zsh-classic-stack

One script that checks the classic zsh interactive stack on your machine: zsh itself, starship (the prompt engine), fzf, zoxide, zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-syntax-highlighting and zsh-completions. Report-only by default; the opt-in --enable wires up whatever is already installed, and install.sh goes all the way: it replaces your ~/.zshrc with a complete, framework-free profile when you want a real migration off oh-my-zsh / Powerlevel10k.

For each tool it reports one of three states:

• installed and enabled: nothing to do;
• installed but not enabled: prints the exact ~/.zshrc line for your system (source paths differ per distro);
• not installed: prints the exact install command for your package manager.

When packaged dependencies are missing, the report ends with one combined command for your package manager (with --needed on pacman). Pieces that install by script or clone instead (starship on apt, zsh-completions on apt and dnf) keep their own lines.

It reads your ~/.zshrc to tell those states apart, but by default it never edits anything, never installs anything, and never runs sudo. Run it as often as you like:

curl -sS https://raw.githubusercontent.com/carlosplanchon/zsh-classic-stack/main/check.sh | sh

Wiring it up: --enable

curl -sS https://raw.githubusercontent.com/carlosplanchon/zsh-classic-stack/main/check.sh | sh -s -- --enable

--enable makes exactly two writes, and installing tools is still on you:

1. It generates ~/.zsh/classic-stack.zsh, a file this script owns and fully regenerates on every --enable run. Inside it the ordering rules hold by construction: the zsh-completions directory joins fpath before compinit, compinit runs once (or rescans if your ~/.zshrc already ran it), fzf and zsh-autosuggestions load next, zoxide after compinit, and zsh-syntax-highlighting last. Every block is guarded on its tool being present, so the file silently adapts as you install or remove tools; no need to rerun --enable after a pacman -S or brew install.
2. If ~/.zshrc does not already source that file, it appends one source line at the end, after saving a timestamped backup of your ~/.zshrc. That is the only edit your own files ever get.

Keep that source line near the end of ~/.zshrc: anything you load after it breaks the "syntax highlighting last" rule.

--enable is deliberately additive: it never removes anything from your config. If your ~/.zshrc still loads oh-my-zsh or Powerlevel10k, they stay in charge and the report flags it with a [!!] pointing to the full migration below.

Full migration: install.sh

--enable wires tools into the ~/.zshrc you already have. If what you have is an oh-my-zsh / Powerlevel10k setup you are trying to leave, or a bare default, install.sh replaces ~/.zshrc with the complete profile in profiles/classic.zshrc: sane options, shared history with sensible dedup, proper keybindings (arrows do prefix history search, Ctrl+arrows move by word, PageUp/PageDown page through history), pushd-based directory navigation with take/mkcd, a curated set of git aliases compatible with oh-my-zsh muscle memory, colored grep (skipping VCS and virtualenv directories on recursive searches) and colored diff, clipcopy/clippaste (macOS, Wayland or X11), a dynamic terminal title plus OSC 7 cwd reporting (new tabs and splits open in your current directory), guarded Starship init, and the classic stack loaded last in the correct order.

Safe by default: with no arguments it only prints the plan.

curl -sS https://raw.githubusercontent.com/carlosplanchon/zsh-classic-stack/main/install.sh | sh

To apply it (timestamped backup of your current ~/.zshrc first):

curl -sS https://raw.githubusercontent.com/carlosplanchon/zsh-classic-stack/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --yes

Add --diff to also print the old-to-new unified diff at the end. It is off by default because the old file may contain secrets; without it the installer prints the exact diff command to run locally instead. Either way, the removed (-) lines are your old config: go through them and move anything personal to ~/.zshrc.local.

