iris

README

Comparison · Install · Shortcuts · Configuration · Reporting bugs

IRIS (Intelligent Real-time Input Suggestion) - A shell auto-completion tool that works like code editor's IntelliSense

👻 Ghostty terminal

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)

AI suggestions

IRIS has AI suggestions like your code editor (API key/Local)

Why IRIS instead of Fig

[!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

How it compares

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

Why not shell autocomplete plugins?

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

Install

Dependencies

• 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

Method 1: Package managers

Arch Linux (AUR)

IRIS is available on the Arch User Repository. You can install it using your favorite AUR helper:

yay -S iris-autocomplete

OR

paru -S iris-autocomplete

macOS / Linux (Homebrew)

Install IRIS via Homebrew tap:

brew install versenilvis/iris/iris

Nix Flakes

If you are using Nix Flakes, you can consume this module directly without building it manually.

1. In your flake.nix inputs, add:

   iris.url = "github:versenilvis/iris/main";
   

2. 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 inputs to modules via extraSpecialArgs)

   home.packages = [ inputs.iris.packages.${pkgs.system}.default ];
   

   Option D: Without Home Manager (NixOS System) (Ensure you pass inputs to modules via specialArgs)

   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/iris

Then 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 iris

Method 2: Install script (recommended)

curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/versenilvis/iris/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

Method 3: Go install

go install github.com/versenilvis/iris/cmd/iris@latest

Method 4: Build from source (for developers)

git clone https://github.com/versenilvis/iris.git
cd iris
just reload

Update

iris update

Checks for and installs the latest release. To see what's changed first:

iris changelog       # latest release
iris changelog -n 3  # last 3 releases

IRIS can also check for and install updates on its own - see updater.auto-update in the configuration guide below.

Uninstall

To completely uninstall IRIS, remove all configurations, and clean up your shell integration files, simply run:

iris uninstall

Shell setup

[!WARNING] 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 | source

Configuration guide

IRIS uses a clean TOML configuration file located at ~/.config/iris/config.toml

Creating & viewing config

iris config init
iris config show

Custom config location

config.toml and theme.toml are read from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/iris, falling back to ~/.config/iris. Point IRIS elsewhere with the --config-dir flag or the IRIS_CONFIG_DIR environment variable:

iris --config-dir ~/iris-profiles/work
IRIS_CONFIG_DIR=~/iris-profiles/work iris

The flag wins over the variable, and both win over XDG_CONFIG_HOME. iris config init, iris theme init and iris setup write into the chosen directory.

[!IMPORTANT] Use the environment variable for a whole session. Your shell rc starts IRIS with a bare exec iris, which drops any flags you typed earlier, while the environment survives. It is also what NixOS and other declarative setups should set.

The directory must exist, since a path that points nowhere is almost always a typo. The files inside are optional: an empty directory plus iris config init is the normal way to start a new profile.

State and history (~/.local/share/iris) are not affected, so profiles share the remembered mode and frecency ranking.

Sample config.toml

[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
navigate-closed = "history"    # menu closed: "history" browses iris history, "shell" hands the key to the shell (atuin)

[ui]
style = "modern"       # "modern" or "classic"
ghost-text = 1         # 0 = off, 1 = menu + ghost text, 2 = ghost text only
hidden-files = false   # include dotfiles in suggestions
max-suggestions = 100  # max suggestions ranked before display
max-height = 6         # max visible rows in the menu
max-width = 0          # menu width: columns (80) or a share ("80%"), 0 = default
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

[zoxide]
extend-cd = false  # complete `cd` from zoxide's database, not just the current directory

[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 up

[!NOTE] Using api_key_env is recommended over hardcoding api_key in plain text to keep credentials out of configuration files.

[!NOTE] ghost-text used to be a boolean. Existing configs keep working: true is read as 1 and false as 0, so there is nothing to change on upgrade.

Default shortcuts

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

Theme

😺 Kitty terminal

[!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

Creating theme config

iris theme init

theme.toml lives beside config.toml, so --config-dir and IRIS_CONFIG_DIR relocate it too.

Default theme

IRIS 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

Reporting bugs

[!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 -d

or config.toml:

debug=true

[!IMPORTANT] 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-log

Please include this file when reporting a crash.

Developer documentation

For system architecture overview, engine design, and contribution guide, please refer to the Developer documentation.

License

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!

Feedback

I'd love to hear your feedback

Feel free to reach out via:

• Email
• Twitter
• GitHub issues