whetuu

whetuu [init shell | render | history | paths | upgrade] [options]

whetuu (Māori *whetū*, "star"; pronounced feh-TOO) is a single Zig binary that draws a curated status line and puts command history on the up arrow. There is nothing to configure: one binary, one status line, the same for everyone.The status line shows, left to right and only when relevant: user@host over SSH or as root, the current directory, git branch and operation state, git status, a language/toolchain logo and version (39 languages and tools), last-command duration when it ran 2 s or more, a cloud glyph when a newer release is known, and a star prompt character that turns red after a failed command.The history picker is whetuu's own store, not your shell's. Failed commands are never stored. A leading space keeps a command out of the store. The up arrow opens on this directory's history (Ctrl+G switches to all history). Enter runs the selection, Tab drops it on the command line to edit, Esc cancels. Your ~/.bash_history, ~/.zsh_history, and fish history are never read or rewritten.Needs a Nerd Font for the git, language, and star glyphs.

init shell

Print the integration script for fish, bash, or zsh. Meant to be sourced or eval'd. Run straight into a terminal and it prints the setup line instead.

Render one status line. Called by the shell hook, not by you. The hook passes exit status, duration, and terminal width.

Open the interactive history picker (also bound to the up arrow by the integrations).

Record a finished command. Called by the shell hook.

Print the history store and version-cache locations, and whether each file exists yet.

Replace the running binary with the newest GitHub release after checking SHA256SUMS. Prints changelog entries between the two versions.

Name the waiting release and print its changelog. Writes the tag so the status line can show an update glyph. Installs nothing. whetuu runs this for itself at most once a day.

Print the version.

whetuu has no config file. Data locations follow the XDG spec:~/.local/share/whetuu/history

History store (0600), or under $XDG_DATA_HOME. Shared by fish, bash, and zsh. Commands are stored in plaintext with the directory they ran in.

Toolchain version cache and newest-release tag, or under $XDG_CACHE_HOME. Safe to delete.

Installer prints the shell-config lines instead of writing them.

Installer puts the binary somewhere other than ~/.local/bin, and then leaves the shell config alone.

Requires a Nerd Font; missing glyphs render as empty boxes. Bash command timing needs bash 5 or newer. The up arrow is rebound to the picker in all three shells; Ctrl+R and the rest of the shell's history keep working. On bash, ignorespace is added to HISTCONTROL. History is plaintext — prefix secrets with a space, or keep them in the environment. Entering an untrusted repository can make whetuu run the detected toolchain's --version from PATH (never a binary from the repo). whetuu upgrade will not overwrite a binary you cannot write (package-manager installs) or a source build that reports dev.

whetuu is a Zig status line and history picker by yamafaktory, first published as a public GitHub project in 2026. The ASCII name doubles the u to write the long Māori vowel in *whetū*.

starship(1), oh-my-posh(1), atuin(1), mcfly(1), fzf(1), bash(1), zsh(1), fish(1)

Source code · Homepage