What it deliberately does not do: it never deletes ~/.oh-my-zsh, ~/.p10k.zsh or any theme files. Replacing the lines that loaded them is enough to deactivate them, the backup restores everything, and you can remove the leftovers by hand whenever you feel safe. Machine-specific config (PATH additions, EDITOR, private aliases) belongs in ~/.zshrc.local, which the profile sources automatically: salvage those lines from the backup after migrating. A fully commented starting point ships in examples/zshrc.local; copying it as-is is a no-op until you uncomment what applies.

Recommended install order

Setting up the whole thing, prompt included? Shell first, looks second:

# 1. the zsh environment (this repo)
curl -sS https://raw.githubusercontent.com/carlosplanchon/zsh-classic-stack/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --yes

# 2. starship plus the p10k rainbow preset
curl -sS https://raw.githubusercontent.com/carlosplanchon/starship-p10k-rainbow/main/install.sh | sh -s -- --install-starship

# 3. new shell
exec zsh

Recommended, not required: neither installer writes the other's files, and the profile initializes starship only when present, so the reverse order works too and the prompt lights up on the next shell either way.

What it knows, per system

	Arch (pacman)	Debian/Ubuntu (apt)	Fedora (dnf)	Homebrew
starship	starship	official installer (packages lag, when they exist)	starship	starship
fzf	fzf	fzf	fzf	fzf
zoxide	zoxide	zoxide (lags; upstream suggests its script)	zoxide	zoxide
zsh-autosuggestions	/usr/share/zsh/plugins/...	/usr/share/zsh-autosuggestions/...	same path as Debian	$(brew --prefix)/share/...
zsh-syntax-highlighting	/usr/share/zsh/plugins/...	/usr/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/...	same path as Debian	$(brew --prefix)/share/...
zsh-completions	zsh-completions (into fpath, zero config)	not packaged: clone	not packaged: clone	zsh-completions + FPATH line

Details the script also knows about:

• zsh-syntax-highlighting must be sourced as the last line of ~/.zshrc, after every other plugin.
• zoxide and zsh-completions interact with compinit: zoxide's eval line goes after it, the completions fpath/FPATH line before it.
• fzf shell integration is source <(fzf --zsh) on current versions; the script probes your binary and points to the manual setup when it predates --zsh (common with apt).
• On Arch, zsh-completions needs no zshrc line at all: its functions land in a directory that is already in fpath.

Sources: each tool's upstream install docs, the package indexes and file lists of the distros (packages.debian.org, packages.ubuntu.com, packages.fedoraproject.org, archlinux.org) and the Homebrew formula caveats, checked 2026-07.

Why a managed snippet instead of editing ~/.zshrc freely

Shell setups are personal: a script that weaves lines into ~/.zshrc has to guess where your plugin manager, compinit call and prompt init live, and a wrong guess breaks every future shell. This stack is extra hostile to blind appending because its ordering rules conflict: completions go before compinit, zoxide after it, syntax highlighting last of all. So --enable never guesses: everything lives in one generated file where the order is fixed, and your ~/.zshrc gets a single, clearly labeled source line (with a backup first). Reverting is deleting that line; the default mode stays strictly report-only.

The one known cost: if your ~/.zshrc already runs compinit before the source line and the zsh-completions directory exists, the snippet runs compinit a second time to pick it up, which adds a few milliseconds of shell startup. Moving your own compinit out (the snippet runs it for you) removes the double run.

Detection notes

"Enabled" is a heuristic: the tool's name appearing anywhere in your ~/.zshrc ($ZDOTDIR respected), or the managed snippet being wired in. That correctly covers package installs, oh-my-zsh plugins=(...) lists and zinit/antigen lines, but a setup driven entirely from files outside .zshrc (antidote's plugin file, for example) can show as not installed even though it works. Worst case is an unnecessary suggestion.

Related

• starship-p10k-rainbow: the Starship preset this script grew out of. The prompt for the muscle memory; this stack for the rest of it.
• sway-workstation: the reproducible Sway desktop this shell lives in. Desktop, shell and prompt: the three repos compose a terminal-first workstation.

License

MIT