Autocomplete for Zsh

This plugin for Zsh adds real-time type-ahead autocompletion to your command line, similar to what you find in desktop apps. While you type on the command line, available completions are listed automatically; no need to press any keyboard shortcuts. Press Tab to insert the top completion or ↓ to select a different one.

Additional features:

• Out-of-the-box configuration of Zsh’s completion system
• Multi-line history search
• Completion of recent directories
• Useful keyboard shortcuts
• Easy to configure

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Requirements

Recommended:

• Tested to work with Zsh 5.8 and newer.

Minimum:

• Should theoretically work with Zsh 5.4, but I’m unable to test that.

Installation & setup

Note: In this manual, % represents the command line prompt. If you see it in front of a command, it means you should run it on the command line, not put it in a script.

First, install Autocomplete itself. Here are some way to do so:

• To use only releases (instead of the main branch), install zsh-autocomplete with a package manager. As of this writing, this package is available through Homebrew, Nix, pacman, Plumage, and (as app-shells/zsh-autocomplete) Portage.

• To always use the latest commit on the main branch, do one of the following:

• Use pacman to install zsh-autocomplete-git.

• Use a Zsh plugin manager to install marlonrichert/zsh-autocomplete. (If you don’t have a plugin manager yet, I recommend using Znap.)

• Clone the repo directly:

% git clone --depth 1 -- https://github.com/marlonrichert/zsh-autocomplete.git

After installing, make the following modifications to your shell config:

• In your .zshrc file:

• Remove any calls to compinit.

• Add near the top, before any calls to compdef:

source /path/to/zsh-autocomplete/zsh-autocomplete.plugin.zsh

• When using Ubuntu, add to your .zshenv file:

skip_global_compinit=1

• When using Nix, add to your home.nix file:

programs.zsh.enableCompletion = false;

Finally, restart your shell. Here’s two ways to do so:

• Open a new tab or window in your terminal.
• Replace the current shell with a new one:

% exec zsh

Updating

If you installed manually, run:

% git -C ~autocomplete pull

Otherwise, simply use your package manager or plugin manager’s update mechanisms.

Uninstalling

1. Revert the actions you took to install.
2. Restart your shell.

Keyboard shortcuts

main	emacs	vicmd	On the command line	In the menus
Enter Return				Exit menu text search or exit menu
Tab			Insert first listed menu item	Next completion
ShiftTab			Expand the current word	Previous completion
↓	CtrlN	J	Cursor down or enter completion menu	Change selection
↑	CtrlP	K	Cursor up or enter history menu	Change selection
Alt↓	AltN	CtrlN	Enter completion menu	Next section
Alt↑	AltP	CtrlP	Enter history menu	Previous section
PgDn				Page down
PgUp				Page up
	CtrlX /		Toggle recent path search
	CtrlR	/	Toggle history search	Start menu text search or go to previous match
	CtrlS	?	Start menu text search	Start menu text search or go to next match
	CtrlSpace	V	Toggle selection mode	Add another item
	Ctrl- Ctrl/	U		Undo last item
	CtrlG			Undo all added items

Caveats

• main is whichever keymap was aliased to main when Autocomplete was sourced.

• By default, this is emacs.

• If you run bindkey -v before sourcing Autocomplete, then main will be viins when Autocomplete installs keybindings.

• Plugins or other scripts that you load after loading Autocomplete may override these bindings. If you find that some shortcuts don’t work as expected, then you can fix them by

• changing the order in which you source your plugins or by

• running bindkey commands in your dotfiles after you source your plugins.

• Depending on your terminal, not all keybindings might be available to you.

• Instead of Alt, your terminal might require you to press Escape, Option or Meta.

• In the menus, the bindings listed under vicmd require you to press Alt for each, instead of just once.

• The bindings listed under emacs and vicmd are always both active in the menus, no matter which keymap you actually use. This is a limitation of Zsh.

• What any other keys do while you’re in a menu depends on the keymap from which you opened the menu. See the Zsh manual section on menu selection for more info.

Configuration

The following are the most commonly requested ways to configure Autocomplete’s behavior. To use any of these, add the code shown to your .zshrc file and modify it there, then restart you shell.

Reassign keys

You can use Zsh’s bindkey command, after loading Autocomplete, to customize your keybindings. Below are some examples of what you can do with this.

Make Tab and ShiftTab cycle completions on the command line

This makes Tab and ShiftTab, when pressed on the command line, cycle through listed completions, without changing what’s listed in the menu:

bindkey              '^I'         menu-complete
bindkey "$terminfo[kcbt]" reverse-menu-complete

Make Tab and ShiftTab go to the menu

This makes Tab and ShiftTab, when pressed on the command line, enter the menu instead of inserting a completion:

bindkey              '^I' menu-select
bindkey "$terminfo[kcbt]" menu-select

Make Tab and ShiftTab change the selection in the menu

This makes Tab and ShiftTab move the selection in the menu right and left, respectively, instead of exiting the menu:

bindkey -M menuselect              '^I'         menu-complete
bindkey -M menuselect "$terminfo[kcbt]" reverse-menu-complete

Make ← and → always move the cursor on the command line

This makes ← and → always move the cursor on the command line, even when you are in the menu:

bindkey -M menuselect  '^[[D' .backward-char  '^[OD' .backward-char
bindkey -M menuselect  '^[[C'  .forward-char  '^[OC'  .forward-char

