if active (more info below)
• context - Your username and host (more info below)
• dir - Your current working directory.
• history - The command number for the current line.
• ip - Shows the current IP address.
• load - Your machines 5 minute load average and free RAM.
• node_version - Show the version number of the installed Node.js.
• os_icon - Display a nice little icon, depending on your operating system.
• php_version - Show the current PHP version.
• rbenv - Ruby environment information (if one is active).
• rspec_stats - Show a ratio of test classes vs code classes for RSpec.
• status - The return code of the previous command, and status of background jobs.
• symfony2_tests - Show a ratio of test classes vs code classes for Symfony2.
• symfony2_version - Show the current Symfony2 version, if you are in a Symfony2-Project dir.
• time - System time.
• vi_mode - Vi editing mode (NORMAL|INSERT).
• virtualenv - Your Python VirtualEnv.
• vcs - Information about this git or hg repository (if you are in one).

To specify which segments you want, just add the following variables to your ~/.zshrc. If you don't customize this, the below configuration is the default:

POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=(context dir rbenv vcs)
POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=(status history time)

The AWS Profile Segment

If you would like to display the current AWS profile, add the aws segment to one of the prompts, and define AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE in your ~/.zshrc:

export AWS_DEFAULT_PROFILE=<profile_name>

The 'context' Segment

The context segment (user@host string) is conditional. This lets you enable it, but only display it if you are not your normal user or on a remote host (basically, only print it when it's likely you need it).

To use this feature, make sure the context segment is enabled in your prompt elements (it is by default), and define a DEFAULT_USER in your ~/.zshrc:

export DEFAULT_USER=<your username>

The 'dir' segment

The dir segment shows the current working directory. You can limit the output to a certain length:

# Limit to the last two folders
POWERLEVEL9K_SHORTEN_DIR_LENGTH=2

To change the way how the current working directory is truncated, just set:

# truncate the middle part
POWERLEVEL9K_SHORTEN_STRATEGY="truncate_middle"
# truncate from right, leaving the first X characters untouched
POWERLEVEL9K_SHORTEN_STRATEGY="truncate_from_right"
# default behaviour is to truncate whole directories

In each case you have to specify the length you want to shorten the directory to. So in some cases POWERLEVEL9K_SHORTEN_DIR_LENGTH means characters, in others whole directories.

The 'ip' segment

This segment shows you your current internal IP address. It tries to examine all currently used network interfaces and prints the first address it finds. In the case that this is not the right IP address you can specify the correct network interface by setting:

POWERLEVEL9K_IP_INTERFACE="eth0"

The 'time' segment

By default the time is show in 'H:M:S' format. If you want to change it, just set another format in your ~/.zshrc. As an example, this is a reversed time format:

# Reversed time format
POWERLEVEL9K_TIME_FORMAT='%D{%S:%M:%H}'

If you are using an "Awesome Powerline Font", you can add a time symbol to this segment, as well:

# Output time, date, and a symbol from the "Awesome Powerline Font" set
POWERLEVEL9K_TIME_FORMAT="%D{%H:%M:%S \uE868  %d.%m.%y}"

Showing Status

Usually we display always the status, and in case a command failed, the return code of the last executed program. In case you want to display the status only if something special happend, you can set POWERLEVEL9K_STATUS_VERBOSE=false in your ~/.zshrc.

Unit Test Ratios

The symfony2_tests and rspec_tests segments both show a ratio of "real" classes vs test classes in your source code. This is just a very simple ratio, and does not show your code coverage or any sophisticated stats. All this does is count your source files and test files, and calculate the ratio between them. Just enough to give you a quick overview about the test situation of the project you are dealing with.

