Shellwide

Shellwide is an open-source framework intended to unify the startup and runtime behavior of Unix-like shells by providing a common configuration and runtime layer across multiple shells, including Bash, Zsh, and Fish. It aims to reduce duplication in dotfiles and provisioning scripts by describing environment settings, aliases, prompt elements, and shell options in a single, shell-agnostic format that is translated into shell-specific code.

The project emerged during the early 2020s as a response to the fragmentation of shell configurations. It is maintained by a global community of volunteers and operates with a modular architecture that separates a core runtime from shell-specific adapters. This design allows new shells to be supported with minimal changes to the central configuration language.

Core components include a high-level configuration language, a translator that adapts settings to each supported shell, and a plugin system that extends functionality with additional features such as environment profiling, command history management, or prompt theming. The framework emphasizes portability and reproducibility across environments, including development machines, servers, and containers.

In use, shellwide users define a universal profile and enable adapters for their shells of choice, enabling consistent behavior regardless of the active shell. The approach has earned interest in niche communities for its potential to streamline dotfiles and cross-shell provisioning, though critics point to potential abstraction overhead and added complexity for simple setups.