Shell integration

The shell/ directory contains key bindings and fuzzy completion scripts for Bash, Zsh, and Fish. The Go binary embeds them via //go:embed and prints them when invoked with --bash, --zsh, or --fish. The recommended setup line is:

# bash
eval "$(fzf --bash)"
# zsh
source <(fzf --zsh)
# fish
fzf --fish | source

Files

shell/
├── common.sh              # Helpers shared across bash + zsh
├── completion.bash        # bash fuzzy completion
├── completion.zsh         # zsh fuzzy completion
├── completion.fish        # fish fuzzy completion
├── key-bindings.bash      # Ctrl-T / Ctrl-R / Alt-C for bash
├── key-bindings.zsh       # ditto for zsh
├── key-bindings.fish      # ditto for fish
└── update.sh              # Splices common.sh into per-shell scripts

The shell scripts are also included in the binary as embedded []byte slices in main.go:

//go:embed shell/key-bindings.bash
var bashKeyBindings []byte
//go:embed shell/completion.bash
var bashCompletion []byte
// ... and similar for zsh, fish, and the man page

Key bindings

Binding	Effect
Ctrl-T	Pick file paths under the current directory and insert at the cursor.
Ctrl-R	Pick a command from shell history.
Alt-C	Pick a directory and cd into it.

Each binding has corresponding *_COMMAND and *_OPTS env vars to override the source command and the fzf options:

• FZF_CTRL_T_COMMAND, FZF_CTRL_T_OPTS
• FZF_CTRL_R_COMMAND, FZF_CTRL_R_OPTS
• FZF_ALT_C_COMMAND, FZF_ALT_C_OPTS

The bindings in shell/key-bindings.bash, key-bindings.zsh, and key-bindings.fish are intentionally similar in shape; they all call into __fzf_select__, __fzf_history__, and __fzf_cd__ (or shell-equivalent functions).

Fuzzy completion

The completion scripts override the shell's tab-completion machinery. Typing **<TAB> (the configurable FZF_COMPLETION_TRIGGER) anywhere on the command line opens fzf with a relevant source list:

Context	Source
cd **<TAB>, pushd **<TAB>	Directories.
vim **<TAB>, cat **<TAB>, generic file completion	Files and directories.
kill **<TAB>	Process IDs.
ssh **<TAB>, telnet **<TAB>	Hostnames from ~/.ssh/config, /etc/hosts.
unset **<TAB>, export **<TAB>, unalias **<TAB>	Environment variables / aliases.
Custom	Defined via _fzf_complete_<command>.

Bash and Zsh share most of the implementation; the splicing is done by shell/update.sh. Fish has a separate, narrower implementation because of fish's different completion API.

Tunable env vars include FZF_COMPLETION_TRIGGER, FZF_COMPLETION_OPTS, FZF_COMPLETION_PATH_OPTS, and FZF_COMPLETION_DIR_OPTS.

How common.sh is shared

shell/common.sh defines __fzf_defaults, __fzf_exec_awk, and other helpers. The bash and zsh scripts splice it inline using markers:

#----BEGIN INCLUDE common.sh
# NOTE: Do not directly edit this section, which is copied from "common.sh".
# To modify it, one can edit "common.sh" and run "./update.sh" to apply
# the changes. See code comments in "common.sh" for the implementation details.
...
#----END INCLUDE

shell/update.sh rewrites the include blocks; make fmt invokes it; make lint runs shell/update.sh --check to catch out-of-sync edits.

Tests

test/test_shell_integration.rb drives all three shells through tmux (the CI installs bash zsh fish for this). Tests assert that Ctrl-T/Ctrl-R/Alt-C produce the expected output and that completion replaces the trigger correctly.

Useful environment variables

• FZF_DEFAULT_COMMAND — used by all key bindings as the default source if the per-binding *_COMMAND is unset.
• FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS / FZF_DEFAULT_OPTS_FILE — default flags applied to every fzf invocation.
• FZF_TMUX / FZF_TMUX_HEIGHT / FZF_TMUX_OPTS — when set, the bindings invoke fzf-tmux instead of fzf so the picker pops in a tmux split.
• FZF_COMPLETION_TRIGGER — change **<TAB> to your preferred sequence.

Where it lives

Concern	File
Bash key bindings	shell/key-bindings.bash
Bash completion	shell/completion.bash
Zsh key bindings	shell/key-bindings.zsh
Zsh completion	shell/completion.zsh
Fish key bindings	shell/key-bindings.fish
Fish completion	shell/completion.fish
Shared helpers	shell/common.sh
Splicing tool	shell/update.sh
Embedding	main.go (//go:embed)
Tests	test/test_shell_integration.rb