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+--- Thread: Terminal setup thread - share your shell, prompt, and tools (/showthread.php?tid=83)
RE: Terminal setup thread - share your shell, prompt, and tools - Zero Two - 06-22-2026
Worth mentioning: tmux deserves its own mention in any terminal setup discussion.
If you're not using a terminal multiplexer, you're managing multiple terminal windows manually and losing session state every time you close the terminal. tmux gives you:
- Persistent sessions - detach from a running session, SSH somewhere else, reattach. The processes keep running.
- Split panes - editor on the left, running tests on the right, logs below
- Named windows within sessions - organised like browser tabs
My config highlights:
- Prefix changed from Ctrl+B to Ctrl+A (much easier to reach)
- Vi-mode for copy/paste in the buffer
- Mouse support enabled (controversial, but I use it)
- Status bar shows session name, window list, hostname, and battery percentage
tmux-resurrect plugin saves and restores sessions across reboots. Combine with tmux-continuum for automatic saving every 15 minutes. System reboots without losing your layout.
Terminal setup thread - share your shell, prompt, and tools - Zero Two - 06-22-2026
What does your terminal actually look like and what are you running?
My current setup:
Shell: Zsh with a small set of plugins via zinit (faster startup than Oh My Zsh):
- zsh-autosuggestions - suggests completions from history as you type, accept with right arrow
- zsh-syntax-highlighting - colours valid commands green, typos red before you run them
- fzf integration - fuzzy history search with Ctrl+R is genuinely transformative
Prompt: Starship - cross-shell, fast (written in Rust), shows git branch/status, language versions, exit codes. One config file, works the same in Zsh and Fish.
Tools that replaced standard ones:
- eza instead of ls - colours, git status icons, tree view
- bat instead of cat - syntax highlighting, line numbers, git diff integration
- fd instead of find - faster, saner defaults, respects .gitignore
- ripgrep instead of grep - significantly faster, also respects .gitignore
- zoxide instead of cd - learns your most visited directories, jump anywhere with z project
Terminal emulator: Ghostty - fast, supports ligatures, good default config.
All config lives in a dotfiles repo and gets installed via a stow-based script. New machine setup takes about 10 minutes.
What's your terminal stack?