Shell completion

The varlock CLI supports tab completion for subcommands and flags. Setup is a one-time step per shell.

Global install required

Shell completions require varlock to be accessible on your system PATH — either via the standalone binary (Homebrew or cURL) or a global npm install (npm install -g varlock). They won’t work when varlock is only installed as a local project dependency (invoked via npx/bunx).

Generate a completion script with varlock complete <shell>, then install it using the instructions below for your shell.

After upgrading varlock, re-run varlock complete <shell> if new commands or flags were added.

Setup

Zsh

Zsh completion files must be named with a leading underscore:

mkdir -p ~/.zsh/completions
echo 'fpath=(~/.zsh/completions $fpath)' >> ~/.zshrc
echo 'autoload -U compinit && compinit' >> ~/.zshrc
varlock complete zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_varlock
source ~/.zshrc

Bash

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions
varlock complete bash > ~/.local/share/bash-completion/completions/varlock
source ~/.bashrc

Fish

mkdir -p ~/.config/fish/completions
varlock complete fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/varlock.fish

Fish loads completions automatically — restart your shell or open a new terminal to pick them up.

PowerShell

varlock complete powershell >> $PROFILE
. $PROFILE

What gets completed

Tab completion covers varlock subcommands and static flags (including enum choices like load --format).

Dynamic values — such as env var names from your schema — are not completed yet.

Troubleshooting

If completions stop working after an upgrade, regenerate the script:

npm

npm exec -- varlock complete zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_varlock

pnpm

pnpm exec -- varlock complete zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_varlock

bun

bunx varlock complete zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_varlock

vlt

vlx -- varlock complete zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_varlock

yarn

yarn exec -- varlock complete zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_varlock

standalone binary

varlock complete zsh > ~/.zsh/completions/_varlock

Replace zsh and the output path with your shell and install location.