kitty + zsh guide

🐱Kitty

  • install kitty
sudo apt install kitty

Config file location:

If the file doesn't exist, then this command creates it:

mkdir -p ~/.config/kitty && touch ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

example config

include ~/.config/kitty/theme.conf

# Set font
font_family      FiraCode Nerd Font
bold_font        auto
italic_font      auto
bold_italic_font auto
font_size        13

# Padding
window_padding_width 10

enable_ligatures always

window_margin_width     10
window_border_width     1pt
active_border_color     #44ffff

background_image ~/Downloads/file_0.jpg

The above config uses 2 additional things

1. Nerd Fonts

These are necessary. Follow any guide on YT to know more about them.

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts
cd ~/.local/share/fonts
wget https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/latest/download/JetBrainsMono.zip
unzip JetBrainsMono.zip && rm JetBrainsMono.zip
fc-cache -fv

2. A Theme

you can get the themes from Kitty GitHub.

https://github.com/dexpota/kitty-themes

  • copy the contents of the theme
  • should be from .conf
  • save in the ~/.config/kitty/theme.conf

And you’re good to go

>_ zsh

  • Install it
sudo apt install zsh -y

Set Zsh as Default Shell

To use Zsh every time you open a terminal, set it as the default shell:

chsh -s $(which zsh)

To verify:

echo $SHELL

Install Oh My Zsh (Recommended for Customization)

Oh My Zsh is a powerful framework for managing Zsh configurations. Install it with:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Install Plugins for Auto-Suggestions & Syntax Highlighting

🔹 Auto-Suggestions (Command Suggestions)

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ~/.zsh/zsh-autosuggestions
echo "source ~/.zsh/zsh-autosuggestions/zsh-autosuggestions.zsh" >> ~/.zshrc

🔹 Syntax Highlighting (Colors for Commands)

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ~/.zsh/zsh-syntax-highlighting
echo "source ~/.zsh/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh" >> ~/.zshrc

Change Theme (Powerlevel10k for a Beautiful Prompt)

Powerlevel10k makes your terminal fast, beautiful, and informative. Install it:

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/powerlevel10k

Now, set it as the theme in ~/.zshrc:

sed -i 's/ZSH_THEME=".*"/ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k\/powerlevel10k"/' ~/.zshrc

Apply changes:

source ~/.zshrc

You can enable starship prompt as well but Powerlevel10k is good as well

Extra cool stuff

1. lsd

To show icons for directories & files, install lsd (a better ls command):

sudo apt install lsd

Then, alias ls to lsd for icons & colors:

echo 'alias ls="lsd"' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

I’d say instead of setting an alias try to get used to the “lsd” command itself.

2. fzf – Fuzzy Finder for Command History

sudo apt install fzf

Press Ctrl+R → Search through command history like a boss.

3. feh

use it for image preview from the terminal

sudo apt install feh

ex usage -
feh Downloads/4350144121\(1\).png

4. Yazi

It is a blazingly fast terminal file manager written in Rust.

  • You’ll have to install it via snap or cargo

check its official docs on how to use it

https://yazi-rs.github.io/docs/installation