Configure Powerlevel10k with the Interactive Wizard

The Powerlevel10k configuration wizard is the easiest way to set up your prompt. It walks you through a series of visual questions — font checks, style selection, icon density, transient prompt, and instant prompt — and then writes a fully-commented ~/.p10k.zsh configuration file based on your answers. You can run it as many times as you like; each run overwrites the previous file.

Launching the Wizard

The wizard runs automatically on the very first Zsh start after Powerlevel10k is installed, provided no POWERLEVEL9K_* parameters are already defined in your environment. If it does not start automatically, launch it manually:

Open a terminal

Start a new Zsh session, or use an existing one.

Run the wizard

p10k configure

Answer the prompts

The wizard displays sample glyphs and asks whether they render correctly. Answer honestly — your answers determine which styles are offered.

Choose your preferences

Select a prompt style, character set, color depth, icon set, transient prompt behavior, and instant prompt mode.

Restart Zsh

The wizard appends a source ~/.p10k.zsh line to ~/.zshrc if one is not already present. Restart Zsh with exec zsh to apply everything cleanly.

Prompt Styles

All styles except Pure are functionally equivalent — they display the same information and differ only in visual presentation. Install the recommended MesloLGS NF font before running the wizard to unlock all styles.

Lean
Classic
Rainbow
Pure

Lean is a minimal, text-only style with no colored segment backgrounds. It always includes prompt_char — a multi-functional symbol (❯) that turns red on error and changes shape in vi mode. Because it relies only on foreground colors, it is monochrome-friendly and looks great on any terminal color scheme.

# Lean style: no backgrounds, always has prompt_char on line 2
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS=(
  dir
  vcs
  newline
  prompt_char    # ❯ / ❮ / V / ▶ depending on vi mode
)

Lean offers an 8 colors variant that confines all colors to the terminal’s 16-color palette (colors 0–15). This makes it fully theme-aware — switching your terminal’s color palette (e.g., to Solarized Dark) changes the prompt colors accordingly.

Classic uses the Powerline aesthetic: segments are rendered as colored blocks separated by arrow-shaped glyphs (“). It saves two characters per segment compared to Rainbow, making it a compact yet visually structured choice.

# Classic style uses Powerline separators between differently colored segments
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_SEGMENT_SEPARATOR='\uE0B0'
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_SUBSEGMENT_SEPARATOR='\uE0B1'

Classic supports both Unicode (Powerline glyphs) and ASCII character sets. If your font or locale does not support Unicode, the ASCII variant replaces powerline symbols with plain ASCII characters so the prompt renders correctly everywhere.

Rainbow is the most colorful style, using distinct background colors for each segment. It requires a terminal that supports at least 256 colors and a Nerd Font for the best appearance.

# Rainbow: each segment has its own vibrant background
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_DIR_BACKGROUND=4
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_DIR_FOREGROUND=254
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_CLEAN_BACKGROUND=2
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_VCS_MODIFIED_BACKGROUND=3

In two-line configurations without a left frame, Rainbow also exposes prompt_char — useful if you use vi keymap and want a mode indicator that turns red on command failure.

Pure replicates the appearance of the Pure Zsh theme exactly, including its quirks (no stale-status indication, same symbol in command and visual vi modes). It exists primarily for users migrating from Pure who want a drop-in visual replacement.

# Pure style: transparent background, spaces between segments, no icons
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_BACKGROUND=
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_{LEFT,RIGHT}_{LEFT,RIGHT}_WHITESPACE=
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_{LEFT,RIGHT}_SUBSEGMENT_SEPARATOR=' '
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_VISUAL_IDENTIFIER_EXPANSION=

The Pure → Original color sub-variant confines colors to the terminal’s 16-color palette, making it behave correctly with themed palettes such as Solarized. If you like Pure’s minimalist look but want to take full advantage of Powerlevel10k features, choose Lean instead.

What the Wizard Produces

After completing the wizard, ~/.p10k.zsh contains:

POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS and POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_ELEMENTS arrays listing all active segments
Per-segment color, icon, and format parameters — each one commented with a human-readable explanation
POWERLEVEL9K_INSTANT_PROMPT set to verbose, quiet, or off based on your answer
POWERLEVEL9K_TRANSIENT_PROMPT set to always, same-dir, or off based on your preference

The file is designed to be edited by hand after generation. Every parameter is documented inline, and related parameters are grouped together.

Troubleshooting

The wizard runs every time Zsh starts. This happens when ~/.zshrc has a syntax error that prevents evaluation from reaching the source ~/.p10k.zsh line the wizard appended. Use POWERLEVEL9K_DISABLE_CONFIGURATION_WIZARD=true zsh to suppress the auto-run and see the error messages. Some prompt styles are missing from the wizard.

Pure → Snazzy requires Zsh ≥ 5.7.1 and a terminal with truecolor support (COLORTERM=24bit or COLORTERM=truecolor). Verify truecolor with print -P '%F{#ff0000}red%f'.
All styles except Lean 8-colors require a terminal capable of 256 colors. Verify with print $terminfo[colors].
Unicode styles require a UTF-8 locale and the MULTIBYTE Zsh option (enabled by default). Verify with locale -a and print -r -- ${options[MULTIBYTE]}.
If the wizard’s font-capability questions reveal that glyphs do not render, it will not offer styles that depend on those glyphs. Install the recommended font and restart your terminal, then run p10k configure again.

Configuration wizard auto-installs the recommended font (MesloLGS NF) only in iTerm2 and Termux. For other terminals, download and install the font manually, then configure the terminal to use it before running the wizard.

Get Started

Configuration

Prompt Features

Compatibility

Reference

Configure Powerlevel10k with the Interactive Wizard

Launching the Wizard

Prompt Styles

What the Wizard Produces

Troubleshooting

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get Started

Configuration

Prompt Features

Compatibility

Reference

Documentation Index

​Launching the Wizard

​Prompt Styles

​What the Wizard Produces

​Troubleshooting

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Launching the Wizard

Prompt Styles

What the Wizard Produces

Troubleshooting