Completions

Example¶

Here’s an excerpt from the HTML completions:

{
        "scope": "text.html - source - meta.tag, punctuation.definition.tag.begin",

        "completions":
        [
                { "trigger": "a", "contents": "<a href="$1">$0</a>" },
                { "trigger": "abbr", "contents": "<abbr>$0</abbr>" },
                { "trigger": "acronym", "contents": "<acronym>$0</acronym>" }
        ]
}

• scope
• Determines when the completions list will be populated with this list of completions. See Scopes for more information.

In the example above, we’ve used trigger-based completions only, but completions files support simple completions too. Simple completions are just plain strings. Expanding our example with a few simple completions, we’d end up with a list like so:

{
        "scope": "text.html - source - meta.tag, punctuation.definition.tag.begin",

        "completions":
        [
                { "trigger": "a", "contents": "<a href="$1">$0</a>" },
                { "trigger": "abbr", "contents": "<abbr>$0</abbr>" },
                { "trigger": "acronym", "contents": "<acronym>$0</acronym>" },

                "ninja",
                "robot",
                "pizza"
        ]
}

Priority of Sources for Completions¶

This is the order in which completions are prioritized:

• Snippets
• API-injected completions
• .sublime-completions files
• Words in buffer

Snippets will always win if the current prefix matches their tab trigger exactly. For the rest of the completions sources, a fuzzy match is performed. Also, snippets will always lose against a fuzzy match. Note that this is only relevant if the completion is going to be inserted automatically. When the completions list is shown, snippets will be listed along the other items, even if the prefix only partially matches the snippets’ tab triggers.

The Completions List¶

The completions list (Ctrl+spacebar) may work in two ways: by bringing up a list of suggested words to be completed, or by inserting the best match directly.

If the choice of best completion is ambiguous, an interactive list will be presented to the user, who will have to select an item himself. Unlike other items, snippets in this list are displayed in this format: <tab_trigger> : <name>, where <tab_trigger> and <name> are variable.

The completion with Ctrl+spacebar will only be automatic if the list of completion candidates can be narrowed down to one unambiguous choice given the current prefix.

Tab-completed Completions¶

If you want to be able to tab-complete completions, the setting tab_completion must be set to true. By default, tab_completion is set to true. Snippet tab-completion is unaffected by this setting: they will always be completed according to their tab trigger.

With tab_completion enabled, completion of items is always automatic, which means that, unlike in the case of the completions list, Sublime Text will always make a decision for you. The rules to select the best completion are the same as above, but in case of ambiguity, Sublime Text will still insert the item deemed most suitable.