How to Install Starship

Starship installs as a single binary, and the official site offers a quick installation path for Bash, Fish, ZSH, Ion, Tcsh, Elvish, Nu, Xonsh, Cmd, and PowerShell. Before you start, confirm two things: your shell is in that list, and your operating system is one of the common ones Starship targets — the project describes itself as "compatibility first," built to work on the most common shells across the most common operating systems. If both check out, installation is a short process: install the binary, then add one line to your shell's startup file.

Step 1: Check your shell and OS

Starship's supported shells, per the official site:

If you're not sure which shell you're running, echo $SHELL works on most Unix-like systems; on Windows, check whether you're in PowerShell, Cmd, or a Unix-style shell like Git Bash. The installation method you pick depends on this answer.

Step 2: Install the Starship binary

The official site provides a quick installation route, and the binary is also distributed through common package managers. Pick the path that matches your platform:

• Package managers — install via your OS or language package manager (for example Homebrew on macOS/Linux, or a Windows package manager). This is usually the simplest option because upgrades are handled for you.
• Install script — the official quick-install script downloads the correct binary for your platform. This is useful when no package exists for your system.
• Manual binary download — download the release binary and place it somewhere on your PATH. This gives you the most control, at the cost of managing updates yourself.

Whatever route you choose, the expected result is the same: a starship executable that runs from your terminal. Verify it with:

starship --version

If that prints a version number, the binary is installed correctly. If you get "command not found," the binary isn't on your PATH — that's the most common failure at this stage, and it's a path problem, not an installation problem.

Step 3: Wire Starship into your shell

Installing the binary doesn't change your prompt by itself. You need to initialize Starship in your shell's startup configuration. The pattern is the same everywhere: add one init line to the file your shell reads at startup.

• Bash — add the init line to ~/.bashrc.
• ZSH — add it to ~/.zshrc.
• Fish — add it to ~/.config/fish/config.fish.
• PowerShell — add it to your PowerShell profile.
• Other shells (Ion, Tcsh, Elvish, Nu, Xonsh, Cmd) — each has its own startup file or profile mechanism; use the init command the official docs specify for that shell.

The exact init line differs per shell, so copy the one for your shell from the official installation instructions rather than guessing. After saving the file, open a new terminal window (or reload the config) and your prompt should change to the Starship prompt.

Step 4: Verify and troubleshoot

Expected result: a new terminal session shows the Starship prompt instead of your old one.

Common sticking points:

• Prompt didn't change — the init line is in the wrong file, or you're editing the config for a different shell than the one you're actually running. Re-check with echo $SHELL.
• starship: command not found after install — the binary isn't on your PATH. Confirm where it was installed and that the directory is included in PATH.
• Prompt appears but looks broken — usually a font issue. Starship's default prompt uses glyphs that need a Nerd Font; install one and set it in your terminal emulator.
• Works in one terminal, not another — different terminal emulators can load different shells or profiles. Make sure the shell you configured is the one the terminal launches.

What you get once it's installed

Starship is Rust-powered, which is the basis for its "blazing fast" claim, and it's designed to be extremely customizable — the prompt shows the information you need while staying minimal. Installation itself doesn't require configuring any of that; the defaults work out of the box. Customization is a separate step you can take later by editing starship.toml.

The short version: confirm your shell is supported, install the binary, add the init line for your shell, then verify with starship --version and a fresh terminal. Most installation problems come down to PATH or putting the init line in the wrong startup file.