Command line completion

arduino-cli supports command-line completion (also known as tab completion) for basic commands. Currently bash, zsh, fish, and powershell shells are supported

Before you start

In order to generate the file required to make the completion work you have to install Arduino CLI first.

Generate the completion file

To generate the completion file you can use arduino-cli completion [bash|zsh|fish|powershell] [--no-descriptions]. By default this command will print on the standard output (the shell window) the content of the completion file. To save to an actual file use the > redirect symbol.

Bash

Use arduino-cli completion bash > arduino-cli.sh to generate the completion file. At this point you can move that file in /etc/bash_completion.d/ (root access is required) with sudo mv arduino-cli.sh /etc/bash_completion.d/.

A not recommended alternative is to source the completion file in ~/.bashrc.

Remember to open a new shell to test the functionality.

Zsh

Use arduino-cli completion zsh > _arduino-cli to generate the completion file. At this point you can place the file in a directory listed in your fpath if you have already created a directory to store your completion.

Or if you want you can create a directory, add it to your fpath and copy the file in it:

1. mkdir ~/completion_zsh
2. add fpath=($HOME/completion_zsh $fpath) at the beginning of your ~/.zshrc file
3. mv _arduino-cli ~/completion_zsh/

Remember to open a new shell to test the functionality.

Fish

Use arduino-cli completion fish > arduino-cli.fish to generate the completion file. At this point you can place the file in ~/.config/fish/completions as stated in the official documentation. Remember to create the directory if it's not already there mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions/ and then place the completion file in there with mv arduino-cli.fish ~/.config/fish/completions/

Remember to open a new shell to test the functionality.

Powershell

Use arduino-cli completion powershell > arduino-cli.ps1 to generate a temporary completion file. At this point you need to add the content of the generated file to your PowerShell profile file.

1. Get-Content -Path arduino-cli.ps1 | Add-Content -Path $profile or add it by hand with your favourite text editor.
2. The previous command added two using namespace lines, move them on top of the $profile file.
3. If not already done, add the line Set-PSReadlineKeyHandler -Key Tab -Function MenuComplete to your $profile file: it is needed to enable the TAB completion in PowerShell.
4. del arduino-cli.ps1 to remove the temporary file.

Remember to open a new shell to test the functionality.

For more information on tab-completion on PowerShell, please, refer to Autocomplete in PowerShell.

Disabling command and flag descriptions

By default fish, zsh and bash completion have command and flag description enabled by default. If you want to disable this behaviour you can simply pass the --no-descriptions flag when calling completion command and the generated file will not have descriptions

N.B. This flag is not compatible with powershell

Brew

If you install the arduino-cli using homebrew package manager the completion should work out of the box if you have followed the official documentation.