Shell completion

The varlock CLI supports tab completion for subcommands and flags. There are two ways to get it, depending on how varlock is installed:

• varlock on your PATH (standalone binary or global npm install): install varlock’s own completion script. See Setup below.
• varlock as a local project dependency (run via pnpm exec, npm exec, bun x, scripts, etc.): completion comes from your package manager’s completion instead. See Local project installs.

Setup

Use this when varlock is on your PATH, installed via the standalone binary (Homebrew or cURL) or a global npm install (npm install -g varlock).

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.

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

Local project installs

When varlock is only a local dependency (not on your PATH), you run it through your package manager: pnpm exec varlock …, npm exec varlock …, bun x varlock …, or a package.json script. In that case completion comes from your package manager’s completion, which delegates to varlock automatically. You don’t install anything varlock-specific; varlock already speaks the completion protocol that package-manager completion uses.

Set up completion for your package manager once, using @bomb.sh/tab:

npm install -g @bomb.sh/tab

# zsh (swap in npm / yarn / bun and bash / fish / powershell as needed)
echo 'source <(tab pnpm zsh)' >> ~/.zshrc
source ~/.zshrc

Now pnpm exec varlock <TAB>, pnpm dlx varlock <TAB>, and bare pnpm varlock <TAB> complete varlock’s subcommands and flags. The same works for npm exec, yarn, and bun x.

npx / bunx aren’t covered

Completion is registered against the package-manager binary (npm, pnpm, yarn, bun). npx and bunx are separate commands with no completion of their own, so npx varlock <TAB> / bunx varlock <TAB> won’t complete. Use npm exec varlock / bun x varlock instead.

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.