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# building and installing
## dependencies
inshellah is a rust crate. it builds with stock cargo on any platform
rust supports.
inshellah is written in OCaml and uses dune as its build system.
build dependencies:
- **OCaml** >= 5.0
- **dune** >= 3.20
- **angstrom** — parser combinator library
- **angstrom-unix** — unix extensions for angstrom
- **camlzip** — gzip decompression for reading compressed manpages
- **str** — regular expressions (ships with OCaml)
- **unix** — process/file operations (ships with OCaml)
runtime dependencies:
- **man** (optional) — used as a fallback to locate manpages during
on-the-fly completion resolution. not needed if system directories
are provided via `--dir` (manpages are found via sibling `share/man`).
## building with nix (recommended)
if you have nix installed:
## with nix
```sh
nix build
```
the binary is at `./result/bin/inshellah`.
binary is at `./result/bin/inshellah`.
for development with a shell containing all dependencies:
development shell:
```sh
nix develop
dune build
dune test
cargo build --release
cargo test
```
## building from source with opam
## with cargo
install dependencies via opam:
requires rust >= 1.85 (edition 2024).
```sh
opam install dune angstrom angstrom-unix camlzip
```
build and test:
```sh
dune build
dune test
```
install into the opam switch:
```sh
dune install
```
## building from source without opam
if your distribution packages the OCaml libraries directly, install
them through your package manager, then build with dune:
```sh
dune build
```
the binary is at `_build/default/bin/main.exe`. copy it to your
`$PATH`:
```sh
install -Dm755 _build/default/bin/main.exe /usr/local/bin/inshellah
cargo build --release
cargo test
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/inshellah /usr/local/bin/inshellah
```
## arch linux
install OCaml and dune from the official repos, and the remaining
libraries from the AUR or via opam:
```sh
# system packages
sudo pacman -S ocaml dune
# ocaml libraries (via opam)
opam init # if not already initialized
eval $(opam env)
opam install angstrom angstrom-unix camlzip
# build
dune build
dune test
# install
sudo install -Dm755 _build/default/bin/main.exe /usr/local/bin/inshellah
sudo pacman -S rust
cargo build --release
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/inshellah /usr/local/bin/inshellah
```
## debian / ubuntu
```sh
sudo apt install ocaml opam
opam init
eval $(opam env)
opam install dune angstrom angstrom-unix camlzip
dune build
sudo install -Dm755 _build/default/bin/main.exe /usr/local/bin/inshellah
sudo apt install cargo rustc
# or: rustup install stable
cargo build --release
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/inshellah /usr/local/bin/inshellah
```
## fedora
```sh
sudo dnf install ocaml opam
opam init
eval $(opam env)
opam install dune angstrom angstrom-unix camlzip
dune build
sudo install -Dm755 _build/default/bin/main.exe /usr/local/bin/inshellah
sudo dnf install cargo rust
cargo build --release
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/inshellah /usr/local/bin/inshellah
```
## post-install setup
after installing the binary, index completions from your system
prefix(es):
index completions from your system prefix(es):
```sh
# typical linux system
inshellah index /usr /usr/local
# more workers / different timeout
inshellah index /usr /usr/local --workers 16 --timeout-ms 500
# check what was indexed
inshellah dump
```
then wire up the nushell completer:
wire up the nushell completer in `~/.config/nushell/config.nu`:
```nu
# ~/.config/nushell/config.nu
$env.config.completions.external = {
enable: true
completer: {|spans|
@ -145,19 +81,28 @@ $env.config.completions.external = {
}
```
see [nushell-integration.md](nushell-integration.md) for full details
on the completer, and [runtime-completions.md](runtime-completions.md)
for on-the-fly resolution of commands not covered by the index.
see [nushell-integration.md](nushell-integration.md) for full
completer details and [runtime-completions.md](runtime-completions.md)
for on-the-fly resolution of commands not covered by the upfront
index.
## re-indexing after package changes
the index is a static cache — it doesn't update automatically when you
install or remove packages. re-run `inshellah index` after significant
package changes:
```sh
inshellah index /usr /usr/local
```
on nixos, the system index regenerates on every `nixos-rebuild`
automatically. see [nixos.md](nixos.md) for details.
on nixos, the system index regenerates on every `nixos-rebuild`. see
[nixos.md](nixos.md).
