● fish Configuration

587 2026-08-14 note ♑︎

fishfish (Friendly Interactive Shell) is a smart and user-friendly command line shell for macOS, Linux, and other Unix-like systems. It features syntax highlighting, autosuggestions, and tab completions that work out of the box. Installation bash brew install fish Key Features… configuration lives in ~/.config/fish/config.fish. Unlike bash/zsh, fish doesn't use . for sourcing files—use source instead.

Setup

Set fish as your default shell:

# Add fish to /etc/shells
echo /opt/homebrew/bin/fish | sudo tee -a /etc/shells

# Set as default shell
chsh -s /opt/homebrew/bin/fish

Basic Features

Syntax Highlighting

fish highlights commands as you type:

• Valid commands: green
• Invalid commands: red
• File paths: underlined
• Strings: yellow

Autosuggestions

fish suggests commands based on history:

• Gray text shows suggestions
• Press → (right arrow) to accept
• Press ctrl + f to accept one character
• Suggestions learn from your usage

Tab Completions

fish provides intelligent tab completion:

• Press tab to see completions
• Completions are context-aware
• Works with commands, flags, and file paths

Prompt Customization

Customize the prompt by modifying fish_prompt function:

function fish_prompt
    set_color cyan
    echo -n (whoami)
    set_color white
    echo -n "@"
    set_color magenta
    echo -n (hostname)
    set_color green
    echo -n " "(prompt_pwd)" "
    set_color normal
    echo -n "❯ "
end

Startup Configuration

Add to ~/.config/fish/config.fish:

# Starship prompt
starship init fish | source

# PATH
set -x PATH /opt/homebrew/bin $PATH

# Aliases
alias ll "ls -la"
alias gs "git status"

# Functions
if status is-interactive
    # Interactive shell configuration
end

Plugins

Use Fisher for plugin management:

# Install Fisher
curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jorgebucaran/fisher/main/functions/fisher.fish | source && fisher install jorgebucaran/fisher

# Install plugins
fisher install jorgebucaran/autopair.fish
fisher install franciscolourenco/done
fisher install jethrokuan/z

Integration

With starshipstarship is a minimal, fast, and customizable prompt for any shell. It's written in Rust and provides informative prompts while staying extremely fast. starship works with fish, bash, zsh, and other shells. Installation bash brew install starship Setup Add to…

starship init fish | source

With kittykitty is a fast, feature-rich, GPU-accelerated terminal emulator. It's written in C and uses OpenGL for rendering, making it significantly faster than traditional terminal emulators while supporting modern features like tabs, split windows, and keyboard-driven operation. Installation bash brew install…

# Enable shell integration
set -gx KITTY_INSTALLATION_DIR "/Applications/kitty.app/Contents/Resources/kitty"
kitty + complete setup fish | source

Environment Variables

Set environment variables in config.fish:

# Set PATH
set -x PATH /opt/homebrew/bin $PATH

# Set editor
set -x EDITOR vim

# Set language
set -x LANG en_US.UTF-8

Aliases and Functions

Create custom aliases and functions:

# Simple alias
alias ll "ls -la"

# Function with arguments
function mkcd
    mkdir -p $argv[1]
    cd $argv[1]
end

fish configuration is straightforward and powerful, allowing extensive customization of your shell environment.

For fish commands and built-in functions, see fish Commandsfish provides intuitive commands for navigation, history, and variable management. Navigation bash Directory navigation cd # Change directory cd .. # Parent directory cd - # Previous directory pushd . # Push directory to stack popd # Pop directory from…. For scripting details, see fish Scriptingfish scripting is cleaner and more readable than bash, with modern syntax and better error handling. Script Structure fish #!/usr/bin/env fish Comments start with # echo "Hello, world!" Variables fish Set variables set name "World" Use variables echo "Hello, $name"…. For the main fish overview, see fishfish (Friendly Interactive Shell) is a smart and user-friendly command line shell for macOS, Linux, and other Unix-like systems. It features syntax highlighting, autosuggestions, and tab completions that work out of the box. Installation bash brew install fish Key Features….