VI-Mode Indicator

This Segment shows the current mode of your ZSH. If you want to use your ZSH in VI-Mode, you need to configure it separatly in your ~/.zshrc:

# VI-Mode
# general activation
bindkey -v

# set some nice hotkeys
bindkey '^P' up-history
bindkey '^N' down-history
bindkey '^?' backward-delete-char
bindkey '^h' backward-delete-char
bindkey '^w' backward-kill-word
bindkey '^r' history-incremental-search-backward

# make it more responsive
export KEYTIMEOUT=1

The 'vcs' Segment

By default, the vcs segment will provide quite a bit of information. If you would also like for it to display the current hash / changeset, simply define POWERLEVEL9K_SHOW_CHANGESET in your ~/.zshrc. If activated, it will show the first 12 characters of the changeset id. To change the amount of characters, set POWERLEVEL9K_CHANGESET_HASH_LENGTH to any value you want.

# enable the vcs segment in general
POWERLEVEL9K_SHOW_CHANGESET=true
# just show the 6 first characters of changeset
POWERLEVEL9K_CHANGESET_HASH_LENGTH=6

You can also disable the branch icon in your prompt by setting POWERLEVEL9K_HIDE_BRANCH_ICON to true:

# Hide the branch icon
POWERLEVEL9K_HIDE_BRANCH_ICON=true

Symbols

The vcs segment uses various symbols to tell you the state of your repository. These symbols depend on your installed font and selected POWERLEVEL9K_MODE from the Installation section above.

Compatible	Powerline	Awesome Powerline	Explanation
↑4	↑4	4	Number of commits your repository is ahead of your remote branch
↓5	↓5	5	Number of commits your repository is behind of your remote branch
⍟3	⍟3	3	Number of stashes, here 3.
●	●		There are unstaged changes in your working copy
✚	✚		There are staged changes in your working copy
?	?		There are files in your working copy, that are unknown to your repository
→	→		The name of your branch differs from its tracking branch.
☿	☿		A mercurial bookmark is active.
@			Branch Icon
None	None	2c3705	The current commit hash. Here "2c3705"
None	None		Repository is a git repository
None	None		Repository is a Mercurial repository

Styling

You can configure the look and feel of your prompt easily with some built-in options.

Double-Lined Prompt

By default, powerlevel9k is a single-lined prompt. If you would like to have the segments display on one line, and print the command prompt below it, simply define POWERLEVEL9K_PROMPT_ON_NEWLINE in your ~/.zshrc:

POWERLEVEL9K_PROMPT_ON_NEWLINE=true

Here is what it looks like:

You can customize the icons used to draw the multiline prompt by setting the following variables in your ~/.zshrc:

POWERLEVEL9K_MULTILINE_FIRST_PROMPT_PREFIX="↱"
POWERLEVEL9K_MULTILINE_SECOND_PROMPT_PREFIX="↳ "

Disable Right Prompt

If you do not want a right prompt, you can disable it by setting:

POWERLEVEL9K_DISABLE_RPROMPT=true

Light Color Theme

If you prefer to use "light" colors, simply set POWERLEVEL9K_COLOR_SCHEME to light in your ~/.zshrc, and you're all set!

POWERLEVEL9K_COLOR_SCHEME='light'

The 'light' color scheme works well for 'Solarized Light' users. Check it out:

Icon Customization

Each icon used can be customized too by specifying a variable named like the icon and prefixed with 'POWERLEVEL9K'. If you want to use another icon as segment separators, you can easily do that:

POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_SEGMENT_SEPARATOR=$'\uE0B1'
POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_SEGMENT_SEPARATOR=$'\uE0B3'

You could get a list of all icons defined in random colors, by adding the special segment icons_test to your prompt:

POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=(icons_test)

This special prompt does not work on the right side, as it would be too long, and ZSH hides it automatically. Also have in mind, that the output depends on your POWERLEVEL9K_MODE settings.

You can change any icon by setting a environment variable. To get a full list of icons just type get_icon_names in your terminal.