Make Enter always submit the command line

This makes Enter always submit the command line, even when you are in the menu:

bindkey -M menuselect '^M' .accept-line

Restore Zsh-default history shortcuts

This restores the default Zsh keybindings for history control:

bindkey -M emacs \
"^[p"   .history-search-backward \
"^[n"   .history-search-forward \
"^P"    .up-line-or-history \
"^[OA"  .up-line-or-history \
"^[[A"  .up-line-or-history \
"^N"    .down-line-or-history \
"^[OB"  .down-line-or-history \
"^[[B"  .down-line-or-history \
"^R"    .history-incremental-search-backward \
"^S"    .history-incremental-search-forward \
#
bindkey -a \
"^P"    .up-history \
"^N"    .down-history \
"k"     .up-line-or-history \
"^[OA"  .up-line-or-history \
"^[[A"  .up-line-or-history \
"j"     .down-line-or-history \
"^[OB"  .down-line-or-history \
"^[[B"  .down-line-or-history \
"/"     .vi-history-search-backward \
"?"     .vi-history-search-forward \
#

Pass arguments to compinit

If necessary, you can let Autocomplete pass arguments to compinit as follows:

zstyle '*:compinit' arguments -D -i -u -C -w

First insert the common substring

You can make any completion widget first insert the longest sequence of characters that will complete to all completions shown, if any, before inserting actual completions:

# all Tab widgets
zstyle ':autocomplete:*complete*:*' insert-unambiguous yes

# all history widgets
zstyle ':autocomplete:*history*:*' insert-unambiguous yes

# ^S
zstyle ':autocomplete:menu-search:*' insert-unambiguous yes

Insert prefix instead of substring

When using the above, if you want each widget to first try to insert only the longest prefix that will complete to all completions shown, if any, then add the following:

zstyle ':completion:*:*' matcher-list 'm:{[:lower:]-}={[:upper:]_}' '+r:|[.]=**'

Note, though, that this will also slightly change what completions are listed initially. This is a limitation of the underlying implementation in Zsh.

Customize common substring message

You can customize the way the common substring is presented. The following sets the presentation to the default:

builtin zstyle ':autocomplete:*:unambiguous' format \
$'%{\e[0;2m%}%Bcommon substring:%b %0F%11K%d%f%k'

%d will be replaced with the common substring. Additionally, the following Zsh prompt escape sequences are supported for adding visual effects:

• %B: bold
• %F: foreground color
• %K: background color
• %S: terminfo "standout"
• %U: underline
• %{...%}: arbitrary ANSI escape sequence

Make Enter submit the command line straight from the menu

By default, pressing Enter in the menu search exits the search and pressing it otherwise in the menu exits the menu. If you instead want to make Enter always submit the command line, use the following:

bindkey -M menuselect '\r' .accept-line

Add or don’t add a space after certain completions

When inserting a completion, a space is added after certain types of completions. The default list is as follows:

zstyle ':autocomplete:*' add-space \
executables aliases functions builtins reserved-words commands

Modifying this list will change when a space is inserted. If you change the list to '*', a space is always inserted. If you put no elements in the list, then a space is never inserted.

Don’t add a semicolon after history completions

By default, Autocomplete adds a semicolon to each history line to allow adding another line with CtrlSpace. You can deactivate this feature as follows:

zstyle ':autocomplete:*' append-semicolon no

Start each command line in history search mode

This will make Autocomplete behave as if you pressed CtrlR at the start of each new command line:

zstyle ':autocomplete:*' default-context history-incremental-search-backward

Wait with autocompletion until typing stops for a certain amount of seconds

Normally, Autocomplete fetches completions after you stop typing for about 0.05 seconds. You can change this as follows:

zstyle ':autocomplete:*' delay 0.1  # seconds (float)

Wait longer before timing out autocompletion

Slow autocompletion can make the command line hang. Therefore, by default, Autocomplete waits at most 1 second for completion to finish. You can change this value as follows:

zstyle ':autocomplete:*' timeout 2.0  # seconds (float)

Note, though, that increasing this value can make your command line feel less responsive.

Wait for a minimum amount of input

To suppress autocompletion until a minimum number of characters have been typed:

zstyle ':autocomplete:*' min-input 3

Don’t show completions if the current word matches a pattern

For example, this will stop completions from showing whenever the current word consists of two or more dots:

zstyle ':autocomplete:*' ignored-input '..##'

Change the max number of lines shown

By default, Autocomplete lets the history menu fill half of the screen, and limits all real-time listings to a maximum of 16 lines. You can change these limits as follows:

# Note: -e lets you specify a dynamically generated value.

# Override default for all listings
# $LINES is the number of lines that fit on screen.
zstyle -e ':autocomplete:*:*' list-lines 'reply=( $(( LINES / 3 )) )'

# Override for recent path search only
zstyle ':autocomplete:recent-paths:*' list-lines 10

# Override for history search only
zstyle ':autocomplete:history-incremental-search-backward:*' list-lines 8

# Override for history menu only
zstyle ':autocomplete:history-search-backward:*' list-lines 2000

Note that for all real-time listings, the maximum number of lines is additionally capped to the number of lines that fit on screen. However, there is no such limit for the history menu. If that generates more lines than fit on screen, you can simply use PgUp and PgDn to scroll through the excess lines. (Note: On some terminals, you have to additionally hold Shift or, otherwise, it will scroll the terminal buffer instead.)

Use a custom backend for recent directories

Autocomplete comes with its own backend for keeping track of and listing recent directories (which uses part of cdr under the hood). However, you can override this and supply Autocomplete with recent directories from any source that you like. To do so, define a function like this:

+autocomplete:recent-directories() {
<code>
typeset -ga reply=( <any number of absolute paths> )
}

Add a backend for recent files

Out of the box, Autocomplete doesn’t track or offer recent files. However, it will do so if you add a backend for it:

+autocomplete:recent-files() {
<code>
typeset -ga reply=( <any number of absolute paths> )
}

Troubleshooting

Try the steps in the bug report template.

Author & License

See the LICENSE file for details.