prompt.md

Shell integration

hexe does not draw your prompt. It installs hooks so your shell reports what it is doing — cwd, exit status, command duration, job count, the running command — and that state is what the painter draws with, both in your prompt and in hexe's own status bar.

eval "$(hexe shell init bash)"     # or zsh
hexe shell init fish | source

What the hooks do

shell runs a command
   |  preexec / DEBUG trap
   v
hexe shell shell-event --phase=start --running --cmd=... --cwd=... --jobs=N
   |
   +--> pod socket --> SES --> frontend --> pane state
                                             |
                                             v
                                   the painter's next request

shell finishes
   |  precmd / PROMPT_COMMAND
   v
hexe shell shell-event --phase=end --status=$? --cwd=... --jobs=N

hexe shell exit-intent is the third hook: it asks the mux for permission before the shell exits, so closing the last pane can be confirmed.

--no-comms installs command timing without the mux reporting.

Drawing the prompt

The prompt itself is drawn by whatever you point your shell at, from the same state hexe collects. Any program that can print a styled line works — it is your shell's PS1, not hexe's business.

A shell that supports an async prompt command can call one directly:

-- e.g. oslo's ~/.config/oslo/prompt.lua
oslo.prompt.left = {
  command = "my-painter",
  args = { "prompt.left", "--status=$status", "--duration=$duration_ms" },
  timeout_ms = 10,
  async = true,
}

See painting for the protocol hexe itself uses, if you want one program to serve both.

What it cannot do

The hooks report; they do not render. A shell with no painter running gets no styled prompt from hexe — that is the painter's job, and hexe has no fallback prompt to fall back to.

Shells other than bash, zsh, fish and oslo are not covered. The reporting is three CLI calls, so a shell that can run a command in preexec and precmd can be wired by hand.

Where it lives

src/modules/shell/ — the hook emitters, one per shell. src/cli/commands/com.zig — runShellEvent, runExitIntent.