Installation

Install with git

You can install the latest release of antidote by cloning it with git:

# first, run this from an interactive zsh terminal session:
git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/mattmc3/antidote.git ${ZDOTDIR:-~}/.antidote

Install with a package manager

antidote may also be available in your system’s package manager:

• homebrew: brew install antidote
• Arch AUR: yay -S zsh-antidote

.zshrc

After installation, the recommended way to use antidote is to call the antidote load command from your .zshrc:

# now, simply add these two lines in your ~/.zshrc

# source antidote
source /path/to/antidote/antidote.zsh

# initialize plugins statically with ${ZDOTDIR:-~}/.zsh_plugins.txt
antidote load

Note: If you installed antidote with a package manager, the path will be different than ${ZDOTDIR:-~}/.antidote so you will need to modify the above script with source /path/to/antidote.zsh. For example, if you are using homebrew on macOS, the command you will need will be: source $(brew --prefix)/opt/antidote/share/antidote/antidote.zsh. Be sure to follow the instructions provided by your package manager.

Ultra high performance install

If you want to squeeze every last drop of performance out of your antidote config, you can do all the things antidote load does for you on your own. If you’re fairly comfortable with zsh, this is a more robust .zshrc snippet you can use:

# ${ZDOTDIR:-~}/.zshrc

# Set the root name of the plugins files (.txt and .zsh) antidote will use.
zsh_plugins=${ZDOTDIR:-~}/.zsh_plugins

# Ensure the .zsh_plugins.txt file exists so you can add plugins.
[[ -f ${zsh_plugins}.txt ]] || touch ${zsh_plugins}.txt

# Lazy-load antidote from its functions directory.
fpath=(/path/to/antidote/functions $fpath)
autoload -Uz antidote

# Generate a new static file whenever .zsh_plugins.txt is updated.
if [[ ! ${zsh_plugins}.zsh -nt ${zsh_plugins}.txt ]]; then
  antidote bundle <${zsh_plugins}.txt >|${zsh_plugins}.zsh
fi

# Source your static plugins file.
source ${zsh_plugins}.zsh

This method boils down to the bare essentials and will run antidote bundle only if absolutely necessary. However, note that you’ll really only be saving small fractions of a second over calling the much simpler antidote load command directly.