store: Fish + bash hybrid shell strategy: fish interactive, bash for scripts/tools

graph/decisions/fish-bash-hybrid-shell-strategy-fish-interactive-bash-for-sc-66bac9.md

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+---
+id: 66bac9cf-1b1e-42f5-903d-d28a9d5e1e1a
+type: decision
+title: "Fish + bash hybrid shell strategy: fish interactive, bash for scripts/tools"
+tags: [fish, bash, shell, claude-code, architecture, decision, homelab, shell-config, nobara]
+importance: 0.6
+confidence: 0.8
+created: "2026-02-27T05:33:08.745935+00:00"
+updated: "2026-02-27T05:33:08.745935+00:00"
+---
+
+# Fish + Bash Hybrid Shell Strategy
+
+## Decision
+Use fish as the interactive shell for its superior autocompletion and syntax highlighting, while keeping bash as the script executor for all tooling.
+
+## Implementation
+Set `set -x SHELL /bin/bash` inside fish's `config.fish`. This makes `$SHELL` report `/bin/bash` to any tool that checks it (Claude Code, scripts, CI helpers) even though the interactive session is running under fish.
+
+## Rationale
+- Fish provides excellent interactive UX: autosuggestions, syntax highlighting, smart completions — out of the box, no plugins needed
+- Fish is POSIX-incompatible, so it cannot safely be used as a script executor
+- Bash is the lingua franca for scripts — universally compatible, no subtle edge cases
+- Zsh was considered as alternative (nearly POSIX-compatible + plugins like zsh-autosuggestions + zsh-syntax-highlighting), but "nearly" POSIX-compatible creates subtle issues and requires plugin management overhead
+
+## Affected Tools
+- Claude Code Bash tool: uses `$SHELL` → gets bash, works correctly
+- Shell scripts with `#!/bin/bash`: unaffected by interactive shell choice
+- Starship prompt: works identically in fish, zsh, bash
+
+## Trade-offs
+- Fish config syntax (`set -x VAR val`, `if status is-interactive`) must be learned — it is not bash-compatible
+- Two shell configs to potentially maintain (`~/.config/fish/config.fish` for interactive, and any bash rc for login/script contexts)
+- Benefit: interactive experience is dramatically better than plain zsh without plugins