Prompt Customization
Learn how the PS1 variable controls your prompt, and discover tools like oh-my-zsh and Starship.
Your terminal prompt — the text that appears before every command — is controlled by a variable called PS1 (Prompt String 1). By changing PS1, you can display exactly the information you want: your username, current directory, git branch, time, or even colors and icons.
In Bash, PS1 uses special escape sequences that start with a backslash. Here are the most common ones:
\u → username (e.g., braydon)
\h → hostname (e.g., macbook)
\w → current directory (e.g., ~/projects)
\W → basename only (e.g., projects)
\d → date (e.g., Mon Jan 15)
\t → time (24h) (e.g., 14:30:00)
\$ → $ for user, # for rootHere are some example PS1 values and the prompts they produce:
# Simple: just shows directory and $
PS1="\w \$ "
# Result: ~/projects $
# Classic: user@host with directory
PS1="\u@\h:\w\$ "
# Result: braydon@macbook:~/projects$
# Minimal: just an arrow
PS1="→ "
# Result: →
# With timestamp
PS1="[\t] \w \$ "
# Result: [14:30:00] ~/projects $You can also add colors to your prompt using ANSI escape codes. The syntax is verbose but the results are worth it. Colors are wrapped in
\[ and \] to tell Bash they're non-printing characters (so line wrapping works correctly).# Green username, blue directory, reset color at end
PS1="\[\033[32m\]\u\[\033[0m\]:\[\033[34m\]\w\[\033[0m\]\$ "
# Result: braydon:~/projects$ (with green user and blue path)●
You don't need to memorize color codes. Most developers use a prompt framework that handles this for you. But understanding that PS1 is just a variable helps you troubleshoot when things look wrong.
Oh My Zsh is the most popular Zsh framework. It provides over 150 themes, hundreds of plugins, and sensible defaults. Installation is a single command, and switching themes is as easy as changing one line in your
.zshrc.# Install Oh My Zsh
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"
# Change theme in ~/.zshrc
ZSH_THEME="agnoster" # popular powerline-style theme
ZSH_THEME="robbyrussell" # the default, clean and minimal
ZSH_THEME="spaceship" # feature-rich with git, node, docker infoStarship is a newer, cross-shell prompt written in Rust. It works with Bash, Zsh, Fish, PowerShell, and more. It's fast, minimal by default, and highly configurable through a simple TOML file. It auto-detects your project context and shows relevant info (git branch, Node version, Python environment, etc.).
# Install Starship
curl -sS https://starship.rs/install.sh | sh
# Add to end of ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
eval "$(starship init bash)" # for Bash
eval "$(starship init zsh)" # for Zsh
# Configure in ~/.config/starship.toml
# https://starship.rs/config/Try using
echo to see what the current PS1 value looks like. You can also try setting PS1 to see how it changes the prompt (though the effect is simulated here).echo $PS1Practice