Keyboard shortcuts

Press ← or → to navigate between chapters

Press S or / to search in the book

Press ? to show this help

Press Esc to hide this help

Installation

Welcome to the IntelliShell installation guide. Getting IntelliShell running on your system involves two main steps:

  1. Download the Binary: This places the intelli-shell executable on your machine.
  2. Configure Shell Integration: This involves updating your shell's profile (e.g., ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc) to source the init output that enables the interactive keybindings (ctrl+space, etc.).

The easiest way to perform both steps is with the official installer script.

Method 1: Installer Script

This is the fastest way to get started. The script automatically handles downloading the correct binary for your system and setting up the shell integration.

If you don't want the script to update the profile files, you can set INTELLI_SKIP_PROFILE=1 environment variable before installing.

Linux, macOS & Windows on sh-compatible shell (Bash, Zsh, Fish, Git Bash)

curl -sSf https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lasantosr/intelli-shell/main/install.sh | sh

After installing it on any shell, it should work in all of them.

Windows (PowerShell)

irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lasantosr/intelli-shell/main/install.ps1 | iex

After installing it with powershell, it should also work on cmd (without hotkeys).

The Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable is required. You can download it from Microsoft's official site. You may also need to run Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned -Scope CurrentUser if you haven't run remote scripts before.

Method 2: Building from Source

If you have the Rust toolchain installed, you can build and install the binary directly from crates.io.

cargo install intelli-shell --locked

To enable hotkeys integration, additional steps are required:

Details

Edit your profile to source the init output:

  • Bash: ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile

    eval "$(intelli-shell init bash)"

  • Zsh: ~/.zshrc

    eval "$(intelli-shell init zsh)"

  • Fish: ~/.config/fish/config.fish

    intelli-shell init fish | source

  • Powershell: $Profile

    iex ((intelli-shell init powershell) -join "`n")

Customizing Shell Integration

These variables customize the keybindings to integrate with IntehliShell. They should be set in your shell's profile file (e.g., ~/.bashrc, ~/.zshrc) before the line that sources the IntelliShell init command.

  • INTELLI_SEARCH_HOTKEY: Overrides the default ctrl+space hotkey for searching commands.
  • INTELLI_BOOKMARK_HOTKEY: Overrides the default ctrl+b hotkey to bookmark a command.
  • INTELLI_VARIABLE_HOTKEY: Overrides the default ctrl+l hotkey for replacing variables.
  • INTELLI_SKIP_ESC_BIND=1: Prevents IntelliShell from binding the esc key to clear the current line in the terminal.

For keybinding syntax, refer to your shell's documentation (bindkey for Zsh, bind for Bash). For example, to change the search hotkey in Bash, you would add the line export INTELLI_SEARCH_HOTKEY=\\C-t to your .bashrc.

Verify Your Installation

After installing, open a new terminal session to ensure the changes are loaded. You can verify that the intelli-shell binary is working by running:

intelli-shell --version

If the command is found and you can use shortcuts (if configured), you are ready to go! Let's move on to Basic Usage.