Shell & frameworks

shell: zsh          # the simple form, and it still means what it did

shell:
  name: zsh
  framework: oh-my-zsh
  theme: agnoster
  plugins: [git, docker, fzf]

Why shell: is declared and not detected

On a fresh machine you are usually running bash while installing and configuring zsh. The shell Bedouin detects is the one you are about to stop using, so shell.rc_dir, the PATH file and every rc block key off the one you declare. shell.detected is still there if you need it.

Frameworks

The framework is installed if absent, and never updated — the same shape as brew or rustup: fetch the installer, run it as a file, argv only.

Bedouin does not own ~/.oh-my-zsh

It is an adopted dependency with one owned side effect. Bedouin will not update it, will not manage what is inside it, and will not delete it when you drop framework: from your config. It installs with --keep-zshrc, because Bedouin owns a block in your .zshrc and letting the installer replace the file would take your config with it.

The ordering, which is the whole difficulty

oh-my-zsh reads ZSH_THEME and plugins as it loads. Every other Bedouin block is appended at the end of your rc file — and a framework block there would be set after omz had already loaded, so the theme would not change, the plugins would not load, and nothing would say why.

So the framework block is anchored: written immediately above the line that sources the framework.

# >>> bedouin: framework >>>
ZSH_THEME='agnoster'
plugins=(git docker)
# <<< bedouin: framework <<<

source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh      # ← reads them, so it must come after

Plugins are names, not installations

oh-my-zsh bundles most of what people list. The ones it does not — zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-syntax-highlighting — are git clones, so they are a repo:

shell:
  name: zsh
  framework: oh-my-zsh
  plugins: [git, zsh-autosuggestions]

repos:
  - url: https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions
    dest: "{{ home }}/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions"

Listing one without a repo for it is a warning naming the entry to write — Bedouin will not pretend a name is an installation. The framework is installed before repos run, since a plugin clones into its directory.

The honest cut

framework: means oh-my-zsh, on zsh. Declaring it on bash or fish is an error naming what is supported, rather than a half-working port. fish’s own ecosystem can follow when someone wants it.