fish-config/docs/wiki/1-configuration-variables.md

1. CONFIGURATION VARIABLES

Sections: Index | 1. Configuration Variables | 2. Path Setup | 3. Key Bindings | 4. Abbreviations | 5. Functions Reference | 6. Dependency Catalog | 7. Customization | 8. Fisher Plugins | 9. Installation | 10. Personalization | 11. Viewing This Manual

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These variables are exported from config.fish on every interactive session. Override them in ~/.config/.user-dots/fish/local.fish.

Environment Directories (XDG)

XDG_CONFIG_HOME    ~/.config
XDG_CACHE_HOME     ~/.cache
XDG_DATA_HOME      ~/.local/share
XDG_STATE_HOME     ~/.local/state

Tools that respect XDG are directed to these paths rather than polluting $HOME.

Tool Homes (XDG-compliant)

CARGO_HOME         $XDG_DATA_HOME/cargo
RUSTUP_HOME        $XDG_DATA_HOME/rustup
GOPATH             $XDG_DATA_HOME/go
BUN_INSTALL        $XDG_DATA_HOME/bun
NPM_CONFIG_PREFIX  $XDG_DATA_HOME/npm-global
GNUPGHOME          $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnupg
WAKATIME_HOME      $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/wakatime

Editor and Pager

EDITOR      nvim (falls back to vi if nvim is absent)
VISUAL      same as EDITOR
SUDO_EDITOR same as EDITOR
PAGER       ov (falls back to less)

Scrollback History

SCROLLBACK_HISTORY_DIR        ~/.terminal_history
SCROLLBACK_HISTORY_MAX_FILES  100

Scrollback logs accumulate in SCROLLBACK_HISTORY_DIR as timestamped files. When the count exceeds SCROLLBACK_HISTORY_MAX_FILES the oldest are pruned automatically on exit. Use logs to browse them interactively.

Other

GPG_TTY              $(tty)  — ensures GPG passphrase prompts work
CLAUDE_CODE_NO_FLICKER  1    — suppress terminal flicker in Claude Code
CDPATH               . ~/projects ~

Opinionated defaults (CDPATH, PAGER/MANPAGER, Vi mode, command shadows, terminal integrations) can be switched off per category with universal variables — see Section 7, "Opinionated Components (Minimal Mode)".

Pager Hierarchy

$PAGER is set to ov when available, falling back to less. The less wrapper function extends this into a full chain so anything that calls less directly also benefits:

$PAGER → ov → less → more → cat

When bat is installed, man pages are rendered with syntax highlighting:

MANROFFOPT   -c
MANPAGER     sh -c 'col -bx | bat -l man -p'

Integrations

Zoxide

cd, z, and cdi/zi are all mapped to zoxide-backed navigation. Tab completions for cd and z blend standard directory entries (CWD and CDPATH) with frecency results so both familiar and frequently-visited paths appear in one list.

DirEnv

Automatically loads .envrc files on directory change. Takes priority over the auto-venv logic — if a directory is managed by direnv, the auto-venv activation is skipped entirely.

Auto Python Venv

When entering a directory that contains a .venv/, the virtualenv is activated automatically and deactivated when you leave the project tree.

WakaTime

Every shell command is reported to WakaTime for time-tracking. Set FISH_WAKATIME_DISABLED=1 to disable without removing the plugin.

Tailscale

Full tab completion for the tailscale CLI is provided via conf.d/tailscale.fish.

Done Notifications

Desktop notifications fire when a command takes longer than 10 seconds and the terminal window is not focused. Configured via fish universal variables:

__done_min_cmd_duration          10000 ms
__done_notification_urgency_level  low

Scrollback History

When running inside Kitty, closing a shell session via exit saves a timestamped scrollback snapshot to SCROLLBACK_HISTORY_DIR. Files are named:

scrollback_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS.log

The paru and yay wrappers (auto-generated in ~/.local/bin/) tee all output to:

paru_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS.log
yay_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS.log

Before pruning, _scrollback_prune_junk silently removes empty files, files with only a single meaningful line (e.g. bare [exited] captures), and Kitty tab-rename prompt captures. Use exit --no-log (or exit -n) to skip capture.

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