Workstation Shell¶

Frontmatter

Field	Value
`description`	personal developer shell environment setup on a workstation — interactive prompt, modular shellrc, modern CLI tool ecosystem, global git identity, persistent ssh-agent
`vocabulary`	`workstation zsh bash shell dotfile rcfile PATH XDG prompt oh-my-posh theme bootstrap fresh machine setup personal home config homebrew pacman apt`
`refire`	`0.15`
`scope`	`agent, subagent`

Setting up the shell layer of a personal developer machine — the things a user cares about on a fresh install. Project-level config lives elsewhere.

Children¶

Concern	Way
Interactive prompt appearance	`workstation/shell/prompt`
Modular shellrc, PATH, XDG	`workstation/shell/shellrc`
Modern CLI tools (lsd, bat, fd, rg, fzf, ...)	`workstation/shell/tools`
Global git identity and defaults	`workstation/shell/gitconfig`
Persistent ssh-agent	`workstation/shell/sshagent`

Detect first, install second. Find the OS and package manager before recommending a command. Homebrew on macOS, pacman on Arch, apt on Debian/Ubuntu, dnf on Fedora. Package names drift across distros — fd vs fd-find, bat vs batcat, rg vs ripgrep.
Layer on top, don't clobber. Distros and Homebrew already set sensible PATH and XDG defaults. Add to them; don't replace them.
Graceful degradation. Every sourced config should command -v <tool> before configuring it. A missing tool must silently no-op.
No plugin managers by default. Plain shell + sourced files beats oh-my-zsh, zinit, antibody for a user who wants to maintain their own setup. If the user asks for one, fine — but don't introduce one uninvited.
Ask before installing. Font family, which CLI replacements, git identity, SSH key type — these are preferences. Confirm before running package manager commands.
Offer the walkthrough shape. Interactive setup is a sequence: detect → confirm → install → verify. At each step, report what was found and wait for confirmation before moving on. Don't batch-install the whole stack.