Mac Terminal Customization with Oh-My-ZSH and powerlevel10k

A step by step guide to customize your terminal on Mac

1. Install Apple’s Developer Tools

Type “terminal” in the spotlight (type ⌘ command+space) and launch it. Run the command below and install Apple’s Command Line Developer Tools:

xcode-select --install

2. Install a package manager for Mac

You can either install MacPorts or Homebrew. I prefer MacPorts over homebrew. Download a MacPorts package from its official website for your operating system.

After installation is complete fire up your terminal and run port version. If it is installed successfully it will print the version installed (Version: 2.8.1).

3. Install zsh (Only for macOS older than Catalina)

The default login shell for newer macOS is zsh (started with macOS Catalina). If you are using older version then you can install the latest version of zsh

sudo port install zsh

We are done with terminal here , so close it for now.

4. Install iTerm2

iTerm2 is a replacement for Mac Terminal. It has lot of features and supports lot of plugins which makes it fun and easy to use. Download iTerm2 from its official website and install it.

5. Install oh-my-zsh

To install oh-my-zsh, you can either use curl

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

or wget

sh -c "$(wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh -O -)"

Open/relaunch iTerm2. Run ls -l and it should look like

6. Install powerlevel10k

Download powerlevel10k theme

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k

Open ~/.zshrc file and replace the line

ZSH_THEME="robbyrussell"

with

ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k"

7. Download and install a Nerd Font

Install a monospaced nerd font of your choice from nerd-fonts. My list of top 5 fonts for terminal and programming:

• JetBrains Mono NF (Regular)
• Fira Code NF (Regular)
• Hack NF (Regular)
• Iosevka NF (Regular)
• Meslo LGS NF (Regular)

You can use any nerd font but for me Meslo works best with powerlevel10k (and is recommended by the developer).

• Open iTerm2
• type ⌘ command+,
• navigate to Profiles > Text tab
• set Font to “MesloLGS Nerd Font”
• set font size to 14

8. Configure powerlevel10k

Run

p10k configure

and configure it (try out your own combinations!).

My choices for the configuration:

Settings	Choice
Does this look like a diamond (rotated square)?	y
Does this look like a lock?	y
Does this look like an upwards arrow?	y
Do all these icons fit between the crosses?	y
Prompt Style	3
Character Set	1
Show current time?	1
Prompt Separators	1
Prompt Heads	1
Prompt Tails	1
Prompt Height	1
Prompt Connection	1
Prompt Frame	2
Frame Color	1
Prompt Spacing	1
Icons	2
Prompt Flow	1
Enable Transient Prompt?	n
Instant Prompt Mode	1

9. Install color schemes for iTerm2

Download color schemes from iTerm2-color-schemes or use the git repo. Save it to ~/Download folder.

Double click on the downloaded file to unzip it.

• Open iTerm2
• type ⌘ command+,
• navigate to Profiles > Colors tab
• Click on Color Presets
• Click on Import
• Navigate to the ~/Download/iTerm2-Color-Schemes-master/schemes folder
• Select the profile MaterialDesignColors.itermcolors and import (you can select any profile you would like to import, give it a try and see what color scheme you like!)

Now relaunch your iTerm2.

10. More Customization

This step will add context and a green “❯” on left prompt, cpu load and ram on right prompt.
Open ~/.p10k.zsh file.

• Find element typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS and add context segment. It should look like this

  typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=(
    # =========================[ Line #1 ]=========================
    os_icon                 # os identifier
    context                 # user@hostname
    dir                     # current directory
    vcs                     # git status
    # =========================[ Line #2 ]=========================
    newline                 # \n
    # prompt_char           # prompt symbol
  )

• Similarly, find typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS and uncomment cpu and load segment and comment context segment.

• Find line typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_MULTILINE_LAST_PROMPT_PREFIX='%244F╰─ and replace it with

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_MULTILINE_LAST_PROMPT_PREFIX='%244F╰─%76F❯'

• Change OS identifier color to change to color of apple logo

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_OS_ICON_FOREGROUND=7
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_OS_ICON_BACKGROUND=0

• Change default and privileged context from user@hostname to user

  # Context format when running with privileges: user@hostname.
  typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_CONTEXT_ROOT_TEMPLATE='%n'
  # Context format when in SSH without privileges: user@hostname.
  typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_CONTEXT_{REMOTE,REMOTE_SUDO}_TEMPLATE='%n@%m'
  # Default context format (no privileges, no SSH): user@hostname.
  typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_CONTEXT_TEMPLATE='%n'

and comment out this line to always show the context

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_CONTEXT_{DEFAULT,SUDO}_{CONTENT,VISUAL_IDENTIFIER}_EXPANSION=

• Change current directory background color

 # Current directory background color.
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_DIR_BACKGROUND=4
# Default current directory foreground color.
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_DIR_FOREGROUND=0

To see the effect run

source ~/.p10k.sh

11. Install plugins for zsh

• Syntax Highlighting Plugin:

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

• AutoSuggestion Plugin:

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions $ZSH_CUSTOM/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

Open ~/.zshrc file. Find plugins section and install the downloaded plugins

plugins=(
  git
  zsh-syntax-highlighting
  zsh-autosuggestions
)

12. Customize Mac Terminal

• Navigate to the ~/Download/iTerm2-Color-Schemes-master/terminal folder (Downloaded in step 9)
• Right click on MaterialDesignColors.terminal and open it with Terminal app
• Type ⌘ command+, and go to Profiles. You will see MaterialDesignColors profile on the left pan. Select it and click Default button at the bottom.
• Change font to “MesloLGS Nerd Font”.
• Relaunch the Terminal app.

13. Advanced iTerm2 settings

• Open iTerm2
• Set a hotkey to show/hide all iTerm2 windows. Navigate to Keys > Hotkey and type ⌘ command+i.
• Remove tab bar: Navigate to Appearance > General and set Theme to minimal.
• Unlimited scrollback: Navigate to Profiles > Terminal and check Unlimited scrollback
• Type ⌘ command+return to enter/exit full screen mode