Shell Autocomplete

Shell autocompletion makes using the Frontier CLI faster and more convenient by providing command and flag suggestions as you type.

Overview

The Frontier CLI supports shell autocompletion for:

Bash
Zsh
Fish
PowerShell

Autocompletion provides:

Command name completion
Subcommand completion
Flag name completion
Contextual suggestions

Bash

Linux

For Bash on Linux, the completion script depends on the bash-completion package.

Install bash-completion

sudo apt-get install bash-completion

Enable Frontier Completion

Option 1: Per-user installation

# Generate completion script
frontier completion bash > ~/.frontier-completion.bash

# Add to your ~/.bashrc
echo 'source ~/.frontier-completion.bash' >> ~/.bashrc

# Reload your shell
source ~/.bashrc

Option 2: System-wide installation

# Generate and install system-wide
sudo frontier completion bash > /etc/bash_completion.d/frontier

# Reload your shell
source ~/.bashrc

macOS

For Bash on macOS, you need to install bash-completion@2 via Homebrew.

Install bash-completion

brew install bash-completion@2

Enable Frontier Completion

# Generate completion script
frontier completion bash > $(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d/frontier

# Add to your ~/.bash_profile if not already present
echo 'export BASH_COMPLETION_COMPAT_DIR="$(brew --prefix)/etc/bash_completion.d"' >> ~/.bash_profile
echo '[[ -r "$(brew --prefix)/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh" ]] && . "$(brew --prefix)/etc/profile.d/bash_completion.sh"' >> ~/.bash_profile

# Reload your shell
source ~/.bash_profile

Zsh

Zsh is the default shell on macOS (Catalina and later) and is popular on Linux.

Enable Frontier Completion

Option 1: Using Oh My Zsh If you use Oh My Zsh:

# Create completions directory if it doesn't exist
mkdir -p ~/.oh-my-zsh/completions

# Generate completion script
frontier completion zsh > ~/.oh-my-zsh/completions/_frontier

# Reload your shell
source ~/.zshrc

Option 2: Manual installation

# Generate completion script to a file in your $fpath
frontier completion zsh > "${fpath[1]}/_frontier"

# Reload your shell
source ~/.zshrc

Option 3: Inline in .zshrc

# Add to ~/.zshrc
if [ $commands[frontier] ]; then
  source <(frontier completion zsh)
fi

# Reload your shell
source ~/.zshrc

Troubleshooting Zsh Completion

If completions aren’t working, ensure completion is enabled:

# Add to ~/.zshrc if not already present
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

If you get errors about insecure directories:

# Fix permissions
chmod -R 755 ~/.oh-my-zsh/completions
chmod 755 "${fpath[1]}"

# Or run compinit with -u flag (in ~/.zshrc)
compinit -u

Fish

Fish shell has built-in support for completions.

Enable Frontier Completion

# Generate and install completion script
frontier completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/frontier.fish

# Reload completions (or restart fish)
fish_update_completions

PowerShell

For Windows PowerShell or PowerShell Core.

Enable Frontier Completion

Option 1: Current user

# Generate completion script
frontier completion powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression

# Add to your PowerShell profile
Add-Content $PROFILE "frontier completion powershell | Out-String | Invoke-Expression"

Option 2: Save to file

# Create profile directory if it doesn't exist
$profileDir = Split-Path $PROFILE
if (!(Test-Path $profileDir)) {
    New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $profileDir
}

# Generate completion script
frontier completion powershell > $profileDir\frontier-completion.ps1

# Add to your PowerShell profile
Add-Content $PROFILE ". $profileDir\frontier-completion.ps1"

Generating Completion Scripts

You can generate completion scripts for all supported shells using the hidden completion command:

frontier completion [bash|zsh|fish|powershell]

The completion command is not shown in frontier --help output but is available for use.

