A fast, customizable, pure-shell, asynchronous Git prompt for Zsh. It is heavily inspired by Olivier Verdier's zsh-git-prompt and very similar to the "Informative VCS" prompt of fish shell.

Prompt Structure

The structure of the prompt (in the default configuration) is the following:

[<branch_name><upstream><tracking_status>|<local_status>]

• branch_name: Name of the current branch or commit hash if HEAD is detached. When in 'detached HEAD' state, the branch_name will be prefixed with a colon : to indicate that it is actually a hash and not a branch name.
• upstream: Name of the remote branch if it exist. Must be enabled explicitly (see Enable remote branch info).
• tracking_status:
  • ↑n: ahead of remote by n commits
  • ↓n: behind remote by n commits
  • ↓m↑n: branches diverged; other by m commits, yours by n commits
• local_status:
  • ✔: repository is clean
  • ✖n: there are n unmerged files
  • ●n: there are n staged files
  • ✚n: there are n unstaged and changed files
  • …n: there are n untracked files
  • ⚑n: there are n entries on the stash (disabled by default)

Installation

Dependencies

• Git with --porcelain=v2 support, which is available since version 2.11.0. You can check if your installation is compatible by executing git status --branch --porcelain=v2 inside a Git repository.
• awk, which is most certainly preinstalled on any *nix system

Zplug

Either install the default prompt (see Examples section below) with

# Installs the "default" example
zplug "woefe/git-prompt.zsh"

or choose an example prompt with

# Installs the "multiline" example
zplug "woefe/git-prompt.zsh", use:"{git-prompt.zsh,examples/multiline.zsh}"

Zplugin

zplugin ice atload'!_zsh_git_prompt_precmd_hook' lucid
zplugin load woefe/git-prompt.zsh

Note that this method does not work if you want to disable the asynchronous rendering.

Arch Linux

Install git-prompt.zsh or git-prompt.zsh-git from the AUR. Maintained by Felixoid.

FreeBSD

Install the git-prompt.zsh package with

pkg install git-prompt.zsh

Manual installation

Clone this repo or download the git-prompt.zsh file. Then source it in your .zshrc. For example:

mkdir -p ~/.zsh
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/woefe/git-prompt.zsh ~/.zsh/git-prompt.zsh
echo "source ~/.zsh/git-prompt.zsh/git-prompt.zsh" >> .zshrc

# Optional: install an example configuration
echo "source ~/.zsh/git-prompt.zsh/examples/pure.zsh" >> .zshrc

Customization

Unlike other popular prompts this prompt does not use promptinit, which gives you the flexibility to build your own prompt from scratch. You can build a custom prompt by setting the PROMPT variable in your .zshrc after souring the git-prompt.zsh. And you should use '$(gitprompt)' in your PROMPT to get the Git prompt. You must set your PROMPT with single quotes, not double quotes, otherwise the Git prompt will not update properly. Some example PROMPT configurations are given below. You can find more information on how to configure the PROMPT in Zsh's online documentation or the zshmisc manpage, section "SIMPLE PROMPT ESCAPES".

Examples

You can try these configurations by souring the .zsh files from the examples directory. After you have found a configuration that you like, source it in your .zshrc.

Default (same as in title)

# Preview:
# ../git-prompt.zsh [master↑1|●1✚1…1] ❯❯❯

source examples/default.zsh

Compact

# ../git-prompt.zsh master↑1|●1✚1…1❯

source examples/compact.zsh

Multi-line prompt

# Preview:
# ┏╸130 · ~/workspace/git-prompt.zsh · ⎇ master↑1 ‹●1✚1…1›
# ┗╸❯❯❯

source examples/multiline.zsh

Git status on the right

# Preview:
# ~/workspace/git-prompt.zsh ≻≻≻                                ≺ master↑1|●1✚1…1

source examples/rprompt.zsh

bash-git-prompt clone

This example mimics the bash-git-prompt informative git prompt for bash.

# ~/workspace/git-prompt.zsh [master|↑1↓1…1⚑1]
# 10:24 $

source examples/bashgitprompt.zsh

Pure clone

This clone of the Pure prompt has support for Python virtualenvs, but none of the timing features or a vi mode. If you are using fzf, source the example after sourcing fzf's keybindings.

# Preview:
#
# ~/workspace/git-prompt.zsh master↑3 ✚2…1
# ❯

source examples/pure.zsh

If you want to try other examples again after sourcing the Pure example, you might have to restart your shell, because this prompt will always print a newline between prompts.

Woefe's prompt (wprompt)

The wprompt example is similar to the multi-line and Pure examples, but with optional vi-mode and the secondary prompt enabled.

• Depends on Font Awesome for the Python symbol
• Optionally depends on vi-mode
• Source this example after fzf and after loading vi-mode

# Preview:
#
# ┏╸~/workspace/ytcc ·  ytcc · ⎇ master ‹✔›
# ┗╸❯❯❯

source examples/wprompt.zsh

If you want to try other examples again after sourcing this example, you might have to restart your shell, because this prompt will always print a newline between prompts.