## development
```sh
cargo build # debug build, faster compile
cargo test # full test suite
cargo clippy --release
```
a `man` binary is useful at runtime as a fallback for locating
manpages outside the indexed prefixes — not required for indexing
itself.

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@ -1,105 +1,47 @@
# nixos integration
inshellah provides a nixos module that automatically indexes nushell
completions for all installed packages at system build time.
inshellah provides a nixos module that indexes nushell completions for
every installed package at system build time, and a wrapped binary
that knows where to find the result.
## enabling
```nix
# in your flake.nix outputs:
# flake.nix outputs:
{
nixosConfigurations.myhost = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
modules = [
inshellah.nixosModules.default
{
programs.inshellah.enable = true;
}
{ programs.inshellah.enable = true; }
];
};
}
```
or if importing the module directly:
or importing directly:
```nix
# configuration.nix
{ pkgs, ... }: {
imports = [ ./path/to/inshellah/nix/module.nix ];
programs.inshellah = {
enable = true;
package = pkgs.inshellah; # or your local build
};
imports = [ ./path/to/inshellah-rs/nix/module.nix ];
programs.inshellah.enable = true;
}
```
## what happens at build time
after rebuilding, completions are immediately available — no extra
nushell config needed if you paste in the snippet (see below).
the module hooks into `environment.extraSetup`, which runs during the
system profile build (the `buildEnv` that creates `/run/current-system/sw`).
at that point, all system packages are merged, so `$out/bin` contains every
executable and `$out/share/man` contains every manpage.
## what the module does
inshellah runs a single command:
```
inshellah index "$out" --dir $out/share/inshellah
```
this executes a three-phase pipeline:
### phase 1: native completion detection (parallel)
for each executable, inshellah scans the elf binary for the string
`completion`. if found, it probes common patterns like
`CMD completions nushell` to see if the program can generate its own
nushell completions. native output is used verbatim — these are always
higher quality than parsed completions.
programs like `niri`, and any clap/cobra tool with nushell support,
are handled this way.
### phase 2: manpage parsing (sequential)
for commands not covered by phase 1, inshellah parses manpages from
man1 (user commands) and man8 (sysadmin commands). it handles:
- gnu `.TP` style (coreutils, help2man)
- `.IP` style (curl, hand-written)
- `.PP`+`.RS`/`.RE` style (git, docbook)
- nix3 bullet+hyperlink style (`nix run`, `nix build`, etc.)
- mdoc (bsd) format
- deroff fallback for unusual formats
synopsis sections are parsed to detect subcommands: `git-commit.1`
generates `export extern "git commit"`, not `export extern "git-commit"`.
### phase 3: --help fallback (parallel)
remaining executables without manpages get `--help` (or `-h`) called
with a 200ms timeout. elf binaries are pre-scanned for the `-h` string
to skip those that don't support help flags. shell scripts are run
directly (they're fast). execution is parallelized to available cores.
when `--help` produces rendered manpage output instead of plain help
text (e.g. `git stash --help` delegates to `man`), the raw manpage
source is located and parsed with the groff parser for richer results.
### output
each command gets its own file in `/share/inshellah` under the system
profile. native generators produce `.nu` files; parsed results produce
`.json` files. the `complete` command reads both formats.
nushell built-in commands (ls, cd, cp, mv, etc.) are excluded since
nushell provides its own completions.
### performance
on a typical nixos system (~950 executables, ~1600 manpages):
- total time: ~4-10 seconds
- native gzip decompression (camlzip, no process spawning)
- parallel --help with core-scaled forking
- elf string scanning to skip ~15% of binaries
- installs the inshellah binary, wrapped so the system completion path
is found automatically.
- runs `inshellah index "$out"` during the system profile build,
producing one file per command under `$out/share/inshellah/`.
- drops a nushell autoload shim into `/share/nushell/vendor/autoload/`
that overrides nushell's hard-coded sudo/doas bypass so completions
fire through inshellah even for elevated commands.
- exposes a `snippet` option carrying the full external-completer
config — see "using the completer" below.
