Nerdshell

Nerdshell is a premium terminal environment for macOS and Linux: Zsh, Starship, eza icons, Ghostty, Git delta, fast search, better navigation, Java/Grails and Node/Angular-friendly defaults.

It is designed for people who want a beautiful, visual, useful terminal without manually wiring every tool.

Preview

Project listing

Tree view

Autosuggestions and Git branch

Root directory listing

macOS: double click install

Build the visual macOS installer:

./packaging/macos/build-dmg.sh 0.1.0

Open dist/Nerdshell-0.1.0-macOS.dmg, drag Nerdshell Installer to Applications and open it. Press Instalar Nerdshell and follow the progress in Terminal.

The legacy repository installer remains available by double clicking macos/install.command.

The default build uses an ad-hoc signature for local testing. For public distribution, provide a Developer ID identity and an optional notarization profile:

CODESIGN_IDENTITY="Developer ID Application: Your Name (TEAMID)" \
NOTARY_PROFILE="nerdshell-notary" \
./packaging/macos/build-dmg.sh 0.1.0

The installer creates backups before replacing any shell or terminal config.

Debian, Ubuntu and derivatives (.deb)

Build the package on macOS or Linux:

./packaging/build-deb.sh 0.1.0

The package is created at dist/nerdshell_0.1.0_all.deb. Install it with your graphical package manager (Discover, App Center, Software) or with:

sudo apt install ./dist/nerdshell_0.1.0_all.deb

After installing the package, open Nerdshell Installer from the application menu. It runs as your normal user, creates backups, installs available tools and applies the terminal configuration.

Official targets are Debian, Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Linux Mint, KDE Neon, Pop!_OS, Zorin OS and other compatible derivatives are expected to work as well.

Arch Linux, Omarchy and derivatives

Build the native Arch package from macOS or Linux with Docker running:

./packaging/arch/build-arch.sh 0.1.0

Install the generated package:

sudo pacman -U ./dist/nerdshell-0.1.0-1-any.pkg.tar.zst

Then open Nerdshell Installer from the application menu. On Omarchy, it works with the default Alacritty terminal and JetBrainsMono Nerd Font; Ghostty remains optional. Nerdshell backs up existing Starship and shell configuration before applying its own settings and does not modify Hyprland or Omarchy themes.

Fedora, RHEL, Rocky, AlmaLinux and CentOS Stream

Build the RPM from macOS or Linux with Docker running:

./packaging/rpm/build-rpm.sh 0.1.0

Install it with DNF:

sudo dnf install ./dist/nerdshell-0.1.0-1.noarch.rpm

Then open Nerdshell Installer from the application menu. Fedora provides most optional terminal tools directly. On RHEL-compatible systems, enabling EPEL makes more tools available, but it is not required for the RPM itself to install or for the core Nerdshell configuration to work.

Other Linux distributions

From the project folder:

./linux/install.sh

Some Linux file managers allow double click execution through linux/Nerdshell.desktop, but behavior varies by desktop environment. The terminal command above is the reliable path.

Windows 10 and 11

Build the native Windows installers from macOS or Linux with Go:

./apps/windows/NerdshellInstaller/build-windows.sh 0.1.0

Double click the installer matching the computer architecture. It requests administrator permission, installs Windows Terminal, PowerShell 7, Starship, JetBrainsMono Nerd Font and supported developer tools through WinGet, then creates a Nerdshell Terminal shortcut. Existing PowerShell, Starship and Windows Terminal settings are backed up before changes are applied.

What Nerdshell installs/configures

• Zsh with fast startup, history, completion, autosuggestions and syntax highlighting.
• Starship prompt with visual Java, Node, Git, Gradle and Docker context.
• eza with Nerd Font icons and a rich file theme.
• Bat, ripgrep, fd, fzf, zoxide, btop, fastfetch and lazygit.
• Git delta for side-by-side diffs and line numbers.
• Ghostty config with JetBrainsMono Nerd Font and Symbols Nerd Font.
• SDKMAN and NVM bootstrap for Java/Grails/Groovy and Node workflows.

Safety

Nerdshell does not delete your existing config. It backs up these files first:

• ~/.zshrc
• ~/.zprofile
• ~/.zshenv
• ~/.config/starship.toml
• ~/.config/eza/theme.yml
• ~/.config/ghostty/config
• ~/.gitconfig
• ~/.config/lsd

Backups are saved under:

~/.config-backups/nerdshell-YYYYMMDD-HHMMSS

Notes

• macOS is the most complete install path.
• Linux support covers common package managers: apt, dnf, pacman, and zypper.
• Terminal icon rendering depends on the terminal app using a Nerd Font. Ghostty is recommended.