Shell & Prompt Tooling

zsh is the default on modern macOS and many Linux distros. Stick to it; completions and plugins are better than old‑school bash.

1 - Install Oh My Zsh

Run the official one‑liner installer; it clones a git repo into ~/.oh‑my‑zsh and appends bootstrap code to ~/.zshrc. Enable plugins we lint in CI:

plugins=(git rust docker)

Reload with source ~/.zshrc. Oh My Zsh auto‑updates weekly unless you disable it.

2 - Homebrew

Homebrew is our cross‑platform package manager. The install script detects Apple Silicon vs Intel and places binaries under /opt/homebrew or /usr/local accordingly. Post‑install, brew doctor checks your PATH.

brew install bat
brew upgrade && brew autoremove

3 - Add an alias for cat

bat is a drop‑in replacement for cat with syntax highlighting and line numbers. It’s a great way to view files in the terminal.

nano ~/.zshrc
# Add this line to your ~/.zshrc file
# to use bat as a replacement for cat
# This will show line numbers and colorize the output
# when you use the cat command
alias cat='bat --style=numbers --color=always'

3.3 - Tips

cat -p # Use -p to disable formatting and show raw output

4 - Make zsh your default (macOS)

chsh -s $(which zsh)