## module options
@ -110,12 +52,11 @@ programs.inshellah = {
# the inshellah package (set automatically by the flake module)
package = pkgs.inshellah;
# where to place indexed completion files under the system profile
# subdirectory of the system profile holding the index files
# default: "/share/inshellah"
completionsPath = "/share/inshellah";
# additional read-only completion directories to search
# these are appended to the --dir path alongside the system completions
extraDirs = [ "/etc/profiles/per-user/alice/share/inshellah" ];
# commands to skip entirely during indexing
@ -123,41 +64,65 @@ programs.inshellah = {
# commands to skip manpage parsing for (uses --help instead)
helpOnlyCommands = [ "nix" ];
# per-subprocess timeout in ms during indexing (null = built-in
# default of 200ms)
timeoutMs = null;
# worker-thread count for the parallel scrape
workers = null;
};
```
## using the completer
the flake module sets a read-only `snippet` option containing the nushell
config needed to wire up the completer. you can access it via
`config.programs.inshellah.snippet` and paste it into your nushell config,
or source it from a file generated by your nixos config.
the module's `snippet` option holds a complete external-completer
config. drop it into nushell:
the snippet sets up the external completer. the wrapper installed by
the module has the system completion paths hardcoded, so no flags are
needed:
```nu
let inshellah_complete = {|spans|
inshellah complete ...$spans | from json
}
$env.config.completions.external = {
enable: true
max_results: 100
completer: $inshellah_complete
}
```nix
# generate a config file from the snippet
environment.etc."nushell/inshellah.nu".text = config.programs.inshellah.snippet;
```
## home manager and other user-level package managers
then in your nushell config:
the nixos module only indexes packages installed at the system level
(those that end up in `/run/current-system/sw`). if you use home-manager,
nix-env, or another user-level package manager, those binaries and
manpages live elsewhere — typically under `/etc/profiles/per-user/<name>`
or `~/.nix-profile`.
```nu
source /etc/nushell/inshellah.nu
```
to get completions for user-installed packages, run `inshellah index`
against those prefixes separately:
or copy the snippet directly into `~/.config/nushell/config.nu` if you
prefer to manage it by hand:
```nu
# (the snippet is many lines — copy it from `nix eval` of the option,
# or use the environment.etc approach above)
$env.config.completions.external = { ... }
```
the snippet provides both static lookups against the system index and
runtime fallbacks for cases the static index can't cover:
| command | dynamic source |
|---|---|
| `nix` | flake refs via `NIX_GET_COMPLETIONS`, with optional `meta.description` |
| `systemctl` / `journalctl` | unit names from `list-units` |
| `coredumpctl` | units + pids |
| `loginctl` | users / sessions |
| `machinectl` / `networkctl` | machines / links |
| `ssh` / `scp` / `sftp` | hostnames from ssh config + known_hosts |
| `docker` / `podman` | containers + image refs by subcommand |
| `kubectl` | resource names from the live cluster |
| `git` | refs + worktree paths |
| `npm` / `pnpm` / `yarn` | scripts from package.json |
| `make` / `just` | targets / recipes |
| `cargo` | workspace targets behind `--bin` / `--example` / etc. |
| `kill` / `pkill` | pid+comm pairs |
## home manager and user-level package managers
the system module only indexes packages installed system-wide. for
home-manager or per-user nix profiles, run `inshellah index` against
those prefixes separately:
```sh
# home-manager / per-user profile
@ -167,35 +132,28 @@ inshellah index /etc/profiles/per-user/$USER
inshellah index ~/.nix-profile
```
this indexes into the default user cache (`$XDG_CACHE_HOME/inshellah`),
which the completer searches automatically. you can re-run this after
installing new packages, or add it to a home-manager activation script.
if you want to automate this in home-manager:
this indexes into `$XDG_CACHE_HOME/inshellah`, which the completer
searches automatically. to automate via home-manager:
```nix
# home.nix
home.activation.inshellah-index = lib.hm.dag.entryAfter [ "writeBoundary" ] ''
${pkgs.inshellah}/bin/inshellah index /etc/profiles/per-user/$USER 2>/dev/null || true
'';
```
the completer will then search both the system index and the user
cache, so completions from both sources are available.
