powerline glyph
also: Powerline separator, Powerline symbol, patched font glyph
A special Unicode character used in terminal prompts and status lines to create visually distinctive separators, arrows, and decorative elements. Powerline glyphs require a patched font that includes these symbols.
Powerline glyphs are Unicode characters originally designed for the Powerline status line plugin (used with Vim and shell prompts). They include arrow-like separators, triangles, and other shapes that create a polished, segmented appearance in terminal interfaces.
These glyphs require a Powerline-patched font to display correctly—standard monospace fonts don't include them, resulting in broken boxes or missing characters if the font isn't installed. Popular patched fonts include Nerd Font variants and Powerline fonts.
Common use cases include customizing bash/zsh prompts with oh-my-zsh themes like "powerlevel10k," creating visual segment separators in tmux status bars, and enhancing Neovim/Vim configurations. For example, a prompt segment might use the character (U+E0B0) to create a triangular arrow between status elements.