Shell Completion¶

Weld provides tab completion for commands, options, and arguments. Completions are context-aware—they suggest relevant files, flag values, and subcommands based on what you've typed.

Automatic Installation¶

Completions are installed automatically on first run of any weld command. You'll see a one-time message:

Shell completions installed. Restart your shell or run: source ~/.bashrc

After restarting your shell (or sourcing the config file), completions will work immediately. No additional setup required for bash, zsh, or fish.

Manual Installation¶

If automatic installation didn't work, you prefer manual control, or you're using PowerShell, use one of the methods below.

Quick Install¶

The simplest manual method:

weld --install-completion

This auto-detects your shell and installs the completion script to the appropriate location. Restart your shell or source your config file to activate.

Bash¶

Option 1: User-level installation

# Generate completion script
weld --show-completion > ~/.weld-complete.bash

# Add to ~/.bashrc
echo 'source ~/.weld-complete.bash' >> ~/.bashrc

# Reload
source ~/.bashrc

Option 2: System-wide installation (Linux)

# Requires sudo
weld --show-completion | sudo tee /etc/bash_completion.d/weld > /dev/null

# Reload bash
source /etc/bash_completion.d/weld

macOS with Homebrew

# Ensure bash-completion is installed
brew install bash-completion@2

# Install weld completion
weld --show-completion > $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/weld

# Reload
source ~/.bashrc

Zsh¶

Option 1: User-level installation

# Generate completion script
weld --show-completion > ~/.weld-complete.zsh

# Add to ~/.zshrc
echo 'source ~/.weld-complete.zsh' >> ~/.zshrc

# Reload
source ~/.zshrc

Option 2: Using fpath (recommended for zsh)

# Create completions directory if needed
mkdir -p ~/.zfunc

# Generate completion
weld --show-completion > ~/.zfunc/_weld

# Add to ~/.zshrc (before compinit)
echo 'fpath=(~/.zfunc $fpath)' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'autoload -Uz compinit && compinit' >> ~/.zshrc

# Reload
source ~/.zshrc

Oh My Zsh

# Install to Oh My Zsh completions
weld --show-completion > ~/.oh-my-zsh/completions/_weld

# Reload
source ~/.zshrc

Fish¶

# Create completions directory if needed
mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions

# Generate completion
weld --show-completion > ~/.config/fish/completions/weld.fish

# Fish auto-loads from completions directory - no reload needed
# Or manually reload:
source ~/.config/fish/completions/weld.fish

PowerShell¶

Windows PowerShell

# Show your profile path
echo $PROFILE

# Generate and append completion to profile
weld --show-completion >> $PROFILE

# Reload profile
. $PROFILE

PowerShell Core (Cross-platform)

# Create profile directory if needed
New-Item -Path (Split-Path $PROFILE) -ItemType Directory -Force

# Generate completion
weld --show-completion | Out-File -Append -FilePath $PROFILE

# Reload
. $PROFILE

What Gets Completed¶

Weld completions include:

Troubleshooting¶

Completions not working after installation¶

1. Restart your terminal - Most shells don't reload config automatically
2. Check the source line - Ensure your shell config actually sources the completion file
3. Verify the file exists - ls -la ~/.weld-complete.* or check the path used

"command not found" in completion script¶

The completion script calls weld to generate completions. Ensure weld is in your PATH:

which weld
# Should output: /path/to/weld

If weld was installed with uv tool or pipx, ensure the tool bin directory is in PATH:

# uv
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

# pipx
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

Completions are slow¶

Completions run weld each time to generate context-aware suggestions. If this is slow:

1. Check if weld startup is slow: time weld --help
2. Ensure you're not running weld from a network drive
3. On Windows, antivirus can slow Python startup

Zsh: "command not found: compdef"¶

The completion system isn't initialized. Add to ~/.zshrc before sourcing completions:

autoload -Uz compinit && compinit

Zsh: Insecure directories warning¶

Zsh may warn about insecure completion directories. Fix permissions:

chmod 755 ~/.zfunc
chmod 644 ~/.zfunc/_weld
compaudit | xargs chmod g-w

Or disable the check (not recommended):

# Add to ~/.zshrc before compinit
ZSH_DISABLE_COMPFIX=true

Fish: Completions not loading¶

Fish should auto-load from ~/.config/fish/completions/. If not:

1. Check file exists: ls ~/.config/fish/completions/weld.fish
2. Check for syntax errors: fish -c "source ~/.config/fish/completions/weld.fish"
3. Clear completion cache: rm -rf ~/.cache/fish/completions

PowerShell: Script execution disabled¶

Enable script execution:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope CurrentUser -ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Reinstalling after weld upgrade¶

After upgrading weld, regenerate completions to pick up new commands:

weld --install-completion
# Or regenerate manually using the steps above

Uninstalling Completions¶

Remove the completion script and source line from your shell config:

Bash/Zsh:

rm ~/.weld-complete.*
# Edit ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc to remove the source line

Fish:

rm ~/.config/fish/completions/weld.fish

PowerShell:

# Edit $PROFILE to remove weld completion lines
notepad $PROFILE