## troubleshooting
**completions not appearing**: ensure the completer is configured in
your nushell config (see above). check that the system index exists:
`ls /run/current-system/sw/share/inshellah/`.
**completions not appearing**: check that the system index exists
(`ls /run/current-system/sw/share/inshellah/`) and that the completer
is configured.
**missing completions for a specific command**: check if it's a nushell
built-in (`help commands | where name == "thecommand"`). built-ins are
excluded because nushell serves its own completions for them.
built-in (`help commands | where name == "thecommand"`) — built-ins
are excluded.
**stale completions after update**: completions regenerate on every
`nixos-rebuild`. if a command changed its flags, rebuild to pick up
the changes.
**stale completions after update**: the index regenerates on every
`nixos-rebuild`. if a command changed its flags, rebuild.
**build-time errors**: indexing failures are non-fatal (`|| true`).
check `journalctl` for the build log if completions are missing.
**build-time errors**: indexing failures are non-fatal. check
`journalctl` for the build log if completions are missing for a
specific command.

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@ -1,150 +1,28 @@
# using inshellah completions in nushell
inshellah indexes completions from three sources (in priority order):
1. **native generators** — programs that can emit nushell completions directly
2. **manpages** — groff/troff/mdoc manpage parsing
3. **`--help` output** — parsing help text as a fallback
indexed data is stored as `.json` and `.nu` files in a directory that the
`complete` command reads from at tab-completion time.
inshellah indexes completions for the commands in your `$PATH` and
serves them to nushell's external completer. indexed data is stored as
`.json` and `.nu` files that the `complete` command reads at
tab-completion time.
## quick start
index completions from a system prefix:
```sh
# index from a prefix containing bin/ and share/man/
# from a prefix containing bin/ and share/man/
inshellah index /usr
# index from multiple prefixes
# multiple prefixes
inshellah index /usr /usr/local
# store in a custom directory
# custom directory
inshellah index /usr --dir ~/my-completions
```
parse a single manpage:
```sh
inshellah manpage /usr/share/man/man1/git.1.gz
```
batch-process all manpages under a directory (man1 and man8):
```sh
inshellah manpage-dir /usr/share/man
```
## commands
```
inshellah index PREFIX... [--dir PATH] [--ignore FILE] [--help-only FILE]
index completions into a directory of json/nu files.
PREFIX is a directory containing bin/ and share/man/.
default dir: $XDG_CACHE_HOME/inshellah
--ignore FILE skip listed commands entirely
--help-only FILE skip manpages for listed commands, use --help instead
inshellah complete CMD [ARGS...] [--dir PATH[:PATH...]]
nushell custom completer. outputs json completion candidates.
falls back to --help resolution if command is not indexed.
--dir takes colon-separated paths. the first path is the writable
user cache; additional paths are read-only system directories.
manpages are found via sibling share/man of system dir paths.
inshellah query CMD [--dir PATH[:PATH...]]
print stored completion data for CMD.
inshellah dump [--dir PATH[:PATH...]]
list indexed commands.
inshellah manpage FILE
parse a manpage and emit nushell extern block.
inshellah manpage-dir DIR
batch-process manpages under DIR (man1 and man8 sections).
```
## the index pipeline
the `index` command runs a three-phase pipeline over all executables
in each `PREFIX/bin`:
### phase 1: native completion detection (parallel)
for each executable, inshellah scans the elf binary for the string
`completion`. if found, it probes common patterns like
`CMD completions nushell` to see if the program can generate its own
nushell completions. native output is used verbatim — these are always
higher quality than parsed completions.
programs like `niri`, and any clap/cobra tool with nushell support,
are handled this way.
### phase 2: manpage parsing (sequential)
for commands not covered by phase 1, inshellah parses manpages from
man1 (user commands) and man8 (sysadmin commands). it handles:
- gnu `.TP` style (coreutils, help2man)
- `.IP` style (curl, hand-written)
- `.PP`+`.RS`/`.RE` style (git, docbook)
- nix3 bullet+hyperlink style (`nix run`, `nix build`, etc.)
- mdoc (bsd) format
- deroff fallback for unusual formats
synopsis sections are parsed to detect subcommands: `git-commit.1`
generates `export extern "git commit"`, not `export extern "git-commit"`.
