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Desired State Configuration

Oh My Posh supports Desired State Configuration (DSC) for declarative configuration management, enabling automated deployment and consistent configuration across multiple systems.

Concept​

Oh My Posh DSC builds on the traditional Oh My Posh configuration approach by adding automation and orchestration capabilities. Instead of manually configuring your prompt, you can define the desired state declaratively and let DSC ensure your system matches that state.

DSC works with resources that represent different aspects of your Oh My Posh setup:

  • Configuration Resource: Manages your Oh My Posh configuration files
  • Shell Resource: Handles shell initialization and integration
  • Font Resource: Tracks installed Nerd Fonts

These resources can be used standalone through the CLI or integrated with orchestration tools like WinGet and Microsoft DSC for automated deployments.

Overview​

DSC support in Oh My Posh provides:

  • Declarative configuration: Define the desired state of your Oh My Posh setup
  • Automated deployment: Configure Oh My Posh as part of system provisioning workflows
  • Shell integration: Automatically configure shell initialization for bash, zsh, fish, PowerShell, and more
  • Font management: Track installed Nerd Fonts through DSC state
  • Orchestration support: Integration with WinGet and Microsoft DSC tools

DSC functionality is available through the oh-my-posh CLI and can be used standalone or with orchestration tools.

DSC Resources​

Oh My Posh provides the following DSC resources:

Configuration Resource​

Manages Oh My Posh configuration files.

Operations: get, set, export, schema

# Get current configuration state
oh-my-posh config dsc get

# Apply a configuration
oh-my-posh config dsc set --state '{"states":[{"source":"~/mytheme.omp.json","format":"json"}]}'

# Get configuration schema
oh-my-posh config dsc schema

Shell Resource​

Manages shell initialization and integration.

Operations: get, set, export, schema

# Get current shell configurations
oh-my-posh init bash dsc get

# Configure shell initialization
oh-my-posh init bash dsc set --state '{"states":[{"name":"bash","command":"oh-my-posh init bash --config ~/mytheme.omp.json"}]}'

Font Resource​

Tracks Nerd Fonts installed through Oh My Posh.

Operations: get, export, schema

# Get installed fonts
oh-my-posh font dsc get

# Get font schema
oh-my-posh font dsc schema

Direct CLI Usage​

You can use the DSC commands directly from the command line for configuration management.

Managing Configurations​

Get State​

Retrieve the current configuration state:

oh-my-posh config dsc get

Example output:

{
  "states": [
    {
      "format": "json",
      "source": "~/mytheme.omp.json"
    }
  ]
}

Set State​

Apply a new configuration state:

oh-my-posh config dsc set --state '{"states":[{"source":"~/mytheme.omp.json","format":"json"}]}'

This creates or updates the configuration file at the specified location with the provided format.

Schema​

Get the JSON schema for the configuration resource:

oh-my-posh config dsc schema

Use this to understand the structure and available options for configuration states.

Managing shell Integration​

Bash​

Configure Oh My Posh initialization for bash:

# Get current state
oh-my-posh init bash dsc get

# Set initialization
oh-my-posh init bash dsc set --state '{"states":[{"name":"bash","command":"oh-my-posh init bash --config ~/mytheme.omp.json"}]}'

This automatically updates your .bashrc or .bash_profile with the Oh My Posh initialization command.

Zsh​

Configure Oh My Posh initialization for zsh:

# Get current state
oh-my-posh init zsh dsc get

# Set initialization
oh-my-posh init zsh dsc set --state '{"states":[{"name":"zsh","command":"oh-my-posh init zsh --config ~/mytheme.omp.json"}]}'

This automatically updates your .zshrc with the Oh My Posh initialization command.

PowerShell​

Configure Oh My Posh initialization for PowerShell:

# Get current state
oh-my-posh init pwsh dsc get

# Set initialization
oh-my-posh init pwsh dsc set --state '{"states":[{"name":"pwsh","command":"oh-my-posh init pwsh --config ~/mytheme.omp.json"}]}'

This automatically updates your PowerShell profile with the Oh My Posh initialization command.

Fish​

Configure Oh My Posh initialization for fish:

# Get current state
oh-my-posh init fish dsc get

# Set initialization
oh-my-posh init fish dsc set --state '{"states":[{"name":"fish","command":"oh-my-posh init fish --config ~/mytheme.omp.json"}]}'

This automatically updates your fish config.fish with the Oh My Posh initialization command.

Orchestration with WinGet​

WinGet configuration enables you to install Oh My Posh and apply configuration in a single declarative file.

Basic WinGet configuration​

Create a configuration file to install and configure Oh My Posh:

# oh-my-posh-setup.yaml
$schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerShell/DSC/main/schemas/2023/08/config/document.json
metadata:
  winget:
    processor: dscv3
resources:
  - name: Install Oh My Posh
    type: Microsoft.WinGet.DSC/WinGetPackage
    properties:
      id: JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh
      source: winget

Apply the configuration:

winget configure oh-my-posh-setup.yaml

Complete setup with configuration and shell​

This example installs Oh My Posh, adds your configuration, and initializes PowerShell:

# oh-my-posh-complete.yaml
$schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerShell/DSC/main/schemas/2023/08/config/document.json
metadata:
  winget:
    processor: dscv3
resources:
  - name: Install Oh My Posh
    type: Microsoft.WinGet.DSC/WinGetPackage
    properties:
      id: JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh
      source: winget

  - name: Add Oh My Posh configuration
    type: OhMyPosh/Config
    properties:
      states:
        - source: ~/mytheme.omp.json
          format: json

