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A profile is a reusable configuration for a local shell. When you open a new tab, Rumus uses your default profile unless you pick a different one from the chevron menu next to the + button. Profiles are configured at Settings → Profiles.

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Built-in vs custom profiles

The Profiles page is split in two:
  • Built-in profiles — auto-detected from your system. On macOS / Linux that means the shells listed in /etc/shells (bash, zsh, fish, sh, …). On Windows it covers PowerShell, cmd, Git Bash, and every installed WSL distribution (each WSL distro shows up as its own profile).
  • Custom profiles — anything you’ve added by hand.
Built-in profiles update themselves when your system changes (e.g. installing a new WSL distro). Hit Refresh built-in profiles if you don’t see one you expect.

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What a profile contains

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Set the default profile

The default profile is what new tabs use when you click the bare + button (without picking from the dropdown).
  • In Settings → Profiles, find the profile you want.
  • Click Set as default (or use the small “default” toggle on the profile row).
You can change the default any time. New tabs honor the new default immediately; existing tabs are unaffected.

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Add a custom profile

1

Open the profile editor

Go to Settings → Profiles and click Add profile (or New custom profile).
2

Fill in the basics

Give the profile a name and pick an icon. Set the command line to the shell binary you want — full path is recommended. Add any arguments the shell needs.
3

Optional: env, cwd, integration

  • Add environment variables in the Environment section.
  • Set a Working directory if you want every tab using this profile to start somewhere specific.
  • Toggle Shell integration on if your shell supports the prompt hooks Rumus injects.
4

Save

Save the profile. It now appears in the chevron menu next to +, and you can mark it as default if you want new tabs to use it.

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Per-profile environment

Environment variables set on a profile are merged on top of your inherited environment. Useful when:
  • A specific tool (e.g. a development shell) wants a custom PATH or NODE_ENV.
  • You want to mark certain tabs as “danger” with an environment variable that your prompt reads.
  • You’re running a containerized shell that needs flags passed in via env.
Variables are local to the spawned shell and its children — they don’t leak back into the rest of the OS.

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WSL specifics (Windows)

Each installed WSL distribution becomes its own built-in profile. They:
  • Auto-update when you install or remove a WSL distro (after a refresh).
  • Use the WSL filesystem as the default working directory.
  • Honor your default WSL user.
  • Work with shell integration when running bash, zsh, or fish inside the distro.
If you have multiple WSL distros and want one to be your default profile for +, just Set as default on it.

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Profiles aren’t synced

Profiles are device-specific. They’re not part of cloud sync, since the available shells (and their paths) differ between machines. If you want the same profile on a second machine, recreate it there. This is intentional — pushing a profile that points at /Users/alice/.local/zsh from your Mac onto a Windows laptop wouldn’t make sense.

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Next steps

Shell integration

What the per-profile shell-integration toggle actually does.

Tabs

Use the chevron next to + to open a tab with any profile.