Nushell is a modern shell that treats data as structured tables, making it incredibly powerful for working with JSON, CSV, and other structured formats. Think of it as combining the best of PowerShell’s object pipelines with Unix philosophy.
Overview The Gentleman.Dots Nushell configuration provides:
Custom Gentleman theme with wave-inspired colors
Vi mode editing with custom cursor shapesStarship prompt integrationZoxide , Atuin , and Carapace integrationsAutomatic tmux session management
Custom LS_COLORS for beautiful file listings
FZF utilities for fuzzy finding
Installation
Install Dependencies
# Core tools brew install starship zoxide atuin fzf # Carapace for completions brew install carapace # Optional: bat for syntax highlighting brew install bat
Deploy Configuration
# Copy Nushell configs cp -r GentlemanNushell/ * ~/.config/nushell/ # Copy Starship config cp starship.toml ~/.config/starship.toml
Set as Default Shell
# Add to /etc/shells echo $( which nu ) | sudo tee -a /etc/shells # Set as default chsh -s $( which nu )
Configuration Files config.nu The main configuration file located at ~/.config/nushell/config.nu.
Theme Configuration Gentleman.Dots includes a custom dark theme inspired by wave colors:
let dark_theme = { separator : "#54546D" # table borders header : "#7E9CD8_bold" # wave blue bool : "#D27E99" # wave pink int : "#54546D" # wave gray string : "#54546D" # wave gray shape_string : "#98BB6C" # wave green shape_operator : "#E46876" # wave red shape_directory : "#7E9CD8" # wave blue }
Editor Mode Configured for vi mode with visual cursor feedback:
cursor_shape : { emacs : line vi_insert : block vi_normal : underscore } edit_mode : vi
Custom Functions Utility functions for enhanced workflow:
def fzfbat [] { fzf -- preview "bat --theme=gruvbox-dark --color=always {}" }
Automatic Tmux Sessions automatically start in tmux:
let MULTIPLEXER = "tmux" let MULTIPLEXER_ENV_PREFIX = "TMUX" def start_multiplexer [] { if $MULTIPLEXER_ENV_PREFIX not-in ( $env | columns ) { run-external $MULTIPLEXER } } start_multiplexer
env.nu Environment configuration at ~/.config/nushell/env.nu.
PATH Configuration $env .PATH = ( $env .PATH | split row ( char esep ) | prepend ( $env .HOME | path join ".local/bin" ) | prepend '/opt/homebrew/bin' | prepend ( $env .HOME | path join ".opencode/bin" ) | prepend ( $env .HOME | path join ".volta/bin" ) | prepend ( $env .HOME | path join ".bun/bin" ) | prepend ( $env .HOME | path join ".cargo/bin" ) )
Automatically initializes modern CLI tools:
starship init nu | save - f ~/.cache/starship/init.nu zoxide init nushell | save - f ~/.zoxide.nu atuin init nu | save - f ~/.local/share/atuin/init.nu carapace _carapace nushell | save -- force ~/.cache/carapace/init.nu
Key Features Structured Data Pipelines Nushell’s killer feature is treating everything as structured data:
Working with JSON
System Information
Git Operations
# Parse and filter JSON open data.json | where active == true | select name email # Transform to different format open users.json | to csv | save users.csv
Completion System Four sophisticated completion menus:
Completion Menu (Tab) - Columnar displayIDE Completion (Ctrl+Space) - VSCode-style with descriptionsHistory Menu (Ctrl+R) - Search command historyHelp Menu (F1) - Inline documentation
Nushell completions are enhanced by Carapace, which provides completions for 600+ commands including git, docker, kubectl, and npm.
Vi Keybindings Familiar vim-like editing:
Normal mode : Esc or Ctrl+[Insert mode : i, a, A, etc.Visual mode : Indicated by cursor shapeCommand mode : / for search
History with Atuin Searchable, syncable shell history:
# Search history Ctrl+R # Stats atuin stats # Sync across machines atuin sync
Customization Changing the Theme Edit the $env.config.color_config in config.nu:
# Use light theme $env .config.color_config = $light_theme # Or create custom theme let my_theme = { separator : "#999999" string : "#00ff00" # ... more colors } $env .config.color_config = $my_theme
Adding Custom Commands Create reusable functions:
Simple Function
With Parameters
Complex Pipeline
def mkcd [ name : string ] { mkdir $name cd $name }
Modifying Keybindings Customize keybindings in the keybindings section of config.nu:
{ name : my_custom_binding modifier : control keycode : char_t mode : [ emacs , vi_normal , vi_insert ] event : { edit : transpose } }
Starship Prompt Configured via ~/.config/starship.toml with Gentleman palette:
palette = "gentleman" [ palettes . gentleman ] text = "#F3F6F9" blue = "#7FB4CA" green = "#B7CC85"
Zoxide (Smart CD) # Jump to directory z dotfiles # Interactive selection zi # Add current directory zoxide add .
FZF Integration Custom commands for fuzzy finding:
# Preview files with bat fzfbat # Open file in nvim fzfnvim
Tips & Tricks Quick JSON transformation : Nushell makes it trivial to work with APIshttp get https://api.github.com/users/octocat | to json
Table operations : Use | to chain operationsps | where cpu > 10 | sort-by cpu | reverse
Nushell scripts are not POSIX-compatible. Bash scripts won’t work directly. Use bash -c "command" to run Bash commands when needed.
Troubleshooting Completions Not Working # Regenerate carapace completions carapace _carapace nushell | save --force ~/.cache/carapace/init.nu # Restart Nushell
Starship Not Loading # Check Starship is installed which starship # Regenerate init file starship init nu | save -f ~/.cache/starship/init.nu
Tmux Not Starting Edit config.nu to disable auto-start:
# Comment out the start_multiplexer call # start_multiplexer
Learning Resources
Nushell Book Official Nushell documentation and guide
Nu Scripts Community scripts and examples
Nushell Discord Active community support
Awesome Nu Curated resources and tools
Next Steps 