Terminal

The default terminal stack for a new macOS machine is:

• Homebrew for package installation.
• Zsh as the interactive shell.
• Oh My Zsh for lightweight shell plugins and completions.
• Starship for the prompt.
• fzf for fuzzy selection.
• zoxide for smarter directory jumping.
• zsh-autosuggestions and zsh-syntax-highlighting for interactive editing.

Decision

Use Starship as the default prompt on new machines.

Starship is cross-shell, configured with one TOML file, and easy to reinstall through Homebrew. Powerlevel10k is still excellent if a machine already has a tuned Zsh-only prompt, but it is no longer the default choice for new machines because the upstream project has very limited support and no new features planned.

Keep Oh My Zsh, but do not let it own the prompt. In this setup, Oh My Zsh provides plugins and completions, while Starship owns the prompt rendering.

Install

Install Homebrew from the official installer:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Then make brew available in the current shell:

eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

Install the terminal toolchain declared in this repository:

brew bundle --file Brewfile

Install the default Node.js runtime through fnm:

fnm install --lts
fnm default lts-latest

Apply the managed dotfiles:

workstation dotfiles pull --dry-run
workstation dotfiles pull --force

Restart Zsh:

exec zsh

Tools

Tool	Role
starship	Cross-shell prompt with Git, runtime, package, and command-duration context.
fzf	Fuzzy finder for history, files, directories, Git branches, and ad hoc selection.
zoxide	Smarter cd; learns frequently used directories and jumps with z.
zsh-autosuggestions	Shows command suggestions from history as you type.
zsh-syntax-highlighting	Highlights valid commands, strings, paths, and errors in the prompt.
fnm	Fast Node.js version manager.
ripgrep	Fast code and text search.
fd	Fast, friendly file finder.
eza	Modern ls replacement.

Shell Init Order

Keep shell startup predictable:

1. Initialize Homebrew so Homebrew-installed tools are on PATH.
2. Load Oh My Zsh if it is installed.
3. Load language managers and path additions.
4. Initialize fzf and zoxide after completion is available.
5. Initialize Starship near the end.
6. Source zsh-syntax-highlighting last.

fzf Shortcuts

The Homebrew-installed fzf integration enables:

• Ctrl-R: fuzzy search command history.
• Ctrl-T: fuzzy insert a file or directory into the current command.
• Alt-C: fuzzy jump into a directory.

p10k Fallback

Powerlevel10k remains a valid fallback for machines that already use it. If starship is not installed and Powerlevel10k is available, .zshrc may still source it. New machines should install Starship first.

References:

• Homebrew
• Starship
• fzf
• zoxide
• Powerlevel10k