Zush 🦥 - Mid-Performance ZSH Configuration

December 10, 2025 · View on GitHub

pre-commit License: MIT Shell: zsh

My personal ZSH configuration framework.

A performance-aware ZSH configuration designed for sub-200ms startup times while maintaining full functionality.

Installation

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/shyndman/zush/main/install.sh | zsh

Features

  • Instant Prompts - Basic prompt appears immediately, full prompt loads after ~129ms
  • Plugin Management - Simple zushp user/repo command to install GitHub plugins
  • Lazy Loading - Tools like nvm, pyenv, cargo load only when needed
  • Auto-compilation - All ZSH files compiled with zcompile for faster loading
  • Smart Caching - Environment changes cached for instant startup

Commands

zushp user/repo     # Install plugin
zushp_update        # Update all plugins
zush_clean          # Clean all caches and plugins

Development

Pre-commit checks

  1. Install the tooling dependencies: pre-commit, shellcheck, and shfmt (Homebrew: brew install pre-commit shellcheck shfmt).
  2. Enable hooks locally with pre-commit install.
  3. Run everything once before sending a PR: pre-commit run --all-files.

Hooks currently enforce:

  • shellcheck (with Zsh-friendly flags) on rc.d scripts, home/.zshenv, install.sh, and any shell helpers under scripts/.
  • shfmt --diff on Bash-compatible scripts (install.sh, scripts/*.sh).
  • zsh -n syntax validation across .zsh/.sh sources plus completions.
  • A zcompile dry run on lib/*.zsh, rc.d/*.zsh, and home/.zshenv to ensure everything remains compilable.

Performance

Current startup time: ~129ms with instant prompts providing immediate visual feedback.

Mid-performance by design. 🦥