Oh My Posh in PowerShell and in WSL2 zsh, with one config file

windows - 2026-09-28

Oh My Posh draws the same prompt in any shell from one JSON config. On a Windows machine with WSL2, that means PowerShell and the Linux zsh can share a prompt. There are two installs, one font, and one file. Tested with Oh My Posh 29.14, PowerShell 7.6 and zsh 5.9.

Install

Windows, for PowerShell:

winget install JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh --source winget

WSL2, for zsh. The script installs into ~/bin or ~/.local/bin, whichever exists; that directory must be on your PATH:

curl -s https://ohmyposh.dev/install.sh | bash -s

The font goes on Windows, not in WSL

Branch and folder icons need a Nerd Font. Windows Terminal draws the WSL shell too, so install the font once, on the Windows side:

oh-my-posh font install meslo

Then set it in Windows Terminal, under Settings → Profiles → Defaults → Appearance → Font face. Pick MesloLGM Nerd Font there, for PowerShell and every WSL profile. A font installed inside WSL is never used. The docs say fonts "need to be installed on the host system as this is a UI setting".

A small config with a few segments

Save this as %UserProfile%\my.omp.json. WSL can read it as /mnt/c/Users/<you>/my.omp.json.

{
  "$schema": "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh/main/themes/schema.json",
  "version": 3,
  "final_space": true,
  "blocks": [
    {
      "type": "prompt",
      "alignment": "left",
      "segments": [
        { "type": "session", "style": "plain", "foreground": "yellow",
          "template": "{{ if .SSHSession }}{{ .UserName }}@{{ .HostName }} {{ end }}" },
        { "type": "path", "style": "plain", "foreground": "blue",
          "options": { "style": "agnoster_short", "max_depth": 3 },
          "template": "{{ .Path }} " },
        { "type": "git", "style": "plain", "foreground": "magenta",
          "options": { "fetch_status": true },
          "template": "{{ .HEAD }}{{ if .Working.Changed }} *{{ end }} " },
        { "type": "status", "style": "plain", "foreground": "red",
          "template": "{{ if .Error }}✘ {{ .Code }} {{ end }}" },
        { "type": "text", "style": "plain", "foreground": "green", "template": "❯" }
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "prompt",
      "alignment": "right",
      "segments": [
        { "type": "executiontime", "style": "plain", "foreground": "darkGray",
          "options": { "threshold": 2000, "style": "round" },
          "template": "{{ .FormattedMs }}" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Segment	Shows
`session`	`user@host`, only over SSH (`.SSHSession`)
`path`	The last 3 directories
`git`	The branch, and `*` when the working tree has changes (`fetch_status`)
`status`	`✘` and the exit code, only after a failed command
`executiontime`	On the right, the duration of commands that took over 2 s

Rendered in ~/src/demo, a git repository with an uncommitted change, after a 5-second command that exited with 3 (the space before master is the branch icon):

~/src/demo  master * ✘ 3 ❯                                5s

The segment types and their options are listed in the docs. The $schema line gives completion in VS Code.

Load it in each shell

PowerShell: add this line to $PROFILE, then run . $PROFILE:

oh-my-posh init pwsh --config "$env:USERPROFILE\my.omp.json" | Invoke-Expression

zsh: add this line to ~/.zshrc, then run exec zsh:

eval "$(oh-my-posh init zsh --config /mnt/c/Users/<you>/my.omp.json)"

Both shells read the same file at each prompt, so an edit shows up in both at their next prompt. To avoid reading the config through /mnt/c on every prompt, copy it into WSL instead.

With Oh My Zsh, leave ZSH_THEME="" and put the eval line after source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh, so Oh My Posh sets the prompt last.

Sources

Oh My Posh docs:
Windows and Linux installation;
prompt setup and fonts.
Tested with oh-my-posh print primary, and through the zsh and pwsh init scripts, with the config above.

Created 2026-09-28T18:32:47+02:00 · Edit