A Prompt in Your Colors

PowerShell's prompt is a function named prompt that runs before every command you type, so you can write your own that shows the folder's name, the time and colors from $PSStyle, and keep it in your profile.

Journeyman · PowerShell · Updated

After this lesson you can

  • Write a prompt function that shows the folder's name, the time or other text you choose
  • Color parts of the prompt with $PSStyle, ending with $PSStyle.Reset, and keep the prompt in your profile

Key takeaways

  • The prompt is a function named prompt. PowerShell runs it before every command and prints the text it gives back.
  • Write your own with function prompt { … }: Split-Path -Leaf (Get-Location) is the folder's name, and Get-Date -Format 'HH:mm' the time.
  • $PSStyle.Foreground.Cyan and its friends switch on a color, and $PSStyle.Reset switches it off again. Forget the reset and your typing turns cyan too.
  • Put your prompt function in your profile to keep it.

Your photo project is five folders deep, and the prompt now reads PS C:\Users\Sam\terminal-practice\photos\2026\summer\day-3-lake> before you've typed a thing. Half the line is gone, and with three tabs open you can't tell which is which at a glance. The prompt is yours to change: shorter, with the time, in colors you like. It's a small thing that makes PowerShell feel like your own.

This lesson works in a deep practice folder. Make it and go there:

New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path "$HOME\terminal-practice\photos\2026\summer\day-3-lake" | Out-Null
Set-Location "$HOME\terminal-practice\photos\2026\summer\day-3-lake"

They print nothing when they work.

The prompt is a function

The prompt, the text before the cursor, isn't fixed: PowerShell runs a function named prompt before every command and prints whatever text it gives back. You can call it yourself:

prompt

PS C:\Users\Sam\terminal-practice\photos\2026\summer\day-3-lake>

Write a function with the same name, and yours replaces it. Aliases and Small Functions showed how; a prompt function ends with the text to show.

Your own prompt

This one shows only the folder you're in. Split-Path -Leaf splits a path and keeps the leaf, its last part, as a tree's branches end in leaves:

function prompt {
    "$(Split-Path -Leaf (Get-Location))> "
}

day-3-lake>

The next line PowerShell shows is already the new prompt. The $( ) inside the double quotes runs a command and puts its answer into the text, as in Text: Quotes and $( ). Add the time with Get-Date -Format 'HH:mm', the hour and minute on a 24-hour clock:

function prompt {
    "[$(Get-Date -Format 'HH:mm')] $(Split-Path -Leaf (Get-Location))> "
}

[06:16] day-3-lake>

Your time will be the time you run it; it updates with every new prompt, which tells you when the last command finished.

Colors: $PSStyle

Terminals understand hidden instructions inside text, such as "from here on, cyan". They're called ANSI escape codes, and $PSStyle gives them names, so you never type the codes. It has a color for each of these names:

$PSStyle.Foreground | Get-Member -MemberType Property | Select-Object -ExpandProperty Name

Black
Blue
BrightBlack
BrightBlue
BrightCyan
BrightGreen
BrightMagenta
BrightRed
BrightWhite
BrightYellow
Cyan
Green
Magenta
Red
White
Yellow

$PSStyle.Bold makes text bold, and $PSStyle.Reset puts everything back to normal. Put a color in front of the part you want colored, and the reset after it:

function prompt {
    $time = Get-Date -Format 'HH:mm'
    $folder = Split-Path -Leaf (Get-Location)
    "$($PSStyle.Foreground.BrightBlack)[$time]$($PSStyle.Reset) $($PSStyle.Bold)$($PSStyle.Foreground.Cyan)$folder$($PSStyle.Reset)> "
}

[06:16] day-3-lake>

On your screen, the time is gray and the folder's name bold cyan:

Windows Terminal with the new prompt: the time 06:16 in gray in square brackets, then day-3-lake in bold cyan, then a white > and the cursor

Forget the reset, and the color keeps going: everything you type after the prompt turns cyan too. And the function must give back text. One that only uses Write-Host prints its words but gives back nothing, and PowerShell adds a plain PS> of its own.

Keep it

A prompt you set at the prompt lasts until the window closes. When you like it, copy the function into your profile (edit $PROFILE, after keeping a copy) and load it with . $PROFILE, as Your Profile shows.

Windows PowerShell 5.1 has no $PSStyle: there, write the colored part with Write-Host "[$time]" -ForegroundColor DarkGray -NoNewline, and still end the function with the text to give back. On a Mac or Linux, everything here works the same.

Want more? Oh My Posh is a free program that draws ready-made prompt themes, with the Git branch, icons and more. It's installed with winget, from Installing Apps and Modules: winget and the PowerShell Gallery, and turned on with one line in your profile; its icons need a special font, and its website, ohmyposh.dev, walks you through it. It's an optional extra: the prompt you wrote yourself is all you need.

Check yourself

2 questions to try on the lesson page.

So what

The prompt is the line you look at more than any other, and now it shows what you want, in your colors.

Key terms

Cheat sheets

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