Installation Details

The primary one-line installation command is in the README. The installer requires an existing Oh My Zsh installation. It validates the downloaded standalone theme with Zsh before atomically publishing it below the Oh My Zsh custom theme directory.

The theme download performed by the installer is restricted to HTTPS, bounded to 1 MiB, and has finite connection and total deadlines. An identical installed theme is not replaced or backed up, although unsafe group or other write permissions are removed. An upgrade preserves the previous file beside the new theme.

Existing .zshrc files, including symbolic links, are never rewritten. The installer prints the exact setting to change manually. If .zshrc does not exist, the installer creates it from the installed Oh My Zsh template and selects ai-candy there.

Install Without Modifying .zshrc

To prevent the installer from creating a missing .zshrc:

sh -c 'installer=$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SihaoLiu/ai-candy/refs/heads/main/install.sh) && [ -n "$installer" ] && exec sh -c "$installer" sh "$@"' sh --no-modify-zshrc

Confirm Before Installing

To require an explicit CONFIRM before installing or replacing a theme whose content differs from the downloaded release:

sh -c 'installer=$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SihaoLiu/ai-candy/refs/heads/main/install.sh) && [ -n "$installer" ] && exec sh -c "$installer" sh "$@"' sh --confirm

Mirrors And Reproducible Installs

AI_CANDY_THEME_URL may be exported before running the installer to use a self-hosted HTTPS mirror of the standalone theme. Leave it unset for the standard GitHub-hosted installation.

The short command follows the Oh My Zsh installer trust model: it downloads and executes the installer from the current main branch. Inspect the script before running it when that trust model is not appropriate. For a reproducible installation, use an installer URL pinned to a reviewed tag or commit and set AI_CANDY_THEME_URL to the matching pinned theme URL.

Manual Installation

Clone the repository or download the standalone theme, then copy it into the custom theme directory:

cp ai-candy.zsh-theme "${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/"

Select it in ~/.zshrc:

ZSH_THEME="ai-candy"

Start a new Zsh session or reload the configuration:

source ~/.zshrc

Uninstallation

Select a different ZSH_THEME in ~/.zshrc, then remove the installed theme:

rm "${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes/ai-candy.zsh-theme"

Upgrades keep prior theme files as ai-candy.zsh-theme.backup.*. They are not removed automatically because they may be needed for recovery. List and review them before deleting any that are no longer needed:

find "${ZSH_CUSTOM:-$HOME/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/themes" \
  -type f -name 'ai-candy.zsh-theme.backup.*' -print