pulse

Pulse – A fast, configurable Rust PS1 prompt engine for modern shells.

Installation

Prerequisites

• Rust (latest stable version recommended)

Building from Source

git clone https://github.com/juliankahlert/pulse.git
cd pulse
cargo build --release

The binary will be available at target/release/pulse.

Usage

To use Pulse as your shell prompt, set the PS1 environment variable in your shell configuration (e.g., ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc):

export PS1="\$(pulse)"

To display the exit code of the last command in the prompt, also add the following to your shell configuration:

export PROMPT_COMMAND='export LAST_EXIT_CODE=$?'

This will execute pulse every time the prompt is displayed, generating the customized prompt with the correct exit code.

Configuration

Configure the prompt via /etc/pulse/config.yaml (global) and ~/.config/pulse/config.yaml (user-specific).

Segment Coloring

Pulse supports coloring different segments of the prompt using a predefined color palette inspired by clrs.cc. You can specify colors for various prompt segments in your configuration file.

Default is coloring for dark background.

Available Colors

The following colors are available for use in segment coloring:

• Navy
• Blue
• Aqua
• Teal
• Olive
• Green
• Lime
• Yellow
• Orange
• Red
• Maroon
• Fuchsia
• Purple
• Black
• Gray
• Silver
• White
• Magenta

Example Configuration

segments:
  - name: username
    color: Blue
  - name: hostname
    color: Green
  - name: current_directory
    color: Navy

Examples

Default is dialline with git

Inline Mode

A compact single-line prompt:

user@host:~ pulse $

Description: The prompt consists of segments: username (user), separator (@), hostname (host), separator (:), current directory (~), space, prompt name (pulse), space, and shell prompt ($). No UTF-8 special characters are used.

Dualline Mode

A multi-line prompt with path navigation:

user@host:~ pulse › src › main
└─ 0 $

Description: Multi-line prompt with first line showing: username@user@host:~ pulse › src › main (segments: username, @, hostname, :, current dir ~, space, pulse, space, › (U+203A) separator, directory segments src › main). Second line: └─ (U+2514 U+2500) separator, exit code of the last command (0), space, $.

A multi-line prompt with deep path navigation and root starting in home dir:

user@host:~ … pulse › src › main
└─ 0 $

Description: Similar to above, but with ellipsis (…) (U+2026) indicating truncated path (path segments are truncated if there are more than 3) starting from home (). First line: user@host: … pulse › src › main. Second line: └─ (U+2514 U+2500) separator, exit code of the last command (0), space, $.

A multi-line prompt with deep path navigation and root NOT starting in home dir:

user@host:/ … hwmon › hwmon2 › power
└─ 0 $

Description: Path starts from root (/), with ellipsis (…) (U+2026) for truncation (path segments are truncated if there are more than 3). First line: user@host:/ … hwmon › hwmon2 › power. Second line: └─ (U+2514 U+2500) separator, exit code of the last command (0), space, $.

Git Support

A multi-line prompt with path navigation with a subpath of a git repository:

user@host: [repository-name] src › main
└─ 0 $

Description: Includes git repository name in brackets. First line: user@host: [repository-name : branch] src › main. Segments: username, @, hostname, :, space, [repository : branch], space, directory segments. Second line: └─ (U+2514 U+2500) separator, exit code of the last command (0), space, $.