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IRIS (Intelligent Real-time Input Suggestion) - A shell auto-completion tool that works like code editor's IntelliSense
IRIS is built on top of TTY, so it runs everywhere. It just needs a terminal!
Run iris wherever you already work; your local machine, a remote server, or anywhere you can ssh. Each suggestion menu renders directly inline inside your real terminal session, not an app's imitation of one, so it never breaks full-screen TUIs or terminal formatting. Automatically index your aliases and shell history to suggest commands that match your actual workflow in real time. Change configurations and propagate them instantly without restarting your shell. One single local native Go binary, not an app: no gui, no electron, no mac-only wrapper, no account, no telemetry. (if you've used fig: it's that, rebuilt to run purely on TTY)
Important
Fig was officially sunset in September 2024 and migrated to Amazon Q Developer (which requires cloud authentication and proprietary bloat)
IRIS is the lightweight, open-source, zero-telemetry alternative built purely on native Go and TTY with no accounts, no GUI app, and no background daemons required
| Feature | IRIS | Fig |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Linux, macOS | macOS only |
| Engine | Native Go (TTY) | Electron |
| Startup | Near-zero overhead | Low overhead |
| UI | Inline overlay | GUI popover |
| Remote SSH | TTY-native, portable | macOS GUI-bound |
| Tmux | ✓ | Limited |
| Linux virtual terminals | ✓ | - |
| Memory | Lightweight | Electron runtime |
Shell plugins are great, but they also come with trade-offs. And also, not everyone use Zsh or Fish especially on SSH.
| Feature | IRIS | Shell plugins |
|---|---|---|
| Installation | Single binary | Plugin manager required |
| Shell support | Most shells supported | Usually shell-specific |
| Startup | No shell initialization | Increases shell startup time |
| SSH | One config | Per-shell config |
| Tmux | ✓ | Depends on the shell |
| Linux virtual terminals | ✓ | Depends on the shell |
- OS: Linux or macOS
- Terminal emulator with ANSI color support
- Go 1.24 or newer (if building from source)
Warning
Currently, Windows is not supported
Arch Linux (AUR)
IRIS is available on the Arch User Repository. You can install it using your favorite AUR helper:
yay -S iris-autocompleteOR
paru -S iris-autocompletemacOS / Linux (Homebrew)
Install IRIS via Homebrew tap:
brew install versenilvis/iris/irisNix Flakes
If you are using Nix Flakes, you can consume this module directly without building it manually.
-
In your
flake.nixinputs, add:iris.url = "github:versenilvis/iris/main";
-
Then, use one of the following options to add IRIS to your system:
Option A: Try without installing (ephemeral)
nix run github:versenilvis/iris
Option B: Install to your user profile
nix profile add github:versenilvis/iris
Option C: Using Home Manager (Ensure you pass
inputsto modules viaextraSpecialArgs)home.packages = [ inputs.iris.packages.${pkgs.system}.default ];
Option D: Without Home Manager (NixOS System) (Ensure you pass
inputsto modules viaspecialArgs)environment.systemPackages = [ inputs.iris.packages.${pkgs.system}.default ];
Debian / Ubuntu (.deb)
curl -sLO https://github.com/versenilvis/iris/releases/latest/download/iris_linux_amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i iris_linux_amd64.deb
rm iris_linux_amd64.deb(For ARM64 architecture, replace amd64 with arm64)
Fedora / RHEL (.rpm)
curl -sLO https://github.com/versenilvis/iris/releases/latest/download/iris_linux_amd64.rpm
sudo rpm -i iris_linux_amd64.rpm
rm iris_linux_amd64.rpm(For ARM64 architecture, replace amd64 with arm64)
Aqua
If you use aqua, you can install IRIS by adding it to your aqua.yaml:
packages:
- name: versenilvis/irisThen run aqua i.
asdf
If you use asdf, you can install IRIS via its plugin:
asdf plugin add iris https://github.com/versenilvis/asdf-iris.git
asdf install iris latest
asdf set -u iris latest
asdf current iriscurl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/versenilvis/iris/main/scripts/install.sh | shgo install github.com/versenilvis/iris/cmd/iris@latestgit clone https://github.com/versenilvis/iris.git
cd iris
just reloadiris updateChecks for and installs the latest release. To see what's changed first:
iris changelog # latest release
iris changelog -n 3 # last 3 releasesIRIS can also check for and install updates on its own - see updater.auto-update in the configuration guide below.
To completely uninstall IRIS, remove all configurations, and clean up your shell integration files, simply run:
iris uninstallWarning
IRIS may cause visual conflicts and keybinding overlaps with other shell autosuggestion plugins or third-party completion tools. To prevent this, please disable them safely (e.g., zsh-autosuggestions, zsh-autocomplete, atuin, flyline, ...)
