zsh-completion-generators

Problem: You have a new CLI tool foo, and it has a subcommand like foo generate-completions --shell=zsh. But you don't know where to put its output--or you think you know, but it doesn't seem to work.

This is a very simple ZSH plugin which has a table of tool names and the commands for outputting completion scripts for those tools. Currently known tools are:

Tool	Command to generate completion
acli	acli completion zsh
argocd	argocd completion zsh
atuin	atuin gen-completions --shell zsh
bk	bk completion zsh
buf	buf completion zsh
bw	bw completion --shell zsh
cargo	rustup completions zsh cargo
chezmoi	chezmoi completion zsh
chronoctl	chronoctl completion zsh
codex	codex completion zsh
colima	colima completion zsh
deno	deno completions zsh
docker	docker completion zsh
doctl	doctl completion zsh
eksctl	eksctl completion zsh
fd	fd --gen-completions
fly	fly completion zsh
gh	gh completion --shell zsh
glab	glab completion -s zsh
golangci-lint	golangci-lint completion zsh
goreleaser	goreleaser completion zsh
gt	gt completion
hcloud	hcloud completion zsh
helm	helm completion zsh
hf	hf --show-completion
hugo	hugo completion zsh
jira	jira completion zsh
just	just --completions zsh
k9s	k9s completion zsh
kind	kind completion zsh
kubectl	kubectl completion zsh
minikube	minikube completion zsh
mise	mise completion zsh
nerdctl	nerdctl completion zsh
op	op completion zsh
opencode	opencode completion zsh
orbctl	orbctl completion zsh
pdm	pdm completion zsh
pixi	pixi completion --shell zsh
pnpm	pnpm completion zsh
podman	podman completion zsh
poetry	poetry completions zsh
pulumi	pulumi gen-completion zsh
pumas	pumas generate-completion zsh
rbw	rbw gen-completions zsh
rclone	rclone genautocomplete zsh -
restic	restic generate --zsh-completion -
rg	rg --generate=complete-zsh
rustup	rustup completions zsh rustup
rye	rye self completion -s zsh
starship	starship completions zsh
stern	stern --completion zsh
task	task --completion zsh
uv	uv generate-shell-completion zsh
yq	yq completion zsh
zellij	zellij setup --generate-completion zsh

On every shell load, it will filter that list for tools that

• you have installed (i.e. are on the $PATH)
• do not already have completions registered
• this plugin has not already generated completions for

It will run the completion command and save its output to a file _<toolname>. If the path of this repo is in $fpath (see below), then completions should work immediately.

Installation

This repo follows a zsh plugin convention established by oh-my-zsh. Most other plugin managers expect the same structure. Add zetlen/zsh-completion-generators using your chosen plugin manager's instructions. It will autoload the plugin, and put the plugin directory (and thus all generated completions) in the fpath variable, where zsh completions directories are listed.

Manual installation

1. Clone this repo
2. Add to your .zshrc:

   export fpath=(/path/to/zsh-completion-generators/ $fpath)
   source /path/to/zsh-completion-generators/zsh-completion-generators.plugin.zsh
   compinit # this may already be called elsewhere
   

:warning: You'll need to source this plugin before calling compinit, so your favorite plugin manager may have special instructions for doing so.

Initial load of your first new shell after install may take a while, since it has to generate the completion files for each command that you have installed. However, it caches them, so subsequent loads will take no time.

Notes

Automatic regeneration on upgrade: When you upgrade a tool, this plugin automatically detects the newer binary and regenerates completions on the next shell load. The zsh-completion-generators-rebuild command is only needed if completions become corrupted or you want to force regeneration of all completions.

After regenerating completions, you may need to delete $HOME/.zcompdump and/or $HOME/.zcompcache/ for changes to take effect.

Some CLIs don't have completion commands that output shell scripts to stdout. Sometimes they want to automatically update your .zshrc, or place special configuration files elsewhere. This plugin is not compatible with those approaches.

Custom generators

You can add your own tool definitions without modifying this plugin by creating a user-local CSV file:

~/.config/zsh-completion-generators/generators.csv

Use the same format as the main generators.csv:

Tool,Command to generate completion
mytool,mytool completions zsh

This file will survive plugin updates.