# Powerlevel10k Powerlevel10k is a theme for ZSH. It's a backward-compatible fork of [Powerlevel9k](https://github.com/bhilburn/powerlevel9k) with lower latency and better prompt responsiveness. If you like the looks of Powerlevel9k but feeling frustrated by its slow prompt, simply replace your `powerlevel9k` theme with `powerlevel10k` and enjoy responsive shell like it's 80's again! Powerlevel10k uses the same configuration options as Powerlevel9k and produces the same results. It's simply faster. There is no catch. If you are on Linux or WSL, consider enabling [gitstatus](https://github.com/romkatv/gitstatus) plugin for massive performance improvement in the vcs/prompt segment. ## Installation & Configuration For installation and configuration instructions see [Powerlevel9k](https://github.com/bhilburn/powerlevel9k). Everything in there applies to Powerlevel10k as well. Follow the official installation guide, make sure everything works and you like the way prompt looks. Then simply replace file `powerlevel9k.zsh-theme` with the one from Powerlevel10k ([link](https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k/blob/master/powerlevel9k.zsh-theme)). Or replace the whole `powerlevel9k` directory to gain the ability to `git pull` updates in the future. Once you restart zsh, your prompt will be faster. ```zsh # Assuming oh-my-zsh at the standard location. Adjust to your circumstances. rm -rf ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/themes/powerlevel9k git clone git@github.com:romkatv/powerlevel10k.git ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/themes/powerlevel9k ``` **Do not load both Powerlevel9k and Powerlevel10k themes at the same time. Variable name clashes will cause mayhem. Source either one or the other. Consider Powerlevel10k a patched fork of Powerlevel9k, which it is.** ## How fast is it? Powerlevel10k with [gitstatus](https://github.com/romkatv/gitstatus) renders prompt about 10 times faster than powerlevel9k/master (stable version) and about 4 times faster than powerlevel9k/next (beta version). Powerlevel10k is faster than Powerlevel9k even without [gitstatus](https://github.com/romkatv/gitstatus) but the difference isn't as dramatic. Here's are benchmark results obtained with [zsh-prompt-benchmark](https://github.com/romkatv/zsh-prompt-benchmark) on Intel i9-7900X running Ubuntu 18.04. | Theme | / | ~/testrepo | ~/nerd-fonts | ~/linux | |------------------------------|-------:|-----------:|-------------:|--------:| | powerlevel9k/master | 135 ms | 207 ms | 234 ms | 326 ms | | powerlevel9k/next | 47 ms | 101 ms | 122 ms | 213 ms | | powerlevel10k | 24 ms | 82 ms | 104 ms | 197 ms | | powerlevel10k with gitstatus | 11 ms | 14 ms | 31 ms | 76 ms | | naked zsh | 1 ms | 1 ms | 1 ms | 1 ms | Columns define the current directory where the prompt was rendered. * `/` -- root directory, not a git repo. * `~/testrepo` -- a tiny git repo. * `~/nerd-fonts` -- [nerd-fonts](https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts) git repo with 4k files. * `~/linux` -- [linux](https://github.com/torvalds/linux) git repo. Huge. Here's how the prompt looked like: ![](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k/master/prompt.png) Configuration that was used during benchmarking: ```zsh POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=(dir_writable dir vcs) POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=(status background_jobs time custom_rprompt) POWERLEVEL9K_MODE=nerdfont-complete POWERLEVEL9K_PROMPT_ON_NEWLINE=true POWERLEVEL9K_CUSTOM_RPROMPT=custom_rprompt POWERLEVEL9K_ROOT_ICON=\\uF09CPOWERLEVEL9K_TIME_ICON=\\uF017 POWERLEVEL9K_CUSTOM_RPROMPT_ICON=\\uF005 POWERLEVEL9K_TIME_BACKGROUND=magenta POWERLEVEL9K_CUSTOM_RPROMPT_BACKGROUND=blue POWERLEVEL9K_STATUS_OK_BACKGROUND=grey53 POWERLEVEL9K_BACKGROUND_JOBS_BACKGROUND=orange1 POWERLEVEL9K_BACKGROUND_JOBS_FOREGROUND=black # Powerlevel10k extension to enable gitstatus. Has no effect on Powerlevel9k. POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_STATUS_COMMAND=gitstatus_query_dir function custom_rprompt() echo -E "hello world" ``` ## What's the catch? Really, there is no catch. It's literally the same prompt with the same flexibility configuration format as Powerlevel9k. But **much faster**.