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inshellisense

IDE-style autocomplete suggestions for your terminal shell, supporting 600+ command line tools

GitHub Download 0.0.4
Stars
10.8k
Forks
260
Licence
MIT
Language
TypeScript
Last update
7 days ago
Type
Dev tool

What it is

inshellisense adds IDE-style autocomplete to your terminal. As you type a command, it shows a list of suggested options, subcommands, and flags that you can accept with the tab key. It uses the autocomplete specs from the withfig/autocomplete project, which cover over 600 command line tools, and works across Windows, Linux, and macOS.

  • Get suggested subcommands and flags while typing git or other common tools covered by the specs
  • Browse suggestions with the arrow keys and accept one with tab
  • Start an autocomplete session automatically in every new shell by adding the init line to your shell config

Great for

  • Developers who spend a lot of time in the terminal and want suggestions for unfamiliar command options
  • Users of bash, zsh, fish, PowerShell, xonsh, or nushell who want the same autocomplete experience across shells
  • People who want to start the autocomplete session automatically when opening a shell

Not ideal for

  • People who are happy with their shell's built-in completion and do not want an extra layer on top of it
  • Users who need autocomplete for the az, gcloud, or aws CLIs, since the README says those specs are not supported due to their size
  • Users of cmd, since the README marks cmd support as experimental
Step-by-step guide: how to use inshellisenseInstall, first run, examples, tips and FAQs
inshellisense alternativesinshellisense vs zsh-autosuggestionsasdf vs inshellisenseinshellisense vs Oh My Posh

How to get it

  1. 1

    Install with a package manager

    You'll need: Node.js (required for the npm install; version not stated in the README)

    Install with npm (recommended)

    npm install -g @microsoft/inshellisense

    Initialize inshellisense

    is init
  2. 2

    Run it

    • Install the package with npm install -g @microsoft/inshellisense
    • Run is init to set up inshellisense
    • Run is doctor to verify the installation
    • Run is to start an autocomplete session in your current shell
  3. 3

    Get the most out of it

    • Add a shell plugin line (for example is init zsh >> ~/.zshrc) so inshellisense starts with every new shell session
    • Set maxSuggestions in your config file to change how many suggestions are shown at once
    • Enable useNerdFont = true if you use a NerdFont patched font
    • Enable useAliases = true to expand aliases in bash or zsh
    • Customize keybindings under the [bindings] section of your config file

Downloads

Source code (.zip)main branch · straight from GitHubRelease 0.0.47 files incl. microsoft-inshellisense-darwin-arm64-0.0.4.tgz

Strengths

  • Covers a large set of command line tools (600+ according to the README) through existing autocomplete specs
  • Supports many shells, including bash, zsh, fish, PowerShell, and nushell
  • Configurable through a single TOML file, including keybindings, suggestion count, and colors

Trade-offs

  • The README lists cmd support as experimental and excludes the az, gcloud, and aws specs
  • Starting automatically from your shell config needs care: the README warns that the inshellisense line should be the last command in the file
  • The README does not describe how it behaves in terminals or with shell features beyond what is listed, so edge cases are unclear

How it compares

ProjectStarsTypeLevelUpdatedBest for
inshellisense (this)10.8kDev toolbeginner7 days agoDevelopers who spend a lot of time in the terminal and want suggestions for unfamiliar command options
zsh-autosuggestions36.2kAppbeginner1.4 years agoPeople who use zsh as their daily terminal shell
autocomplete25.2kOtherintermediate1.5 years agomacOS developers who use zsh, bash or fish and want suggestions for common CLIs
oh-my-posh23.7kDev toolintermediate4 days agoDevelopers who want their terminal prompt to show extra context
zoxide40.4kDev toolbeginner4 days agoDevelopers who move between many project folders in a terminal
asdf25.6kDev toolbeginner5 days agoDevelopers who work on several projects that need different language versions

Stats synced from GitHub. The assessment above was drafted with AI from the project's README on 2026-10-29 and may miss recent changes — check the README before relying on a command. MIT licence: free to use, modify and distribute, including commercially, as long as you keep the copyright notice.