FISH_PROMPT(1)

🌸 FISH_PROMPT(1) — the fish-shell manual, bestie edition 🌸

okay so you're here because you wanna know about fish_prompt, and honestly? iconic choice. this is the fish-shell man page, and we're gonna get you all the way together. 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

fish_prompt — defines the appearance of the command line prompt 🎀

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

function fish_prompt
    ...
end

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so the tea is: the fish_prompt function gets executed whenever the prompt is about to be shown, and whatever it outputs? that is your prompt. literally the whole vibe. ✨

now, important detail, don't skip this — the exit status of commands within fish_prompt will not modify the value of $status outside of the fish_prompt function. so like, you can go feral in there, your $status is safe. no cap. 🫶

if fish_transient_prompt is set to 1, then fish_prompt --final-rendering is run before executing the commandline. yes, that's a whole extra rendering pass. it's giving final boss energy. 👑

and if SHELL_PROMPT_PREFIX or SHELL_PROMPT_SUFFIX are set, they get automatically prepended and appended to the left prompt. this applies to all prompts, regardless of whether fish_prompt has been customized. so even if you hand-rolled your own gorgeous prompt, these still show up. iykyk. 💀

also!! fish ships with a number of example prompts that you can choose with the fish_config command. built-in aesthetics, zero effort, we love to see it. 🌈

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✨ EXAMPLE ✨

a simple prompt, for when you're feeling minimal but still cute:

function fish_prompt -d "Write out the prompt"
    # This shows up as USER@HOST /home/user/ >, with the directory colored
    # $USER and $hostname are set by fish, so you can just use them
    # instead of using `whoami` and `hostname`
    printf '%s@%s %s%s%s > ' $USER $hostname \
        (set_color $fish_color_cwd) (prompt_pwd) (set_color --reset)
end

like look at that. $USER and $hostname are set by fish so you don't even gotta call whoami and hostname yourself. efficiency queen behavior. 🦋

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✨ Copyright ✨

fish-shell developers 💖

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and that's the whole page, bestie — this was the fish_prompt section of the fish-shell manual, from version 4.9, dated Sep 08, 2026. mwah, go make a prompt that slays. 💅✨🎀