Once you have everything figured out, you just keep using the config you have. It might be worth the investment. I stopped using oh-my-zsh when I realized it was what was causing multi-second delays on Raspberry Pis.
I think auto suggestions and syntax highlighting plugins can be installed separately from oh-my-zsh.
I use starship for a better prompt, and it works on more shells than just Zsh.
I also have Atuin installed to share history across machines, and as a benefit the history search is a lot more powerful.
https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions
https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting
https://starship.rs
https://atuin.sh
In Speeding up my ZSH shellzsh-users
zsh-syntax-highlighting
Shell2012–2025
zsh-users / zsh-syntax-highlighting
zsh-syntax-highlighting
Fish shell like syntax highlighting for Zsh.
29Distinct people
33Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
23.1KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
Fish shell like syntax highlighting for Zsh.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions · linked in 15 of the same discussions
- zsh-users/zsh-history-substring-search · linked in 3 of the same discussions
- junegunn/fzf · linked in 2 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 3:56:07 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year33 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2012-06-06 12:14:55 UTC to 2025-07-20 20:54:34 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 2012-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| 2013 | 2013-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 5 | 1 | 4 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2021 | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 8 | 1 | 7 |
| 2022 | 2022-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| 2023 | 2023-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2024 | 2024-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2025 | 2025-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2026-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
From the project README
An excerpt from the repository, fetched Nov 12, 2026.
Read the project’s introduction
zsh-syntax-highlighting
Fish shell-like syntax highlighting for Zsh.
Requirements: zsh 4.3.11+.
This package provides syntax highlighting for the shell zsh. It enables
highlighting of commands whilst they are typed at a zsh prompt into an
interactive terminal. This helps in reviewing commands before running
them, particularly in catching syntax errors.
Some examples:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
Before:
After:
How to install
See INSTALL.md.
FAQ
Why must zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh be sourced at the end of the .zshrc file?
zsh-syntax-highlighting works by hooking into the Zsh Line Editor (ZLE) and
computing syntax highlighting for the command-line buffer as it stands at the
time z-sy-h's hook is invoked.
In zsh 5.2 and older,
zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh hooks into ZLE by wrapping ZLE widgets. It must
be sourced after all custom widgets have been created (i.e., after all zle -N
calls and after running compinit) in order to be able to wrap all of them.
Widgets created after z-sy-h is sourced will work, but will not update the
syntax highlighting.
In zsh newer than 5.8 (not including 5.8 itself),
zsh-syntax-highlighting uses the add-zle-hook-widget facility to install
a zle-line-pre-redraw hook. Hooks are run in order of registration,
therefore, z-sy-h must be sourced (and register its hook) after anything else
that adds hooks that modify the command-line buffer.
Does syntax highlighting work during incremental history search?
Highlighting the command line during an incremental history search (by default bound to
to Ctrl+R in zsh's emacs keymap) requires zsh 5.4 or newer.
Under zsh versions older than 5.4, the zsh-default underlining
of the matched portion of the buffer remains available, but zsh-syntax-highlighting's
additional highlighting is unavailable. (Those versions of zsh do not provide
enough information to allow computing the highlighting correctly.)
See issues #288 and #415 for details.
How are new releases announced?
There is currently no "push" announcements channel. However, the following
alternatives exist:
GitHub's RSS feed of releases: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting/releases.atom
An anitya entry: https://release-monitoring.org/project/7552/
How to tweak
Syntax highlighting is done by pluggable highlighter scripts. See the
documentation on highlighters for details and
configuration settings.
Read the full README on GitHubWhat Hacker News says
33 sourcesI'm also in this boat. I have atuin as part of my zsh config that is distributed to all new machines, whether they run NixOS or some other operating system with Nix on them (e.g. MacOS). After switching to NixOS I found an interest in maintaining a custom setup again, since it wouldn't fall apart every time I moved machine.
