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How to Be More Productive with Your Terminal

· 5 min read
Haruka Yamamoto
Haruka Yamamoto
A person and a dream

After almost 10 months without posting anything useful, I’m finally back — and this time, I’m going to show you how to make your terminal much more productive (and honestly, prettier).
Let’s get straight to the point — here’s what we’re going to cover:

For reference, I used Zorin OS Core (fresh install) while writing this tutorial.

Installing Hyper.js​

Hyper.js, or simply Hyper, is a terminal built with Electron — but here’s the catch: it’s beautiful, extensible, cross-platform, and extremely easy to configure.
Basically, the same setup works on all your machines. I absolutely love it.

To install it, visit the official website and click Download, or scroll down to pick the right package for your OS:

Installation Example

Once installed, open Hyper — it should look like this by default:

Hyper Default

Configuring the Catppuccin Theme​

Catppuccin is a gorgeous theme — perfect if, like me, you’ve grown tired of using Dracula everywhere.
It’s not mandatory for this tutorial, but I highly recommend it.
Like Dracula, Catppuccin has ports for tons of tools. You can check them out at Catppuccin Ports.

To install it, open your Hyper configuration file:

nano ~/.hyper.js

Add the following under the plugins section:

{
  "plugins": ["hypurr#latest"]
}

Catppuccin comes in four color palettes:

Choose your favorite and add this line to your config:

module.exports = {
  config: {
    catppuccinTheme: "Macchiato", // <===== Add this
    ...
  },
  ...
}

Now your terminal should look something like this with the Macchiato theme:

Catppuccin theme in Hyper.js

Installing Zsh​

Up to this point, we’ve been working mostly on style. Now let’s make the terminal powerful using Zsh — an interactive shell that’s also a robust scripting language. It brings features from Bash and other shells, plus lots of improvements.

Install it with:

sudo apt install zsh -y

Check if it installed correctly:

zsh --version

You should see something like zsh 5.8.1 (x86_64-ubuntu-linux-gnu).

To make Zsh your default shell:

chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh

Then log out and back in for the change to take effect.

If you see this screen, just type 2 and press Enter:

Message for new users

Installing Oh My Zsh​

Oh My Zsh (or just OMZ) is a framework that makes Zsh configuration much easier — and the official site description is pretty funny 😆.

First, make sure you have curl and git installed:

sudo apt install curl git -y

Then, install Oh My Zsh:

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

You’ll instantly notice how much prettier it looks. Also, take a look at the ~/.zshrc file — it’s similar to .bashrc or .profile. If you keep your aliases in another file (like .profile), just add this line anywhere in .zshrc:

source ~/.profile

Installing ZInit​

ZInit is a flexible and fast plugin manager for Zsh. It makes installing plugins effortless.

Install it with:

bash -c "$(curl --fail --show-error --silent --location https://raw.githubusercontent.com/zdharma-continuum/zinit/HEAD/scripts/install.sh)"

Accept the prompts with y and Enter.

Now, to add some essential plugins, open ~/.zshrc and add these lines at the end:

zinit light zdharma/fast-syntax-highlighting
zinit light zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions
zinit light zsh-users/zsh-completions

Close and reopen your terminal — ZInit will automatically install them.

Installing the Fira Code Font​

Fira Code is a free monospaced font with ligatures that make reading code easier and more pleasant. It doesn’t change your code — just how it’s rendered visually.

We’ll need it because the next step (Spaceship) looks better with it. Learn more about it on the Fira Code GitHub page.

Install it using:

sudo apt install fonts-firacode -y

To use it in Hyper, open the preferences (Menu → Edit → Preferences), which opens ~/.hyper.js. Then add Fira Code to your fonts:

module.exports = {
  config: {
    fontFamily: '"Fira Code", Menlo, "DejaVu Sans Mono", Consolas, "Lucida Console", monospace',
    ...
  },
  ...
}

Installing Spaceship​

Spaceship is a powerful Zsh prompt — it shows useful information like git status, runtime, and more, in a clean and aesthetic way.

It can make your terminal look like this:

Spaceship Example

Install it via ZInit by adding this to the end of your ~/.zshrc:

zinit light spaceship-prompt/spaceship-prompt

Now configure it by appending this block to the same file:

SPACESHIP_PROMPT_ORDER=(
  user
  dir
  host
  git
  hg
  exec_time
  line_sep
  jobs
  exit_code
  char
)
SPACESHIP_USER_SHOW=always
SPACESHIP_PROMPT_ADD_NEWLINE=false
SPACESHIP_CHAR_SYMBOL="❯"
SPACESHIP_CHAR_SUFFIX=" "

Restart your terminal, and ZInit will handle the rest.

Preview​

After all these steps, your terminal will be both beautiful and highly functional — with autocomplete, syntax highlighting, and more. Of course, you can add hundreds of other plugins using OMZ, ZInit, or Spaceship.

Here’s the final result on my setup:

Example

Spaceship helps you know exactly where you are in your system, and yes — if you connect via SSH, it looks the same remotely. Pretty cool, right?