  - name: Initialize PowerShell
    type: OhMyPosh/Shell
    properties:
      states:
        - name: pwsh
          command: oh-my-posh init pwsh --config ~/mytheme.omp.json

Apply with:

winget configure oh-my-posh-complete.yaml

Multi-shell configuration​

Initialize multiple shells with different configurations:

# oh-my-posh-multi-shell.yaml
$schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerShell/DSC/main/schemas/2023/08/config/document.json
metadata:
  winget:
    processor: dscv3
resources:
  - name: Install Oh My Posh
    type: Microsoft.WinGet.DSC/WinGetPackage
    properties:
      id: JanDeDobbeleer.OhMyPosh
      source: winget

  - name: Add work configuration
    type: OhMyPosh/Config
    properties:
      states:
        - source: ~/work-theme.omp.json
          format: json

  - name: Add personal configuration
    type: OhMyPosh/Config
    properties:
      states:
        - source: ~/personal-theme.omp.json
          format: json

  - name: Initialize PowerShell with work configuration
    type: OhMyPosh/Shell
    properties:
      states:
        - name: pwsh
          command: oh-my-posh init pwsh --config ~/work-theme.omp.json

  - name: Initialize Bash with personal configuration
    type: OhMyPosh/Shell
    properties:
      states:
        - name: bash
          command: oh-my-posh init bash --config ~/personal-theme.omp.json

Orchestration with Microsoft DSC​

Microsoft DSC (dsc) provides cross-platform configuration management capabilities. Oh My Posh provides native DSC resources that can be used in DSC configuration documents.

Example DSC configuration​

Create a configuration document for Oh My Posh:

# oh-my-posh-dsc.yaml
$schema: https://aka.ms/dsc/schemas/v3/bundled/config/document.json
resources:
  - name: Add Oh My Posh configuration
    type: OhMyPosh/Config
    properties:
      states:
        - source: ~/mytheme.omp.json
          format: json

  - name: Initialize PowerShell
    type: OhMyPosh/Shell
    properties:
      states:
        - name: pwsh
          command: oh-my-posh init pwsh --config ~/mytheme.omp.json

Apply the configuration using the dsc CLI:

dsc config set --document oh-my-posh-dsc.yaml

Complete configuration with multiple shells​

# oh-my-posh-complete-dsc.yaml
$schema: https://aka.ms/dsc/schemas/v3/bundled/config/document.json
resources:
  - name: Add primary configuration
    type: OhMyPosh/Config
    properties:
      states:
        - source: ~/primary-theme.omp.json
          format: json

  - name: Add secondary configuration
    type: OhMyPosh/Config
    properties:
      states:
        - source: ~/secondary-theme.omp.json
          format: yaml

  - name: Initialize PowerShell
    type: OhMyPosh/Shell
    properties:
      states:
        - name: pwsh
          command: oh-my-posh init pwsh --config ~/primary-theme.omp.json

  - name: Initialize Bash
    type: OhMyPosh/Shell
    properties:
      states:
        - name: bash
          command: oh-my-posh init bash --config ~/primary-theme.omp.json

  - name: Initialize Zsh
    type: OhMyPosh/Shell
    properties:
      states:
        - name: zsh
          command: oh-my-posh init zsh --config ~/secondary-theme.omp.json

Resource Types​

Oh My Posh provides the following DSC resource types:

OhMyPosh/Config​

Manages Oh My Posh configuration files.

Properties:

  • states (array): List of configuration states
    • source (string): Path to the configuration file
    • format (string): Format of the configuration file (json, yaml, toml)

OhMyPosh/Shell​

Manages shell initialization.

Properties:

  • states (array): List of shell configurations
    • name (string): Shell name (bash, zsh, pwsh, fish, etc.)
    • command (string): Oh My Posh initialization command

OhMyPosh/Font​

Tracks installed Nerd Fonts. This resource is read-only and automatically populated when fonts are installed through Oh My Posh.

Configuration State Management​

DSC state is stored in the Oh My Posh cache and persists across sessions. This enables:

  • State tracking: Oh My Posh remembers configurations set through DSC
  • Idempotency: Running the same DSC command multiple times produces the same result
  • State validation: Query current state before making changes

Advanced Usage​

Multiple configurations​

You can manage multiple configuration files:

oh-my-posh config dsc set --state '{
  "states": [
    {"source":"~/work.omp.json","format":"json"},
    {"source":"~/personal.omp.json","format":"json"}
  ]
}'

Shell-Specific Initialization​

Initialize multiple shells with different configuration:

# Bash with one configuration
oh-my-posh init bash dsc set --state '{"states":[{"name":"bash","command":"oh-my-posh init bash --config ~/bash-theme.omp.json"}]}'

# PowerShell with another configuration
oh-my-posh init pwsh dsc set --state '{"states":[{"name":"pwsh","command":"oh-my-posh init pwsh --config ~/pwsh-theme.omp.json"}]}'

Supported shells​

DSC shell configuration supports the following shells:

  • bash: Configures .bashrc or .bash_profile
  • zsh: Configures .zshrc
  • fish: Configures ~/.config/fish/config.fish
  • pwsh: Configures PowerShell profile ($PROFILE)
  • nu: Configures ~/.config/nushell/config.nu
  • elvish: Configures .elvish/rc.elv
  • xonsh: Configures .xonshrc

The shell integration automatically:

  • Creates configuration files if they don't exist
  • Updates existing Oh My Posh initialization commands
  • Preserves shell-specific command syntax
  • Maintains proper whitespace and formatting

See Also​