{ pkgs, ... }:
{
users.defaultUserShell = pkgs.zsh;
environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
atuin # ^R
eza # ls
git
zsh
];
programs.direnv.enable = true;
programs.nix-direnv.enable = true;
programs.zsh = {
enable = true;
enableCompletion = true;
enableBashCompletion = true;
enableGlobalCompInit = true;
# https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting/blob/master/docs/highlighters.md
syntaxHighlighting.enable = true;
Read the rest
syntaxHighlighting.highlighters = [ "main" "brackets" ];
# See `man zshoptions` for more details.
setOptions = [
# Remove duplicates continuously from command history (preserve newest entry).
"HIST_IGNORE_DUPS"
# Instantly share command history between all active shells.
"SHARE_HISTORY" # Alternative to: "APPEND_HISTORY", "INC_APPEND_HISTORY",
# Disable ^S and ^Z for less accidental freezing.
"FLOW_CONTROL"
# Save timestamp and duration of each command in command history.
"EXTENDED_HISTORY"
];
shellAliases = {
# Navigation
rm = "rm -iv";
ls = "eza -lg";
tree = "eza -lgT";
# git aliases
# ...
};
promptInit = ''
autoload -U promptinit
promptinit
prompt off
# Simple:
# PS1='[%n@%m:%~] %(!.#.$) '
# Colorful:
# PS1='[%F{green}%n@%m%f:%F{blue}%~%f] %(!.#.$) '
# Colorful with git branch:
function git_branch_name() {
branch=$(git symbolic-ref HEAD --short 2>/dev/null)
if [ ! -z "$branch" ]; then
echo -n " [%F{red}$branch%f]"
fi
}
# Omit username, print hostname + '$' with red when root, otherwise green:
prompt='[%(!.%F{red}.%F{green})%m%f:%F{blue}%~%f]$(git_branch_name) %(!.%F{red}#%f.$) '
# See: https://zsh.sourceforge.io/Doc/Release/Options.html#Prompting
setopt prompt_cr
setopt prompt_sp
setopt prompt_subst
export PROMPT_EOL_MARK=""
'';
interactiveShellInit = ''
# Prevent user-level "config missing" message.
touch $HOME/.zshrc
# MacOS
bindkey '^[[7~' beginning-of-line
bindkey '^[[8~' end-of-line
# Linux
bindkey '^[[1;3D' beginning-of-line # alt+left
bindkey '^[[1;3C' end-of-line # alt+right
bindkey '^[[1;5D' backward-word # ctrl+left
bindkey '^[[1;5C' forward-word # ctrl+right
# Both
bindkey '^R' history-incremental-search-backward
bindkey '^U' kill-whole-line
bindkey '^Y' yank
# My SSH endpoints don't recognize modern terminals
export TERM=xterm-256color
# ^R only
eval "$(atuin init zsh --disable-up-arrow)"
'';
};
}
There's https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting which does some parsing, but I never looked at the details of it (I just know it exists).
In In Praise of QEMUInstallation instructions for the plugin:
https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting/blob/ma...
Looks like you need to clone the .git repository into your oh-my-zsh directory
In Zsh 5.9+1 on oh-my-zsh
I recommend Oh My Zsh with the zsh-autosuggestions [1] and zsh-syntax-highlighting [2] plugins.
[1] https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions
[2] https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting
And my custom theme ;) https://github.com/whyboris/dotfiles/blob/main/yboris.zsh-th...
In Zsh 5.9My only plugins are zsh-autosuggestion (https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions) zsh-syntax-highlighting (https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting) and zsh fzf-tab (https://github.com/Aloxaf/fzf-tab) its been wonderful using these plugins
In The fish shell is amazingI'm an assisted human being, I need instructions like these :D https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting/blob/ma...
btw my comment was not here to tell people I was lazy. It was here as feedback. Users are lazy. Online businesses track and look to decrease the number of clicks that lead to a sale, there's no reason developer tools shouldn't try to do the same :)
(I know it's free, not complaining)
In Jog: Print the last 10 commands you ran in the current directoryI switched to fish for about six months, and recently went back to zsh when I realised that the three things I really liked about it (abbreviations, syntax highlighting and autosuggestions) were all doable in zsh with extensions [0]. (It feels pretty slow, even slower than say OMZ, but that's not such a big deal for me.)
