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zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting

Fish shell like syntax highlighting for Zsh.

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Summary Information

Updated 27 minutes ago
Type:Plugin / ExtensionCategory(s):Terminal, Shell & TUIDeveloper Tools
Added to GitGenius on September 2nd, 2026
Created on December 25th, 2010
Open Issues & Pull Requests: 214 (+0)
GitHub issues: Enabled
Number of forks: 1,375
Total Stargazers: 23,026 (+0)
Total Subscribers: 127 (+0)

Repository Insights (GitGenius)

Median issue/PR response: 2.4 days
Mean response time: 215.8 days
90th percentile: 741.3 days
Tracked items: 23

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Maintainer activity

1 person did triage or write work on this repository in the last 12 months.

Counts unlabeled, assigned, unassigned, milestoned, demilestoned, locked, unlocked over the last 12 months. These are issue and pull request events that require triage or write permission. Commits and code review are not counted. labeled and renamed are excluded because GitHub issue forms record the issue author as the actor. Figures from October 11, 2026. This count is not comparable across projects: each project's automation decides which of these events a person emits.

How this project is maintained

85% of open issues come from outside the core team, so the backlog reflects real-world use rather than internal planning. Three people close 70% of everything that gets resolved.

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Issue Activity (beta)

Open issues: 20
New in 7 days: 0
Closed in 7 days: 1
Avg open age: 839 days
Stale 30+ days: 19
Stale 90+ days: 16

Recent activity

Opened in 7 days: 0
Closed in 7 days: 1
Comments in 7 days: 1
Events in 7 days: 1

Top labels

  • Question (4)
  • Bug (3)
  • Task (3)
  • good first issue (3)
  • syntax:command-word (3)
  • Feature (1)
  • feature:themes (1)

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Detailed Description

zsh-syntax-highlighting is a syntax highlighting plugin for Zsh that provides real-time visual feedback as you type commands.

The tool solves the problem of catching syntax errors and reviewing commands before execution by highlighting shell syntax as you type, similar to the Fish shell's built-in behavior. It works by hooking into the Zsh Line Editor to compute syntax highlighting for the command-line buffer. The highlighting is performed by pluggable highlighter scripts, allowing customization of how different syntax elements are displayed.

Anyone adopting this tool should know it requires Zsh 4.3.11 or newer. The plugin must be sourced at the end of the .zshrc file because it needs to wrap or hook into all custom widgets and other ZLE modifications that may have been registered earlier. Incremental history search highlighting requires Zsh 5.4 or newer; older versions will fall back to Zsh's default underlining. The tool suits developers and system administrators who want immediate visual feedback on command syntax while working in an interactive terminal, particularly those already familiar with Fish shell's highlighting behavior and wanting similar functionality in Zsh.

The project maintains active development with regular bug fixes and improvements. The codebase is written primarily in shell script, making it accessible for contributions and modifications. The maintainers provide comprehensive documentation covering highlighter configuration and answer common questions about installation and version compatibility through the README. The project tracks issues and provides multiple channels for users to monitor releases, including GitHub's RSS feed and release monitoring services.