The shell¶

During installation you're asked which shell you want, with three options: bash, zsh, and fish. All three get largely the same configuration — Vibranium aims for feature parity between them. The aliases, custom functions, colors, and prompts are shared; what differs is how each shell implements them.

What you get¶

Each shell config lives in its own folder inside ~/.config and is split into two parts:

Path	Purpose
`~/.config/bash/conf.d/`, `~/.config/zsh/conf.d/`, `~/.config/fish/conf.d/`	Drop-in startup scripts, sourced in alphanumerical order
`~/.config/bash/functions/`, `~/.config/zsh/functions/`, `~/.config/fish/functions/`	Custom shell functions

The configuration is yours — edit, override, or delete anything you don't like. You can also write your own startup scripts and drop them into conf.d/; they'll be picked up automatically.

Custom functions¶

All three shells share the same set of functions with identical options and usage messages. Each function accepts -h/--help:

Function	What it does
`bak`	Create backups of files/directories with `--prefix`, `--suffix`, `--timestamp`, `--hidden` options
`ccd`	Create a directory (with parents) and `cd` into it
`copy`	Copy files to the Wayland clipboard as `file://` URIs
`open`	Open files/directories with the default application via `xdg-open`
`mkvenv`	Create a Python virtual environment and activate it immediately
`y` / `yazi`	Open yazi and `cd` to wherever you exited it from
`toggle-startup-message`	Show or hide the startup greeting (uses a `.silent` marker file in the config folder)

Shared aliases¶

Every shell registers the same alias set, each guarded by command -v so it only appears when the tool is installed:

eza/ls — l, ls, la, laa, ll, lla, llaa, tree (with --hyperlink=auto and group-directories-first)
cd — parent-directory shortcuts .., ..., ...., ....., typo fixes dc, cd.., cd..., cd....
zoxide — zq, zz, za, zr, zrm
trash-cli — rm becomes trash -v when available
misc — wget forced into XDG locations, v → nvim (or vim), imv → imv-dir, plus Vibranium aliases vibranium-healthcheck and omarchy-theme-install
typos — sl, clearr, exti, sudp, gti, dokcer, pacamn, systemclt, crul, ffmepg, and more

Run alias in bash/zsh or abbr --list in fish to see the full list.

Greeting¶

On startup each shell prints a short message pointing to its config folder, plus update and health-check notifications when relevant. toggle-startup-message switches it off and on again (creating/removing a .silent file in the config folder).

History¶

bash and zsh store history in an XDG-compliant location — ~/.local/state/bash/history and ~/.local/state/zsh/history — so no dotfiles are left in $HOME. zsh keeps the last 10,000 entries (HISTSIZE/SAVEHIST). fish handles its own history natively in ~/.local/state/fish.

Differences between shells¶

Feature parity covers the functions and aliases above; beyond that, each shell plays to its strengths.

Bash¶

The vanilla baseline. No plugin system — everything you get is in the config folder. Keybinding: a fish-like ^W that deletes the closest path component (e.g. foo/bar/baz → foo/bar/), enabled by unbinding the tty-level word erase (stty werase undef) and rebinding ^W in readline to unix-filename-rubout.

Zsh¶

Adds proper plugin support on top of the baseline:

System-installed plugins — zsh plugins installed as Arch packages (e.g. zsh-syntax-highlighting, zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-history-substring-search) are discovered in /usr/share/zsh/plugins and loaded automatically. The installer adds zsh-syntax-highlighting and zsh-autosuggestions when zsh is chosen. Load order is handled: zsh-history-substring-search is sourced before zsh-syntax-highlighting, which is always last, as its README requires.
Keybindings — emacs keymap is forced (an EDITOR=nvim would otherwise put zsh into vi mode), ^W deletes the closest path component, ^P/^N do fish-like history cycling that filters by what you've typed, and ^E accepts the current autosuggestion — or moves to the end of the line when there's none.

Fish¶

Ships with features the others need plugins for, natively: autosuggestions, history search, and command highlighting (fish_color_command). Two things set it apart:

Native abbreviations — typo fixes and shortcuts are registered as abbreviations, not aliases: they expand in place when you press Space/Enter, so you always see the real command. Beyond the shared typo set, fish gets a large bonus set: a git cheatsheet (g, ga, gc, gs, gp, …), docker (d, dco, dps, …), npm (ni, nrd, nt, …), python (py, serve), tmux (tm), ip (ipa, ipl), systemctl (sc, scu), plus cl, q, h, du1, and a bash-compatible !! that recalls the last command from anywhere in the line.
Plugin manager — fisher is installed automatically on first interactive run (when a network connection is available; otherwise a warning is printed and plugin setup is skipped). Two plugins come preloaded: autopair (auto-closing pairs) and sponge (dangling keybindings for slow keypresses).

Smaller fish-specific quirks: mkvenv activates through bin/activate.fish (not bin/activate), the yazi wrapper replaces the yazi command itself rather than adding a y shortcut, and if starship is missing fish shows a custom fallback prompt (exit code, current directory, git branch) instead of the default one.

Prompt¶

All three shells share one prompt generator: Starship. That means your prompt looks identical across shells, and there's exactly one prompt config to maintain: ~/.config/starship.toml. Customize it to your heart's content (see Overriding configs).

Git module¶

Minimal Nerd Font glyphs, with status kept mostly as plain, color-coded text:

Git module

Indicator	Meaning
`[!]`	Conflicted
`[U]`	Untracked
`[M]`	Modified
`[S]`	Stashed
`[+]`	Staged
`[R]`	Renamed
`[D]`	Deleted
`↑ N`	Ahead of remote by N
`↓ N`	Behind remote by N
`↑ N ↓ M`	Diverged

Sudo module¶

When you run sudo, Linux caches your credentials briefly. The prompt shows [!!] on the far left while the cache is alive, and it disappears when the cache expires.

Hostname¶

Hidden by default — you know your own machine's name. But when you SSH in, it appears.

Python venv¶

mkvenv creates virtual environments; when one is active, a simple indicator appears.

Command duration¶

Any command taking more than a second shows its runtime on the far right.