Which shells and operating systems does Starship support?

Updated

Starship supports Bash, Fish, ZSH, Ion, Tcsh, Elvish, Nu, Xonsh, Cmd, and PowerShell. According to the official site, it is built with "Compatibility First" in mind: it works on the most common shells on the most common operating systems, so you can use it everywhere. If your shell is on that list, your environment is within Starship's supported range.

Supported shells

Starship's official description lists the following shells:

  • Bash
  • Fish
  • ZSH
  • Ion
  • Tcsh
  • Elvish
  • Nu
  • Xonsh
  • Cmd
  • PowerShell

That covers the mainstream POSIX-style shells (Bash, ZSH, Fish), several smaller or newer shells (Ion, Elvish, Nu, Xonsh), and the two Windows-oriented environments (Cmd and PowerShell).

Supported operating systems

The site does not publish a per-OS compatibility matrix. What it states is the design goal behind the list: Starship targets "the most common shells on the most common operating systems." In practice, that means the supported shell list is the primary thing to check — if your shell is supported, Starship is intended to work in your environment.

How to decide whether your setup qualifies

Use this quick check:

Your situation What to do
Your shell is in the list above You are in the supported range; install Starship for that shell
Your shell is not in the list Starship does not list support for it
You use multiple shells Starship is designed to work across them, so you can enable it in each supported shell
You are unsure which shell you run Check your shell first, then compare it against the list

Why the list matters

Starship is described as a minimal, blazing fast, and extremely customizable prompt for any shell. The "Compatibility First" principle is the reason the supported-shell list is broad rather than tied to one ecosystem: the goal is that the same prompt configuration follows you across shells and operating systems instead of being rewritten per environment.

Key takeaways

  • Supported shells: Bash, Fish, ZSH, Ion, Tcsh, Elvish, Nu, Xonsh, Cmd, PowerShell.
  • Starship is built for common shells on common operating systems, with compatibility as a stated priority.
  • If your shell appears in the list, your environment is supported; if it does not, Starship does not claim support for it.