shell-integration.md

Shell integration

cmdvault provides tab completion and a Ctrl+F keybinding for bash and zsh.

Setup

Zsh

Add to your ~/.zshrc:

source /path/to/cmdvault/shell/cmdvault.zsh

Bash

Add to your ~/.bashrc:

source /path/to/cmdvault/shell/cmdvault.bash

Replace /path/to/cmdvault with wherever you cloned the repo.

Tab completion

After sourcing the shell file, tab completion works on aliases:

cmdvault cont<TAB>
# completes to: cmdvault container-logs

After the alias, it falls back to file completion (for placeholder arguments).

Ctrl+F — cursor insertion

Pressing Ctrl+F opens the cmdvault picker in --print mode. When you select a command, it gets inserted at your current cursor position instead of being executed.

This is useful for composing commands:

$ docker exec -it my-container <Ctrl+F>
# → picker opens, you select "nmap scan", fill in the target
$ docker exec -it my-container nmap -sV -p 1-1000 192.168.1.1
#                               ↑ inserted here, ready to review and run

The command is inserted but not executed — you can edit it before pressing Enter.

How it works

The shell widget calls cmdvault --print and captures the output. In zsh, it appends to LBUFFER. In bash, it inserts at READLINE_POINT. Both handle the case where nothing is selected (Escape/Ctrl+C in the picker) cleanly.