Segment Color Customization

For each segment in your prompt, you can specify a foreground and background color by setting them in your ~/.zshrc. Use the segment names from the above section Segment Customization. For example, to change the appearance of the time segment, you would use:

POWERLEVEL9K_TIME_FOREGROUND='red'
POWERLEVEL9K_TIME_BACKGROUND='blue'

Note that you can also use a colorcode value. Example:

POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_FOREGROUND='021' # Dark blue

For a full list of supported colors, run the spectrum_ls program in your terminal.

Special Segment Colors

Some segments have additional color options if you want to customize the look of your prompt even further. These Segments are context, vcs, rspec_stats, symfony2_tests:

# Customizing `context` colors for root and non-root users
POWERLEVEL9K_CONTEXT_DEFAULT_BACKGROUND="green"
POWERLEVEL9K_CONTEXT_DEFAULT_FOREGROUND="cyan"
POWERLEVEL9K_CONTEXT_ROOT_BACKGROUND="red"
POWERLEVEL9K_CONTEXT_ROOT_FOREGROUND="blue"

# Advanced `vcs` color customization
POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_FOREGROUND='blue'
POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_DARK_FOREGROUND='black'
POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_BACKGROUND='green'
# If VCS changes are detected:
POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_MODIFIED_FOREGROUND='red'
POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_MODIFIED_BACKGROUND='cyan'

# rspec_stats for good test coverage
POWERLEVEL9K_RSPEC_STATS_GOOD_FOREGROUND='blue'
POWERLEVEL9K_RSPEC_STATS_GOOD_BACKGROUND='green'
# rspec_stats for average test coverage
POWERLEVEL9K_RSPEC_STATS_AVG_FOREGROUND='black'
POWERLEVEL9K_RSPEC_STATS_AVG_BACKGROUND='cyan'
# rspec_stats for poor test coverage
POWERLEVEL9K_RSPEC_STATS_BAD_FOREGROUND='red'
POWERLEVEL9K_RSPEC_STATS_BAD_BACKGROUND='white'

# symfony2_tests for good test coverage
POWERLEVEL9K_SYMFONY2_TESTS_GOOD_FOREGROUND='blue'
POWERLEVEL9K_SYMFONY2_TESTS_GOOD_BACKGROUND='green'
# symfony2_tests for average test coverage
POWERLEVEL9K_SYMFONY2_TESTS_AVG_FOREGROUND='black'
POWERLEVEL9K_SYMFONY2_TESTS_AVG_BACKGROUND='cyan'
# symfony2_tests for poor test coverage
POWERLEVEL9K_SYMFONY2_TESTS_BAD_FOREGROUND='red'
POWERLEVEL9K_SYMFONY2_TESTS_BAD_BACKGROUND='white'

Troubleshooting

Here are some fixes to some common problems.

Gaps Between Segments

You can see this issue in the screenshot, below:

Thankfully, this is easy to fix. This happens if you have successfully installed Powerline fonts, but did not make a Powerline font the default font in your terminal emulator (e.g., 'terminator', 'gnome-terminal', 'konsole', etc.,).

Segment Colors are Wrong

If the color display within your terminal seems off, it's possible you are using a reduced color set. You can check this by invoking echotc Co in your terminal, which should yield 256. If you see something different, try setting xterm-256color in your ~/.zshrc:

TERM=xterm-256color

Strange Characters in prompt

If your prompt shows strange character like this:

it is most likely that you set POWERLEVEL9K_MODE="awesome-patched", but did not install an awesome-font. For most other modes, you need a powerline-patched font.

Meta

Kudos

This theme wouldn't have happened without inspiration from the original agnoster ZSH theme.

Before creating this theme, I also tried jeremyFreeAgent's theme and maverick2000's theme, ZSH2000.

Developing

Documentation for developers is kept on the Powerlevel9k Github wiki.

Contributions / Bugs / Contact

If you have any requests or bug reports, please use the tracker in this Github repository.

I'm happy to accept code contributions from anyone who has a bug fix, new feature, or just a general improvement! Please submit your contribution as a Github pull-request.

If you would like to contact me directly, you can find my e-mail address on my Github profile page.