How to install

iTerm2

brew install --cask iterm2

Or, if you do not have homebrew (you should ;)): Download and install iTerm2

iTerm2 has better color fidelity than the built in Terminal, so your themes will look better.

Get the iTerm color settings

Solarized Dark theme (patched version to fix the bright black value)
Solarized Light theme
More themes @ iterm2colorschemes

Just save it somewhere and open the file(s). The color settings will be imported into iTerm2. Apply them in iTerm through iTerm → preferences → profiles → colors → load presets. You can create a different profile other than Default if you wish to do so.

Oh My Zsh

More info here: https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh

Install with curl

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

When the installation is done, edit ~/.zshrc and set ZSH_THEME="agnoster" for the default look. Or better yet, go for Powerlevel10k.

Powerlevel9k / Powerlevel10k

Why Powerlevel10k? Well, because it's a drop-in replacement for Powerlevel9k, just a lot faster to render your prompt. ls feels fast again!

So if you prefer the Powerlevel10k look with added info such as exit codes and timestamps on the right, run:

git clone https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k.git $ZSH_CUSTOM/themes/powerlevel10k

Then edit your ~/.zshrc and set ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k". Once you do so, when you start a new terminal session, the Powerlevel10 configure wizard will be launched to set your prompt, beware, there are many many options!

Powerlevel10k offers a whole lot more and is extremely configurable, best is to check its project page.

If you want to trigger the configuration wizard immediately, simply run p10k configure to discover all options, which are plentiful.

Install a patched font

If you did not go with Powerlevel9k or you want another font, read on:

Source Code Pro
Source Code Pro + Font Awesome, this one is needed if you want the icons from Font Awesome as shown in the screenshot for Powerlevel10k.
Others @ powerline fonts

Open the downloaded font and press "Install Font".

Set this font in iTerm2 (iTerm → Preferences → Profiles → Text → Font), in the dropdown select the desired Font. You will see it change on the fly.

Restart iTerm2 for all changes to take effect.

Further tweaking

Things like

auto suggestions
word jumping with arrow keys / natural text editing
shorter prompt style
syntax highlighting
visual studio code config

can be found in the section below.

Auto suggestions (for Oh My Zsh)

Just follow these steps: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions/blob/master/INSTALL.md#oh-my-zsh

If the auto suggestions do not appear to show, it could be a problem with your color scheme. Under "iTerm → Preferences → Profiles → Colors tab", check the value of Black Bright, that is the color your auto suggestions will have. It will be displayed on top of the Background color. If there is not enough contrast between the two, you won't see the suggestions even if they're actually there..

Enable word jumps and word deletion, aka natural text selection

By default, word jumps (option + → or ←) and word deletions (option + backspace) do not work. To enable these, go to "iTerm → Preferences → Profiles → Keys → Presets... → Natural Text Editing → Boom! Head explodes"

Custom prompt styles

By default, your prompt will now show “user@hostname” in the prompt. This will make your prompt rather bloated. To remove this you can add the line DEFAULT_USER=$(whoami)to ~/.zshrc.

For further customisation of your prompt, you can follow a great guide here: https://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/how-to-customize-your-command-prompt--net-24083

Syntax highlighting

brew install zsh-syntax-highlighting

If you do not have or do not like homebrew, follow the installation instructions instead.

After installation, add the following line

source /usr/local/share/zsh-syntax-highlighting/zsh-syntax-highlighting.zsh

to the end of your .zshrc file. After that, it's best to restart your terminal. Sourcing your ~/.zshrc does not seem to work well with this plugin.

Visual Studio Code config

Installing a patched font will mess up the integrated terminal in VS Code unless you use the proper settings. You'll need to go to settings (CMD + ,) and add or edit the following values:

for Source Code Pro + Font Awesome: "terminal.integrated.fontFamily": "'SourceCodePro+Powerline+Awesome Regular'". The single quotes are important! Restart VS Code after the config change.
for Source Code Pro: "terminal.integrated.fontFamily": "Source Code Pro for Powerline"
for Meslo: "terminal.integrated.fontFamily": "Meslo LG M for Powerline"
for other fonts you'll need to check the font name in Font Book. You can right click on them on select "Show in Finder" to get the exact name.

You can also set the fontsize e.g.: "terminal.integrated.fontSize": 14

josejaguirre/iterm2-solarized.md

Default

Powerlevel10k