$ATUIN_SESSION Error on Mac/Sequoia/Homebrew/Bash5

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Hi all,

I used the recommended installation approach and after a little trial and error I’m able to access my Bash history via Atuin using the up arrow but only if I manually enter the following command in my terminal window (For every terminal session).

eval "$(atuin init bash)"

Note: I can run atuin doctor or atuin info just fine, but other commands fail until I manually enter the above.

$  atuin history list
ERROR: Failed to find $ATUIN_SESSION in the environment. Check that you have correctly set up your shell.

I think I must have missed a step while installing and would love to remedy this. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

Environment Info

I’m on a MacBook Pro running the latest Sequoia release. I manage packages with Homebrew and am running Bash 5.3. It’s probably worth noting that I was previously using fzf via Control-r to view my history entries.

$  atuin doctor
Atuin Doctor
Checking for diagnostics


Please include the output below with any bug reports or issues

{
  "atuin": {
    "version": "18.7.1",
    "sync": {
      "cloud": true,
      "records": true,
      "auto_sync": true,
      "last_sync": "2025-07-18 17:01:53.099031 +00:00:00"
    },
    "sqlite_version": "3.46.0"
  },
  "shell": {
    "name": "bash",
    "default": "bash",
    "plugins": [
      "bash-preexec"
    ],
    "preexec": null
  },
  "system": {
    "os": "Darwin",
    "arch": "arm64",
    "version": "15.5",
    "disks": [
      {
        "name": "Macintosh HD",
        "filesystem": "apfs"
      },
      {
        "name": "Macintosh HD",
        "filesystem": "apfs"
      }
    ]
  }
}

$  bash --version
GNU bash, version 5.3.0(1)-release (aarch64-apple-darwin24.4.0)

Atuin has been added to my path in my .bash_profile.

$  echo "$PATH" | tr ':' '\n' | grep 'atuin'
/Users/paul/.atuin/bin

My .bashrc was successfully updated by the Atuin installer.

$  cat .bashrc
[ -f ~/.fzf.bash ] && source ~/.fzf.bash
. "$HOME/.cargo/env"

. "$HOME/.atuin/bin/env"

[[ -f ~/.bash-preexec.sh ]] && source ~/.bash-preexec.sh
eval "$(atuin init bash)"

I have not made any updates to my Atuin config files.

$  atuin info
Config files:
client config: "/Users/paul/.config/atuin/config.toml"
server config: "/Users/paul/.config/atuin/server.toml"
client db path: "/Users/paul/.local/share/atuin/history.db"
key path: "/Users/paul/.local/share/atuin/key"
session path: "/Users/paul/.local/share/atuin/session"

Env Vars:
ATUIN_CONFIG_DIR = "None"

Version info:
version: 18.7.1

Bonus Questions (Stretch Goals, lol)

I’m wondering if It’s still recommended to keep these commands in my .bash_profile?

# Increase size of history file and number of entries saved in memory
export HISTSIZE=1000000
export HISTFILESIZE=1000000
export HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth:erasedups
shopt -s histappend >/dev/null 2>&1

Also, does anyone remember how I can disconnect Control-r from fzf so it will open Atuin?