Note
This is already added from installation script, but if your shell config is missing it, please add manually
To automatically start IRIS every time you open a new shell session, add the init command to your shell config:
Zsh (~/.zshrc):
eval "$(iris init zsh)"Bash (~/.bashrc):
eval "$(iris init bash)"Fish (~/.config/fish/config.fish):
iris init fish | sourceIRIS uses a clean TOML configuration file located at ~/.config/iris/config.toml
iris config init
iris config show[core]
version = 1 # config schema version
shell = "" # "zsh", "bash", "fish", or empty for auto-detect
shell-login = false # run shell as a login shell (also: iris --shell-login)
mode = "last" # "last", "spec", or "history"
debug = false # verbose logging to iris.log (also: iris -d)
expand-alias = true # expand aliases before matching
auto-execute = false # run suggestion immediately instead of inserting it
atuin-history = 0 # 0 = shell history, 1 = atuin, 2 = both
atuin-db-path = "" # path to atuin's history.db, empty = use default
cobra-probe-enabled = true # fall back to probing cobra binaries for completions
[ui]
style = "modern" # "modern" or "classic"
ghost-text = true # faded inline preview of top suggestion
hidden-files = false # include dotfiles in suggestions
max-suggestions = 100 # max suggestions ranked before display
max-height = 15 # max visible rows in the menu
max-width = 0 # max menu width, 0 = auto
nerd-fonts = true # use nerd-font icons
[keybindings]
toggle-mode = "ctrl+r" # switch spec/history mode
toggle-menu = "shift+tab" # show or hide the suggestion menu
select = "tab" # accept the selected suggestion
navigate-up = "up" # select up, or open history if empty
navigate-down = "down" # select down, or open history if empty
navigate-right = "right" # accept ghost text
[git]
filter-active-branch = true # exclude current branch from suggestions
deduplicate-branches = true # merge same-name local/remote branches
[updater]
check-on-startup = true # check for updates on startup
channel = "stable" # "stable" or "nightly"
check-interval = "24h" # min time between update checks
auto-update = 0 # 0 = off, 1 = auto-install, 2 = confirm first
[ai]
enabled = false
provider = "groq" # "groq" or "ollama"
debounce_ms = 400 # ms to wait before querying the AI
# please use free subscription, that is enough for your daily usage
[ai.providers.groq]
endpoint = "https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/chat/completions"
api_key_env = "GROQ_API_KEY" # or set api_key directly
model = "llama-3.3-70b-versatile"
timeout_ms = 3000 # ms before giving up
[ai.providers.ollama]
endpoint = "http://localhost:11434/v1/chat/completions"
model = "qwen2.5-coder"
timeout_ms = 5000 # ms before giving upNote
Using api_key_env is recommended over hardcoding api_key in plain text to keep credentials out of configuration files.
| Shortcut | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Shift + Tab | Toggle menu | Show or hide the suggestion menu. |
| Esc | Hide menu | Temporarily hide the menu until the next key press. |
| Tab | Accept suggestion | Insert the currently selected suggestion into the prompt. |
| Enter | Execute command | Close the menu and send the current command to the shell. |
| ↑ | Navigate up / history | Move the selection up, or open command history when the prompt is empty. |
| ↓ | Navigate down / history | Move the selection down, or open command history when the prompt is empty. |
| → | Accept ghost text | Accept the faded ghost text suggestion when the menu is open. |
| ← / → | Move cursor | Move the cursor inside the input buffer. Disabled when the prompt is empty |
| Ctrl + R | Switch mode | Toggle between spec and history mode. |
| Ctrl + A | Beginning of line | Move the cursor to the start of the command line. |
| Ctrl + E | End of line | Move the cursor to the end of the command line. |
| Ctrl + L | Clear screen | Clear the terminal while preserving the input buffer and redrawing the menu. |
| Ctrl + U | Clear command | Remove the entire current command and close the menu. |
| Ctrl + C | Cancel command | Send SIGINT, clear the input buffer, and close the menu. |
| Ctrl + W | Delete word | Delete the word immediately before the cursor. |
Note
With Ctrl + A, Ctrl + E, Ctrl + W, Ctrl + U, Ctrl + L, and Ctrl + C: they belong to your shell by default. IRIS handles them directly in raw mode so your cursor and menu stay in sync
Tip
We keep all available theme templates in the themes/ directory
Feel free to create your own theme or contribute a new color scheme by adding it to this directory
IRIS has theme TOML configuration file located at ~/.config/iris/theme.toml
iris theme initIRIS automatically falls back to the default theme if theme.toml is missing, empty, or contains missing configuration options
border = "#a277ff"
accent = "#61ffca"
muted = "#6d6a7f"
text = "#edecee"
text_sel = "#ffffff"
key = "#a277ff"
match = "#61ffca"
desc = "#9692a8"
desc_sel = "#edecee"
sel_bg = "#3d375e"
sel_text = "#110f18"
scroll_info = "#a277ff"
ghost_text = "#4B4A4C"
sys = "#1e1d28"
sys_sel = "#a277ff"
hist = "#1a2d36"
hist_sel = "#61ffca"
alias = "#2a2342"
alias_sel = "#a277ff"Note
IRIS also has 2 basic styles
| Modern style | Classic style |
Note
When submitting a bug report, please include:
- A detailed description of the bug and steps to reproduce it
- Relevant log files captured while running in debug mode
Run IRIS with debug mode:
iris -dor config.toml:
debug=trueImportant
Since IRIS logs everything you type, you should only enable debug mode when you need to report bugs
If IRIS crashes, it will automatically save a crash log and show the path on your terminal (~/.iris/crash.log). Or you can find the path to the latest crash log by running:
iris crash-logPlease include this file when reporting a crash.
For system architecture overview, engine design, and contribution guide, please refer to the Developer documentation.
This project is licensed under the 0BSD License - no strings attached. Meaning you can do whatever you want with it.
For those who fork it and want to publish a new version or something else; if you can, a credit or co-author mention is always welcome :) (though never required).
Thank you!
I'd love to hear your feedback
Feel free to reach out via: