mehshell 🐚

⚡ A blazingly fast, parallelized prompt engine for zsh written in Go.

Prompt Example

✨ Features

• 🚀 Single Go binary, ~6ms per prompt.
• 🔀 All segments run as parallel goroutines.
• 🔥 Git dirty check with 150ms timeout. It never blocks, even in huge repos.
• 🧠 Zero-fork git branch detection. It reads .git/HEAD directly.
• 🖥️ OS icon auto-detection for Arch, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, NixOS, and macOS.
• 📦 Runtime version detection for Node.js, Python, Go, Rust, Ruby, and Java when marker files are present.
• ☁️ Cloud context support for Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, and GCP profiles.
• 🏗️ Terraform workspace and Docker context detection.
• 🐍 Environment detection for Conda and virtualenv.
• 🔋 Battery level with charge state icons.
• ⏱️ Command duration (3s+), time, and exit code coloring.
• ✏️ Vi mode indicator (swaps prompt char on keymap change).
• 🪄 Transient prompt (collapses previous prompt on Enter).
• ⚡ Instant prompt (caches last prompt for zero-latency shell startup).
• ➡️ Right-aligned segments on the first line.
• 🎨 Nerd Font icons.
• 🔄 Live config reloading. Save the file, next prompt picks it up — no shell restart required.
• ⚙️ Configurable via ~/.config/mehshell/config.

📥 Install

Homebrew (macOS & Linux)

brew tap blackflame007/tap
brew install mehshell

AUR (Arch Linux)

paru -S mehshell-bin

Binary releases

Download a prebuilt binary from GitHub Releases:

# Linux (x86_64)
curl -sL https://github.com/blackflame007/mehshell/releases/latest/download/mehshell_linux_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz && mv mehshell ~/.local/bin/

# Linux (ARM64)
curl -sL https://github.com/blackflame007/mehshell/releases/latest/download/mehshell_linux_arm64.tar.gz | tar xz && mv mehshell ~/.local/bin/

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -sL https://github.com/blackflame007/mehshell/releases/latest/download/mehshell_darwin_arm64.tar.gz | tar xz && mv mehshell ~/.local/bin/

# macOS (Intel)
curl -sL https://github.com/blackflame007/mehshell/releases/latest/download/mehshell_darwin_amd64.tar.gz | tar xz && mv mehshell ~/.local/bin/

From source

go install github.com/blackflame007/mehshell@latest

🔌 Zsh Integration

Add this to your .zshrc:

eval "$(mehshell init zsh)"

🛠️ Configuration

Generate a default config file:

mehshell config init

This creates ~/.config/mehshell/config (or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mehshell/config). See config.example for the full default config.

Features

Option	Default	Description
transient_prompt	true	Collapse previous prompts to ❯ on Enter. Set false to preserve full prompts with timestamps in scrollback.
instant_prompt	true	Show cached prompt immediately on shell startup.
vi_mode	true	Swap prompt character on vi keymap change (❯/❮).
icons	true	Show Nerd Font icons. Set false for text labels (go, py, rs, etc.).
style	lean	Prompt style: lean (colored text, no backgrounds), classic (powerline with dark grey background), or rainbow (powerline with per-segment colored backgrounds).

Left Segments

Option	Default	Description
os	true	OS icon (Arch, Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, NixOS, macOS).
dir	true	Current working directory.
git	true	Git branch and dirty state (✓, +, !, ?).
node	true	Node.js version when package.json is present.
python	true	Python version when marker files are found.
go	true	Go version from go.mod.
rust	true	Rust version when Cargo.toml is present.
ruby	true	Ruby version when marker files are found.
java	true	Java version when pom.xml or build.gradle is present.

Right Segments

Option	Default	Description
conda	true	Conda environment name (skips base).
venv	true	Python virtualenv name.
k8s	true	Kubernetes context when manifest files are in cwd.
terraform	true	Terraform version when .tf files are present.
docker	true	Docker context when Dockerfile/compose is present.
aws	true	AWS profile from $AWS_PROFILE.
azure	true	Azure resource group from $AZURE_DEFAULTS_GROUP.
gcloud	true	GCP project from $CLOUDSDK_CORE_PROJECT.
battery	true	Battery level with charge state icon.
duration	true	Command duration (shown when ≥ 3s).
time	true	Current time.

Set any option to false to disable it. Config changes are picked up live — save the file and your next prompt reflects the update. No shell restart needed.

To see where your config lives:

mehshell config path

📊 Benchmarks

Metric	p10k	mehshell
Shell startup	870ms+	64ms
Between commands	6000ms (with vcs_info)	28ms
Prompt generation	~45ms	6ms

🆚 Feature Comparison with Powerlevel10k

mehshell is intentionally minimal. p10k is a full-featured theme engine. Pick the right tool for your workflow.

Feature	mehshell	p10k
Architecture	Single Go binary	Zsh scripts + gitstatusd daemon
Dependencies	Zero (Go stdlib only)	gitstatus binary (downloaded)
Prompt generation	~6ms	~45ms
Shell startup impact	~64ms	~870ms+
Configuration	~/.config/mehshell/config	~/.p10k.zsh + config wizard
Async rendering	Goroutines (parallel)	Zsh workers + gitstatusd
Git branch detection	Zero-fork (reads .git/HEAD)	gitstatusd (libgit2)
Git dirty check	git status with 150ms timeout	Async, never blocks
Instant prompt	✓ (cache-based)	✓
Transient prompt	✓	✓
Vi mode	✓ (prompt char swap)	✓ (full indicator)
Custom segments	Add in source	Public API (p10k segment)
Total segments	20	67+

Segment Coverage

Segment	mehshell	p10k
OS icon	✓	✓
Directory	✓	✓ (smart truncation)
Git	✓ (branch + dirty)	✓ (branch, ahead/behind, stash, conflicts)
Node.js	✓	✓ (+ nvm, nodenv, package name)
Python	✓	✓ (+ pyenv, poetry)
Go	✓	✓ (+ goenv)
Rust	✓	✓
Ruby	✓	✓ (+ rvm, chruby)
Java	✓	✓ (+ jenv)
Conda	✓	✓
Virtualenv	✓	✓
Kubernetes	✓	✓ (+ show-on-command)
Terraform	✓	✓
Docker	✓	✓
AWS	✓	✓ (+ Elastic Beanstalk)
Azure	✓	✓
GCP	✓	✓
Battery	✓	✓
Duration	✓	✓
Time	✓	✓ (+ date)
CPU / RAM	—	✓
Vi mode	✓ (prompt char)	✓ (full indicator)

Note: p10k is in limited maintenance mode — no new features are in development.

📋 Requirements

• Go 1.22+ (build only)
• Nerd Font
• zsh

📄 License

MIT