### phase 3: --help fallback (parallel)
remaining executables without manpages get `--help` (or `-h`) called
with a 200ms timeout. elf binaries are pre-scanned for the `-h` string
to skip those that don't support help flags. shell scripts are run
directly (they're fast). execution is parallelized to available cores.
subcommands are recursively resolved — if `--help` output lists
subcommands, inshellah runs `CMD SUBCMD --help` for each.
when a `--help` invocation produces rendered manpage output (some
commands like `git stash` delegate `--help` to `man`), inshellah
detects this and locates the raw manpage source to parse with the
groff parser instead. this yields richer results (subcommands,
structured flag sections) than parsing the rendered text.
### output
each command gets its own file in the index directory. native generators
produce `.nu` files; parsed results produce `.json` files. the `complete`
command reads both formats.
nushell built-in commands (ls, cd, cp, mv, etc.) are excluded since
nushell provides its own completions.
### performance
on a typical nixos system (~950 executables, ~1600 manpages):
- total time: ~4-10 seconds
- native gzip decompression (camlzip, no process spawning)
- parallel --help with core-scaled forking
- elf string scanning to skip ~15% of binaries
## the completer
the `complete` command is designed to be wired into nushell as an
external completer. it reads from the directories specified via `--dir`
(colon-separated), performs fuzzy matching, and outputs json completion
candidates. the first path is the writable user cache; additional paths
are read-only system directories.
if a command is not indexed, `complete` falls back to on-the-fly
`--help` resolution — it runs the command's help, caches the result
in the user directory, and returns completions immediately.
### setting up the completer
then wire up the completer in `~/.config/nushell/config.nu`:
```nu
# ~/.config/nushell/config.nu
$env.config.completions.external = {
enable: true
completer: {|spans|
@ -154,27 +32,62 @@ $env.config.completions.external = {
}
```
with the nixos module, use the provided `snippet` option value (see
[nixos.md](nixos.md)) which points at the system index automatically.
that's it. tab-completion now works for every command indexed.
## nixos module
## commands
enable automatic completion indexing at system build time:
```
inshellah index PREFIX... [--dir PATH] [--ignore FILE] [--help-only FILE]
[--workers N] [--timeout-ms N]
index completions into a directory of json/nu files.
PREFIX is a directory containing bin/ and share/man/.
default dir: $XDG_CACHE_HOME/inshellah
--ignore FILE skip listed commands entirely
--help-only FILE skip manpages for listed commands, use --help instead
--workers N worker-thread count
--timeout-ms N per-subprocess timeout in ms (default: 200)
```nix
{
imports = [ ./path/to/inshellah/nix/module.nix ];
programs.inshellah.enable = true;
}
inshellah complete CMD [ARGS...] [--dir PATH[:PATH...]] [--timeout-ms N]
nushell custom completer. outputs JSON completion candidates.
falls back to on-the-fly --help resolution if a command isn't
indexed yet — the result is cached and subsequent presses are
instant.
--dir takes colon-separated paths. the first path is the writable
user cache; additional paths are read-only system directories.
inshellah query CMD [--dir PATH[:PATH...]]
print stored completion data for CMD.
inshellah dump [--dir PATH[:PATH...]]
list indexed commands.
inshellah manpage FILE
parse a manpage and emit a nushell extern block.
inshellah manpage-dir DIR
batch-process manpages under DIR (man1 and man8 sections).
```
this runs `inshellah index` during the system profile build. see
[nixos.md](nixos.md) for full details.
## what gets handled
## what gets generated
- **sources**: native nushell completion generators (clap/cobra tools
that can emit completions themselves), manpages in section 1 and 8,
`--help` and `-h` output.
- **groff styles**: gnu `.TP` (coreutils, help2man), `.IP` (curl,
hand-written), `.PP`+`.RS`/`.RE` (git, docbook), nix3 bullet
(`nix run`, `nix build`), mdoc (BSD), plus a deroff fallback.
- **subcommand naming**: `git-commit.1` produces `git commit`, not
`git-commit`. clap-style per-subcommand manpages get one file each.
- **synopsis-only flags**: flags declared in a manpage SYNOPSIS but
missing from the body (e.g. nix-env's `--profile`, most of sed's
interface) are picked up too.
