inshellisense
inshellisense provides IDE style autocomplete for shells. It's a terminal native runtime for autocomplete which has support for 600+ command line tools. inshellisense supports Windows, Linux, & macOS.
Getting Started
Installation
npm (recommended)
npm install -g @microsoft/inshellisense
is init
homebrew (macOS/linux)
brew tap microsoft/inshellisense https://github.com/microsoft/inshellisense
brew install inshellisense
is init
Updating
npm install -g @microsoft/inshellisense # OR brew upgrade inshellisense
is reinit
Quickstart
After completing the installation, run is doctor to verify your installation was successful. You can run is to start the autocomplete session for your desired shell. Additionally, inshellisense is also aliased under inshellisense after installation.
Shell Plugin
If you'd like to automatically start inshellisense when you open your shell, run the respective command for your shell. After running the command, inshellisense will automatically open when you start any new shell session:
# bash
is init bash >> ~/.bashrc
# zsh
is init zsh >> ~/.zshrc
# fish
is init fish >> ~/.config/fish/config.fish
# pwsh
is init pwsh | Add-Content $profile
# powershell
is init powershell | Add-Content $profile
# xonsh
is init xonsh >> ~/.xonshrc
# nushell
is init nu | save $nu.env-path --append
[!NOTE]
When updating your shell configuration in the future, make sure the inshellisense plugin is the last command in the file. Including commands after it may break the configuration (ex. initializing your shell plugin manager after the inshellisense plugin)
Usage
| Action | Command | Description |
|---|
| Start | is | Start inshellisense session on the current shell |
| Stop | exit | Stop inshellisense session on the current shell |
| Check If Inside Inshellisense Session | is -c | Check if shell inside inshellisense session |
Keybindings
All other keys are passed through to the shell. The keybindings below are only captured when the inshellisense suggestions are visible, otherwise they are passed through to the shell as well. These can be customized in the config.
| Action | Keybinding |
|---|
| Accept Current Suggestion | tab |
| View Next Suggestion | ↓ |
| View Previous Suggestion | ↑ |
| Dismiss Suggestions | esc |
Integrations
inshellisense supports the following shells:
Configuration
All configuration is done through a toml file. You can create this file at ~/.inshellisenserc or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/inshellisense/rc.toml. When XDG_CONFIG_HOME is unset, empty, or not an absolute path, the XDG configuration path defaults to ~/.config/inshellisense/rc.toml. The JSON schema for the configuration file can be found here.
On new Unix-like installations, generated resources are stored under $XDG_DATA_HOME/inshellisense. When XDG_DATA_HOME is unset, empty, or non-absolute, it defaults to ~/.local/share as defined by the XDG specification. Existing installations continue using ~/.inshellisense when that directory is present so current shell plugins keep working; Windows also keeps using that location. Running is reinit migrates legacy resources to the XDG data directory.
Keybindings
You can customize the keybindings for inshellisense by adding a bindings section to your config file. The following is the default configuration for the keybindings:
[bindings.acceptSuggestion]
key = "tab"
# shift and control are optional and default to false
shift = false
control = false
[bindings.nextSuggestion]
key = "down"
[bindings.previousSuggestion]
key = "up"
[bindings.dismissSuggestions]
key = "escape"
Key names are matched against the Node.js keypress events.
Alias Expansion
Inshellisense supports expanding aliases for bash/zsh shells. You can enable alias expansion in your config file:
useAliases = true
Generated Spec Caching
Generated root specs are cached by spec and working directory while you edit a prompt. The cache is cleared between prompts, and specs with cache: false always regenerate. Argument suggestion generators continue to refresh according to their own settings. Failed or cancelled spec generation is not cached.
Caching is enabled by default. To regenerate root specs on every completion request, add this top-level setting to your config file:
cacheGeneratedSpecs = false
NerdFonts
If you are using a NerdFont patched font, you can enable the NerdFonts support in your config file:
useNerdFont = true
Suggestion and description size
Defaults for these top-level config options:
maxSuggestions = 5
descriptionWidth = 30
descriptionHeight = 5
truncateDescriptions = true
Width includes borders; height counts text rows.
Set truncateDescriptions = false to grow descriptions proportionally, then along the remaining dimension. Text is still truncated if it cannot fit.
Active Suggestion Background Color
You can customize the active suggestion's background with a #RRGGBB hex color.
activeSuggestionBackgroundColor = "#2E7D32"
Box Border Style
You can use square (the default) or rounded corners for suggestion and description boxes.
boxBorderStyle = "rounded"
Unsupported Specs
Specs for the az, gcloud, & aws CLIs are not supported in inshellisense due to their large size.
Contributing
This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a
Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us
the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.opensource.microsoft.com.
When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide
a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., status check, comment). Simply follow the instructions
provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.
This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct.
For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or
contact [email protected] with any additional questions or comments.
Trademarks
This project may contain trademarks or logos for projects, products, or services. Authorized use of Microsoft
trademarks or logos is subject to and must follow
Microsoft's Trademark & Brand Guidelines.
Use of Microsoft trademarks or logos in modified versions of this project must not cause confusion or imply Microsoft sponsorship.
Any use of third-party trademarks or logos are subject to those third-party's policies.