[0] https://github.com/olets/zsh-abbr
https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting
https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions
In s/bash/zsh/gomz is very very heavy weight. Back when there was a freenode and #zsh it was widely hated as only IRC can hate something.
You can source
https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions/blob/master...
https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting/blob/ma...
without omz anyways.
In s/bash/zsh/g> But zsh doesn't even use readline, which is bananas to me. Sure, provide an alternative but at least support readline.
Why? ZLE is what makes zsh compelling for users. It provides a high level of customizability into command line editing that is simply not possible with bash. It powers zsh's most touted completion feature as well as popular plugins such as zsh-syntax-highlighting[1] and zsh-autosuggestions[2]. Replacing it with readline would be a sure way to lose a majority of users in a blink of an eye.
[1]: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting
[2]: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions
In s/bash/zsh/gRemove background highlighting when pasting text into the terminal
The background highlighting when pasting text into into the terminal / shell has subtly annoyed me for a while. Here is how to remove it:
zsh: Add `zle_highlight+=(paste:none)` to ~/.zshrc [1]
bash (v4.4+): add `set enable-bracketed-paste off` to ~/.inputrc [2]
[1] https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting/issues/349
[2] https://www.garyshood.com/bash-highlight/
1 points · Open discussion+1 for the `zsh-autosuggestions`: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions
Bonus: `zsh-syntax-highlighting` is excellent: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting
In Zsh Tricks to Blow Your MindA lot of the tips from TFA can be done in BASH as well and I'm sure the following of my own zsh tips also have a bash equivelant, but I'd like to share anyway:
Pure theme - My absolute favorite shell theme. Has almost all the bells and whistles of the powerlevel9k shown in the article, but looks, much cleaner and less in-your-face.
After downloading the theme, I've added this to my `.zshrc` file:
# PURE theme - see https://github.com/sindresorhus/pure
fpath+=$HOME/.zsh/pure
autoload -U promptinit; promptinit
prompt pure
Fuzzy find makes searching history much more powerful than what is listed in the article. I only use it together with ctr-r, but you can set it up for even more goodness.
# Fuzzy find - see https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
[ -f ~/.fzf.zsh ] && source ~/.fzf.zsh
Lastly I've added a syntax highl
Read the rest
ighter, which is really neat.
# ZSH Syntax Highlighter - see https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting
source $HOME/.zsh/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh
I don't use oh-my-zsh, but I think my terminal is as fully fledged as even the best oh-my-zsh can offer.
I think fish is great for newcomers or for those who don't really want to mess around with too many settings or plugins.
I'm a fish user, actually. That said, for those on zsh who want some of fish's most prominent user features without leaving, check out zsh-syntax-highlighting[1] and zsh-autosuggestions[2]. These are rather popular so long time users may not benefit from these suggestions.
[1] https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting
[2] https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions
In Bash 5.1One of the biggest upgrades from using fish is syntax highlighting / autocompletion. You can get fish-style syntax highlighting and autocomplete in zsh (which has the advantage of being more interoperable with bash generally):
[zsh-syntax-highlighting](https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting)
[zsh-autosuggestions](https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions)
Poster mentioned "modern alternatives exist" with good colorization options. Some of my favorite colorized feature-rich alternatives:
ls -> [exa](https://github.com/ogham/exa)
cat -> [bat](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat)
du -> [ncdu](https://dev.yorhel.nl/ncdu)
diff -> [delta](https://github.com/dandavison/delta)
In combination with all of the above, [fzf](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) suddenly becomes a syntax-highlighter preview-pane via leveraging bat (or delta
Read the rest
, as the case may be).
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