I’ve been using Starship as my shell prompt customization tool for a long time, but since my shell of choice is Fish, I decided to switch to Tide, which is specialized for Fish.

Fish + Tide

What is Tide?

Tide is a high-performance and highly customizable shell prompt designed specifically for Fish. Unlike general-purpose shell prompt tools like Starship, Tide is optimized exclusively for Fish, ensuring a seamless experience.

Prerequisites

This article provides a guide on installing and configuring the Tide shell prompt customization tool, assuming that Fish shell and the Fisher package manager are already installed.

  • Fish is installed
    • Version 3.x or later is recommended
  • Fisher is installed
    • The file ~/.config/fish/functions/fisher.fish exists, and the command fisher --version works correctly

Installation Steps

1. Install Tide using Fisher

If Fisher is already installed, you can install Tide with the following command:

fisher install IlanCosman/tide

Note
This command installs the latest version of Tide, so there is no need to specify a version.

2. Initial Configuration Wizard

After installation, the configuration wizard launches automatically (only on the first installation).
If the wizard does not start or if you want to reconfigure Tide, run the following command manually:

tide configure

Key Configuration Options in the Wizard

During the wizard setup, you can customize the following settings:

  • Theme Style: Choose between simple monochrome, colorful, and other styles
  • Prompt Layout: Select between a single-line or two-line display
  • Git Branch and Status Display: Enable or disable Git information as needed
  • Display of Time, Hostname, etc.: Customize based on your workflow

Once the setup is complete, the new prompt settings take effect immediately.

Verifying Configuration Files

The wizard automatically updates Fish configuration files, mainly ~/.config/fish/config.fish and other related settings.
If you want to modify settings later, you can either edit these files directly or rerun tide configure.

Checking If Everything Works

Finally, restart Fish or open a new terminal session to check if Tide is active.

exec fish

Summary

  • Prerequisites: Fish and Fisher are installed
  • Tide Installation: fisher install IlanCosman/tide
  • Initial Setup: The configuration wizard runs automatically or can be manually invoked using tide configure

With this setup, Tide provides a smooth and optimized shell experience for Fish users. Even if you’re accustomed to other tools like Starship, you may find Tide’s speed and customization features particularly beneficial. Enjoy your enhanced terminal environment!