Oh My Niu: the theme & plugin framework for Niubash

Why Oh My Niu

People used to Oh My Zsh / fish plugin managers / PowerShell prompt frameworks expect not one specific theme but a model: list plugins, pick a theme, source one line — everything is in place. Native shells often lack that layer; oh-my-niu adds it to niubash while deliberately refusing to weld the framework into the shell.

Core features

A gallery of 27 themes; themes-as-plugins; the prompt-core segment registry; a Starship takeover mode; the feature plugin family; five new 2.0 first-party plugins; alias/completion/keybinding asset packs; and env packages that wire a whole toolchain in one command. Full eight-point list (Chinese):

Install & quick start

The bundle ships with niubash (the offline baseline, which advances with niu self-update); enabling it takes three rc lines. The niu plugin command family manages the external ecosystem (oh-my-bash, bash-it and other third-party sources) — a separate track from the bundled oh-my-niu. The entry file oh-my-niu.niu is re-entrant — sourcing twice is a no-op; add --reload for a full reload.

# Three lines in ~/.niubashrc: pick plugins, pick a theme, source the framework
NIU_PLUGINS=(prompt-core git docker zoxide)
NIU_THEME=minimal
source "$NIUBASH/oh-my-niu.niu"

Day-to-day surface

# Switch themes: edit NIU_THEME, reopen the terminal, or hot-reload the session
source "$NIUBASH/oh-my-niu.niu" --reload
# The bundled baseline follows niubash releases
niu self-update
# Top-level health check (rc blocks, PATH consistency, ...)
niu doctor

Changing themes: edit NIU_THEME and reopen the terminal; keep config changes in ~/.niubashrc (sourcing itself writes nothing to disk, and plugins never rewrite the rc without an explicit user command). To verify everything works, make the cow speak:

niu_moo "Bash, native on Windows."   # a cowsay-style speech bubble

Deep dive: the theme gallery

The gallery is not a static skin library — every theme is an ordinary plugin directory under plugins/theme-*/ (plugin.toml metadata + a *.plugin.niu behavior), rendered by prompt-core's segment registry; the themes/*.toml asset layer serves manifest compatibility and review. Four style groups:

Source: the oh-my-niu README "First-Party Plugins" table and the plugins/, themes/ directories (measured 2026-10-24: 27 theme-* directories and 27 themes/*.toml, identical sets; the four groups above total 27).

The catalog points at official upstreams

Source: niubash crates/niubash-runtime/src/plugins/descriptors.rs (ManagerDescriptor origin field) · HIGHLIGHTS #13.

Measured numbers

Framework projects don't do micro-benchmarks — these numbers are the structural ledger and in-repo measured counts (2026-10-19):

Release feed

oh-my-niu keeps its own CHANGELOG. Latest 3 versions (changelogs.json, fetched 2026-10-19; the full feed lives on the changelog):

• 2.0.0 Renamed oh-my-winuxsh → oh-my-niu (aligned with the niubash 1.0.0 branding); bundle/plugin API prefix winuxsh: → niubash:, env prefix now NIU_*; new first-party plugins command-timer / auto-env / dirmarks / git-fetch-reminder / env-sync; the git prompt segment resolves to the native Vcs segment for niubash 1.4.1+ (in-process rendering, zero git subprocesses).
• 1.0.1 First source packs (Git/Docker/kubectl/npm/zoxide/direnv/dotenv/fzf/last-working-dir/thefuck); framework entry point, directory-first official plugins, prompt-core and the seven theme plugins minimal/classic/pure/compact/cyberpunk/forest/ocean; runtime smoke scripts; deterministic release packaging (zip + sha256).
• 1.0.0 Founded as the official plugin bundle: bundle metadata (api = winuxsh:[email protected], min_winuxsh 0.8.3), alias/completion/prompt-preset/keybinding/theme assets and author templates, deterministic release packaging with checksums.

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