WezTerm & HPC Workflow Setup (Windows Edition)

This guide documents the setup of a high-performance terminal environment using WezTerm on Windows, connected to an HPC running Zsh and Powerlevel10k.

Prerequisites

1. WezTerm: Installed via the Nightly setup (WezTerm-nightly-setup.exe).

2. Font: MesloLGL Nerd Font (essential for Powerlevel10k icons).

   • Download from Nerd Fonts.

   • Install the .ttf files on Windows.

Local Configuration: .wezterm.lua

Create or edit your config at C:\Users\<YourUser>\.wezterm.lua. This setup uses the Acrylic blur effect and includes a custom mapping for Windows Explorer.

local wezterm = require("wezterm")
local act = wezterm.action
local config = wezterm.config_builder()

-- Graphics & Performance
config.front_end = "OpenGL"
config.webgpu_power_preference = "HighPerformance"

-- Visuals
config.font = wezterm.font("MesloLGL Nerd Font Mono")
config.font_size = 19
config.window_background_opacity = 0.8
config.win32_system_backdrop = 'Acrylic'

-- Colorscheme (Coolnight Custom)
config.colors = {
    foreground = "#CBE0F0",
    background = "#011423",
    cursor_bg = "#47FF9C",
    cursor_border = "#47FF9C",
    cursor_fg = "#011423",
    selection_bg = "#033259",
    selection_fg = "#CBE0F0",
    ansi = { "#214969", "#E52E2E", "#44FFB1", "#FFE073", "#0FC5ED", "#a277ff", "#24EAF7", "#24EAF7" },
    brights = { "#214969", "#E52E2E", "#44FFB1", "#FFE073", "#A277FF", "#a277ff", "#24EAF7", "#24EAF7" },
}

-- Keybindings
config.keys = {
    -- CTRL+SHIFT+E: Sync HPC path to Windows Explorer
    {
        key = 'E',
        mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
        action = wezterm.action_callback(function(win, pane)
            local cwd = pane:get_current_working_dir()
            local default_home = 'Z:\\ResearchHome\\ClusterHome\\yli11'
            local path = default_home

            if cwd then
                path = cwd.file_path
                path = path:gsub("^/", "")
                path = path:gsub("/", "\\")
            end

            win:perform_action(
                act.SpawnCommandInNewWindow { args = { 'explorer.exe', path } },
                pane
            )
        end),
    },
    { key = 'v', mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT', action = act.PasteFrom 'Clipboard' },
    { key = 'c', mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT', action = act.CopyTo 'Clipboard' },
}

return config

Remote Configuration: HPC Zsh

On the HPC, ensure you load Zsh and configure the environment to communicate with WezTerm.

Steps taken:

1. Load Zsh: module load zsh

2. Oh My Zsh: Installed for plugin management.

3. Plugins: * zsh-autosuggestions * zsh-syntax-highlighting

4. Theme: Powerlevel10k

The .zshrc File

# Enable Powerlevel10k instant prompt
if [[ -r "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh" ]]; then
  source "${XDG_CACHE_HOME:-$HOME/.cache}/p10k-instant-prompt-${(%):-%n}.zsh"
fi

export ZSH="$HOME/.oh-my-zsh"
ZSH_THEME="powerlevel10k/powerlevel10k"
plugins=(git zsh-autosuggestions zsh-syntax-highlighting)

source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh
[[ ! -f ~/.p10k.zsh ]] || source ~/.p10k.zsh

# --- WezTerm Integration ---

# Path Reporter: Maps Linux paths to Windows Network Drive (Z:)
__wezterm_osc7() {
  local p=$(pwd)
  local win_path="Z:\\ResearchHome\\ClusterHome${p//\//\\}"
  printf "\033]7;file://localhost/%s\a" "$win_path"
}

autoload -Uz add-zsh-hook
add-zsh-hook chpwd __wezterm_osc7
__wezterm_osc7

# Emulate bash while sourcing .bashrc
if [ -f ~/.bashrc ]; then
   emulate bash -c "source ~/.bashrc"
fi

Features

Inline Image Viewing

To view PNG files (plots/graphs) directly in the terminal, use the imgcat script provided by WezTerm. This allows bioinformatics results to be previewed without downloading files.

Windows Explorer Sync

By pressing CTRL + SHIFT + E, WezTerm will detect your current working directory on the HPC and open the corresponding folder on your mapped Z: Drive in Windows Explorer.

module load zsh;zsh

Autocomplete failed

rm -f ~/.zcompdump; compinit
source ~/.zshrc

code @ github.