Examples

frontier completion bash > frontier-completion.bash

Using Autocompletion

Once configured, autocompletion works as follows:

Command Completion

Press Tab after typing frontier to see available commands:

$ frontier <Tab>
config          group           namespace       organization    policy          role            server          version

Subcommand Completion

Press Tab after a command to see subcommands:

$ frontier server <Tab>
init            keygen          migrate         migrate-rollback start

Flag Completion

Press Tab after -- to see available flags:

$ frontier server start --<Tab>
--config        --help

Contextual Completion

Autocompletion is context-aware. For example, after typing a command that requires a file:

$ frontier user create --file <Tab>
# Shows available files in current directory

Verification

To verify that autocompletion is working:

Type frontier and press Tab - you should see a list of commands
Type frontier server and press Tab - you should see server subcommands
Type frontier server start -- and press Tab - you should see available flags

Example Session

# Start typing and press Tab
$ frontier ser<Tab>
$ frontier server <Tab>
init            keygen          migrate         migrate-rollback start

$ frontier server st<Tab>
$ frontier server start --<Tab>
--config        --help

$ frontier server start --config <Tab>
config.yaml     config-prod.yaml

Troubleshooting

Bash

Problem: Completion not working Solutions:

Verify bash-completion is installed:

dpkg -l | grep bash-completion  # Debian/Ubuntu
rpm -qa | grep bash-completion  # RHEL/Fedora

Check that completion script is sourced:
```
grep frontier ~/.bashrc
```
Manually source the completion:
```
source ~/.frontier-completion.bash
```

Zsh

Problem: Completion not working Solutions:

Verify completion is in your $fpath:
```
echo $fpath
```
Check that compinit is called in .zshrc:
```
grep compinit ~/.zshrc
```
Rebuild completion cache:
```
rm -f ~/.zcompdump
compinit
```
Check permissions:
```
ls -la "${fpath[1]}/_frontier"
```

Fish

Problem: Completion not working Solutions:

Verify completion file exists:

ls ~/.config/fish/completions/frontier.fish

Reload completions:
```
fish_update_completions
```
Check Fish version (3.0+ recommended):
```
fish --version
```

PowerShell

Problem: Completion not working Solutions:

Verify profile exists:
```
Test-Path $PROFILE
```

Check execution policy:

Get-ExecutionPolicy
# If restricted, set to RemoteSigned:
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser

Reload profile:
```
. $PROFILE
```

General Issues

Problem: Completions are outdated after Frontier update Solution: Regenerate the completion script:

# For Bash
frontier completion bash > ~/.frontier-completion.bash
source ~/.bashrc

# For Zsh
frontier completion zsh > ~/.oh-my-zsh/completions/_frontier
rm -f ~/.zcompdump && compinit

# For Fish
frontier completion fish > ~/.config/fish/completions/frontier.fish
fish_update_completions

Advanced Configuration

Custom Completion Location

You can place completion scripts in custom locations:

Bash

# Custom location
frontier completion bash > ~/my-completions/frontier.bash

# Add to ~/.bashrc
source ~/my-completions/frontier.bash

Zsh

# Custom location
mkdir -p ~/my-completions
frontier completion zsh > ~/my-completions/_frontier

# Add to ~/.zshrc before compinit
fpath=(~/my-completions $fpath)
autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

Lazy Loading (Zsh)

For faster shell startup, you can lazy-load completions:

# Add to ~/.zshrc
function frontier() {
    unfunction frontier
    source <(command frontier completion zsh)
    command frontier "$@"
}

Next Steps

CLI Overview

Learn about CLI capabilities

Commands Reference

Browse all available commands

Installation

Install the Frontier CLI

CLI Reference

​Overview

​Bash

​Linux

​Install bash-completion

​Enable Frontier Completion

​macOS

​Install bash-completion

​Enable Frontier Completion

​Zsh

​Enable Frontier Completion

​Troubleshooting Zsh Completion

​Fish

​Enable Frontier Completion

​PowerShell

​Enable Frontier Completion

​Generating Completion Scripts

​Examples

​Using Autocompletion

​Command Completion

​Subcommand Completion

​Flag Completion

​Contextual Completion

​Verification

​Example Session

​Troubleshooting

​Bash

​Zsh

​Fish

​PowerShell

​General Issues

​Advanced Configuration

​Custom Completion Location

​Bash

​Zsh

​Lazy Loading (Zsh)

​Next Steps

CLI Overview

Commands Reference

Installation

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Overview

Bash

Linux

Install bash-completion

Enable Frontier Completion

macOS

Install bash-completion

Enable Frontier Completion

Zsh

Enable Frontier Completion

Troubleshooting Zsh Completion

Fish

Enable Frontier Completion

PowerShell

Enable Frontier Completion

Generating Completion Scripts

Examples

Using Autocompletion

Command Completion

Subcommand Completion

Flag Completion

Contextual Completion

Verification

Example Session

Troubleshooting

Bash

Zsh

Fish

PowerShell

General Issues

Advanced Configuration

Custom Completion Location

Bash

Zsh

Lazy Loading (Zsh)

Next Steps