- **elevation wrappers**: `sudo`, `doas`, `pkexec`, `su`, `run0` are
stripped before lookup, including when the real target is given as
an absolute path.
- **exclusions**: nushell built-ins (ls, cd, mv, etc.) are skipped —
nushell serves its own completions for those.
the `manpage` and `manpage-dir` commands emit nushell `extern` blocks
with flags, parameter types, and descriptions:
## extern blocks (manpage / manpage-dir)
```nu
export extern "rg" [
@ -186,9 +99,12 @@ export extern "rg" [
]
```
subcommand manpages (e.g. `git-commit.1`) are detected via synopsis
parsing and generate the correct nushell name (`git commit` not
`git-commit`).
these are produced by `inshellah manpage` / `inshellah manpage-dir` and
can be source'd directly in your nushell config if you prefer that to
the json completer flow.
nushell built-in commands (ls, cd, mv, etc.) are excluded since nushell
provides its own completions for these.
## nixos
`programs.inshellah.enable = true` will index at system build time and
ship a richer completer with runtime fallbacks (live cluster queries,
git/ssh/docker/k8s lookups, etc.). see [nixos.md](nixos.md).

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@ -1,30 +1,31 @@
# runtime completion resolution
the `complete` command has built-in on-the-fly resolution: when a command
is not found in the index, it falls back to running `--help`, caches the
result, and returns completions immediately. this means commands installed
outside the system profile (via cargo, pip, npm, go, etc.) get completions
on first tab-press with no manual setup.
when a command isn't in the static index yet, `inshellah complete`
runs `--help` (or `-h`) on the binary, caches the result in the user
directory, and returns completions immediately. tab-completion just
works for tools installed outside the indexed prefixes — via cargo,
pip, npm, go, etc.
## how it works
when you type `docker compose up --<TAB>`:
typing `docker compose up --<TAB>`:
1. nushell calls `inshellah complete docker compose up --`
2. inshellah looks up the index for the longest matching prefix
2. inshellah looks up the longest matching prefix in the index
3. if found, it fuzzy-matches flags and subcommands against the partial input
4. if not found, it locates the binary in `$PATH`, runs `--help`,
recursively resolves subcommands, caches the results in the user
directory (`$XDG_CACHE_HOME/inshellah`), and returns completions.
if `--help` produces rendered manpage output, the raw manpage source
is located and parsed instead for richer results
directory (`$XDG_CACHE_HOME/inshellah`), and returns completions
all subsequent completions for that command are instant (served from cache).
all subsequent completions for that command are served from cache.
elevation wrappers (`sudo`, `doas`, `pkexec`, `su`, `run0`) are
stripped before lookup: `sudo docker compose up --` resolves against
`docker`, not `sudo`. absolute paths after the wrapper are recognised
too.
## setup
the completer works with no extra configuration beyond the basic setup:
```nu
# ~/.config/nushell/config.nu
$env.config.completions.external = {
@ -36,18 +37,8 @@ $env.config.completions.external = {
}
```
with the nixos module, the installed wrapper has the system paths
hardcoded — no extra flags needed. the same snippet works:
```nu
$env.config.completions.external = {
enable: true
completer: {|spans|
inshellah complete ...$spans
| from json
}
}
```
with the nixos module, no extra config is needed beyond enabling the
module — the wrapper has the system paths baked in.
to manually specify system dirs, use colon-separated `--dir`:
@ -61,25 +52,15 @@ $env.config.completions.external = {
}
```
system directories (paths after the first in `--dir`) enable
manpage-based fallback: when a command's `--help` delegates to `man`,
the completer looks for the raw manpage in the sibling `share/man`
directory (e.g. `share/inshellah``share/man`). if no system dirs
are given, it falls back to `man -w` to locate the manpage.
or use the `snippet` option provided by the flake module (see
[nixos.md](nixos.md)).
paths after the first in `--dir` are read-only system dirs.
## cache management
the user cache lives at `$XDG_CACHE_HOME/inshellah` (typically
`~/.cache/inshellah`).
```sh
# list cached commands
inshellah dump
# view cached data for a command
# view stored data for a command
inshellah query docker
# clear cache