diff --git a/bin/main.ml b/bin/main.ml
index 57b4bf6..d51d840 100644
--- a/bin/main.ml
+++ b/bin/main.ml
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@
  *
  * the indexing pipeline for each binary:
  *   a. classify the binary (skip? try --help? try native completions?)
- *   b. if the tool has native nushell completion support, try various
- *      subcommand patterns ("completions nushell", "--completion nushell", etc.)
+ *   b. if the tool has native nushell completion support, run --help and
+ *      discover subcommands containing "complet", then try them with "nushell"
  *   c. otherwise, run the tool with --help/-h and parse the output
  *   d. recursively resolve subcommands (depth-limited to 5)
  *   e. after binaries, parse manpages for any commands not yet covered
@@ -255,7 +255,7 @@ let elf_scan path needles =
 
 (* detect nix-generated c wrapper scripts and extract the real binary path.
  * nix's makeCWrapper creates small c programs that set up the environment
- * and exec the real binary. these wrappers won't contain "-h" or "completion"
+ * and exec the real binary. these wrappers won't contain "-h" or "complet"
  * in their own binary (they're just wrappers), so elf_scan would say "skip".
  * this function reads the wrapper source to find the actual /nix/store/.../bin/...
  * target path, so we can try --help on the real binary instead.
@@ -330,8 +330,8 @@ type bin_class = Skip | Try_help | Try_native_and_help
 
 (* classify an elf binary path for indexing. *)
 let classify_elf path =
-  let scan = elf_scan path ["-h"; "completion"] in
-  if Hashtbl.mem scan "completion" then Try_native_and_help
+  let scan = elf_scan path ["-h"; "complet"] in
+  if Hashtbl.mem scan "complet" then Try_native_and_help
   else if Hashtbl.mem scan "-h" then Try_help
   else Skip
 
@@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ let classify_elf path =
  *   2. not executable -> Skip
  *   3. script (has shebang) -> resolve through nix script wrapper if possible,
  *      otherwise Try_help
- *   4. elf binary containing "completion" -> Try_native_and_help
+ *   4. elf binary containing "complet" -> Try_native_and_help
  *   5. elf binary containing "-h" -> Try_help
  *   6. nix c wrapper -> Try_help (the wrapper itself is just an exec shim)
  *   7. otherwise -> Skip (binary has no help infrastructure) *)
@@ -374,28 +374,68 @@ let num_cores () =
     close_in ic; max 1 !count
   with _ -> 4
 
+(* extract words from text that contain any of the given substrings.
+ * words are sequences of [a-zA-Z0-9_-] optionally prefixed with --.
+ * returns a deduplicated list. *)
+let extract_matching_words text needles =
+  let len = String.length text in
+  let module SSet = Set.Make(String) in
+  let words = ref SSet.empty in
+  let i = ref 0 in
+  while !i < len do
+    while !i < len && not (text.[!i] >= 'a' && text.[!i] <= 'z'
+                         || text.[!i] >= 'A' && text.[!i] <= 'Z'
+                         || text.[!i] = '-') do
+      incr i
+    done;
+    let start = !i in
+    while !i < len && (text.[!i] >= 'a' && text.[!i] <= 'z'
+                     || text.[!i] >= 'A' && text.[!i] <= 'Z'
+                     || text.[!i] >= '0' && text.[!i] <= '9'
+                     || text.[!i] = '-' || text.[!i] = '_') do
+      incr i
+    done;
+    if !i > start then begin
+      let word = String.sub text start (!i - start) in
+      let lower = String.lowercase_ascii word in
+      if List.exists (fun needle ->
+        try ignore (Str.search_forward (Str.regexp_string needle) lower 0); true
+        with Not_found -> false
+      ) needles then
+        words := SSet.add word !words
+    end
+  done;
+  SSet.elements !words
+
 (* try to get native nushell completions from a binary.
- * tries several common subcommand patterns that tools use for shell completions.
- * returns the first one that produces valid nushell source code.
- * the 500ms timeout is generous enough for most tools but prevents hangs.
+ * runs --help, scans the output for words containing completion-related
+ * substrings ("complet"), then tries each match as a subcommand or flag
+ * with "nushell" as the argument.
  *
- * the patterns cover: cobra (go), clap (rust), click (python), and various
- * ad-hoc implementations. *)
+ * this catches arbitrary patterns (completions, generate-completions,
+ * shell-completion, gen-completions, etc.) without maintaining a hardcoded
+ * list. the worst case is a few failed attempts before falling back to
+ * manpage/--help parsing. *)
 let try_native_completion bin_path =
-  List.find_map (fun args ->
-    match run_cmd args 500 with
-    | Some text when is_nushell_source text -> Some text
-    | _ -> None
-  ) [
-    [bin_path; "completions"; "nushell"];
-    [bin_path; "completion"; "nushell"];
-    [bin_path; "--completions"; "nushell"];
-    [bin_path; "--completion"; "nushell"];
-    [bin_path; "generate-completion"; "nushell"];
-    [bin_path; "--generate-completion"; "nushell"];
-    [bin_path; "gen-completions"; "nushell"];
-    [bin_path; "shell-completions"; "nushell"];
-  ]
+  let help_text = match run_cmd [bin_path; "--help"] 500 with
+    | Some t -> t | None -> "" in
+  if help_text = "" then None
+  else
+    let candidates = extract_matching_words help_text ["complet"] in
+    List.find_map (fun word ->
+      let attempts =
+        if String.starts_with ~prefix:"--" word then
+          [[bin_path; word; "nushell"]]
+        else
+          [[bin_path; word; "nushell"];
+           [bin_path; "--" ^ word; "nushell"]]
+      in
+      List.find_map (fun args ->
+        match run_cmd args 500 with
+        | Some text when is_nushell_source text -> Some text
+        | _ -> None
+      ) attempts
+    ) candidates
 
 (* parse a manpage file, extracting the command name, its flags/subcommands,
  * and any clap-style per-subcommand sections.