Enable secondary prompt

The prompt comes with a secondary function that shows the tags that HEAD points to. Enabling this will execute another Git command every time a new prompt is shown! To use the secondary prompt you have to enable it and add the 'gitprompt_secondary' function to your PROMPT or RPROMPT variables. You enable the secondary prompt by adding the following line to your .zshrc:

ZSH_GIT_PROMPT_ENABLE_SECONDARY=1

The secondary prompt uses the label emoji by default. If you encounter problems with the label character, change it (see below) or install a font that can display it, for example Unifont or twemoji.

Appearance

The appearance of the prompt can be adjusted by changing the variables that start with ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_. Note that some of them are named differently than in the original Git prompt by Olivier Verdier.

You can preview your configuration by setting the ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_* variables in a running shell. But remember to save them in your .zshrc after you tweaked them to your liking! Example snippet from .zshrc:

# Theming variables for primary prompt
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_PREFIX="["
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_SUFFIX="] "
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_SEPARATOR="|"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_DETACHED="%{$fg_bold[cyan]%}:"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_BRANCH="%{$fg_bold[magenta]%}"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_UPSTREAM_SYMBOL="%{$fg_bold[yellow]%}⟳ "
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_UPSTREAM_PREFIX="%{$fg[red]%}(%{$fg[yellow]%}"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_UPSTREAM_SUFFIX="%{$fg[red]%})"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_BEHIND="↓"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_AHEAD="↑"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_UNMERGED="%{$fg[red]%}✖"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_STAGED="%{$fg[green]%}●"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_UNSTAGED="%{$fg[red]%}✚"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_UNTRACKED="…"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_STASHED="%{$fg[blue]%}⚑"
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_CLEAN="%{$fg_bold[green]%}✔"

# Theming variables for the secondary prompt
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_SECONDARY_PREFIX=""
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_SECONDARY_SUFFIX=""
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_TAGS_SEPARATOR=", "
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_TAGS_PREFIX="🏷 "
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_TAGS_SUFFIX=""
ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_TAG="%{$fg_bold[magenta]%}"
source path/to/git-prompt.zsh

Enable remote branch info

The prompt will show information about the remote branch, if ZSH_GIT_PROMPT_SHOW_UPSTREAM is set to full or symbol. The full option will print the full remote branch name enclosed by ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_UPSTREAM_PREFIX and ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_UPSTREAM_SUFFIX. The symbol option prints only ZSH_THEME_GIT_PROMPT_UPSTREAM_SYMBOL.

Show number of stash entries

The number of stash entries will be shown if ZSH_GIT_PROMPT_SHOW_STASH is set. Enabling this will execute another Git command every time a new prompt is shown! To enable stash entries add the following line to your .zshrc:

ZSH_GIT_PROMPT_SHOW_STASH=1

Force blank

Since the prompt is asynchronous by default, the Git status updates slightly delayed. This has the benefit that the prompt will always be responsive even if the repository is huge and/or your disk is slow. But it also means that the old status will be displayed for some time. You can force the prompt to blank out instead of displaying a potentially outdated status, but be warned that this will probably increase flickering. Set the following variable in your .zshrc to enable this behavior:

ZSH_GIT_PROMPT_FORCE_BLANK=1

Disable async

If you are not happy with the asynchronous behavior, you can disable it altogether. But be warned that this can make your shell painfully slow if you enter large repositories or if your disk is slow. Set the following variable in your .zshrc before sourcing the git-prompt.zsh to enable this behavior.

ZSH_GIT_PROMPT_NO_ASYNC=1

ZSH_GIT_PROMPT_NO_ASYNC cannot be adjusted in a running shell, but only in your .zshrc.

Change the awk implementation

Some awk implementations are faster than others. By default, the prompt checks for nawk and then mawk and then falls back to the system's default awk. You can override this behavior by setting ZSH_GIT_PROMPT_AWK_CMD to the awk implementation of you liking before sourcing the git-prompt.zsh. ZSH_GIT_PROMPT_AWK_CMD cannot be adjusted in a running shell, but only in your .zshrc.

To benchmark an awk implementation you can use the following command.

# This example tests the default awk. You should change it to something else.
time ZSH_GIT_PROMPT_AWK_CMD=awk zsh -f -c '
    source path/to/git-prompt.zsh
    for i in $(seq 1000); do
        print -P $(_zsh_git_prompt_git_status)
    done'

Features / Non-Features

• A pure shell implementation using awk; no Python, no Haskell required
• Only the Git status. This prompt basically only gives you the gitprompt function, which you can use to build your own prompt. If you are looking for something more complete and blazing fast, I can recommend powerlevel10k.
• Uses standard Git, no external Git status daemon (like gitstatus) required
• Fast; Git command is invoked only once and asynchronously when a new prompt is drawn
• No caching feature, because it breaks reliable detection of untracked files

Known issues

• If the current working directory is not a Git repository and some external application initializes a new repository in the same directory, the Git prompt will not be shown immediately. Also, updates made by external programs or another shell do not show up immediately. Executing any command or simply pressing enter will fix the issue.
• In large repositories the prompt might slow down, because Git has to find untracked files. See man git-status, Section --untracked-files for possible options to speed things up.