Warning

nvim-compe is now deprecated. Please use nvim-cmp the successor of nvim-compe.

nvim-compe still works but new feature and bugfixes will be stopped.

nvim-compe

Auto completion plugin for nvim.

Table Of Contents

• Concept
• Features
• Usage
  • Prerequisite
    • Vim script Config
    • Lua Config
  • Mappings
  • Highlight
• Built-in sources
  • Common
  • Neovim-specific
  • External-plugin
• External sources
• Known issues
• FAQ
  • Can't get sorting to work correctly
  • How to use LSP snippet?
  • How to use tab to navigate completion menu?
  • How to expand snippets from completion menu?
  • How to automatically select the first match?
• Demo
  • Auto Import
  • LSP + Magic Completion
  • Buffer Source Completion
  • Calc Completion
  • Nvim Lua Completion
  • Vsnip Completion
  • Snippets.nvim Completion
  • Treesitter Completion
  • Tag Completion
  • Spell Completion

Concept

• Simple core
• No flicker
• Lua source & Vim source
• Better matching algorithm
• Support LSP completion features (trigger character, isIncomplete, expansion)
• Respect VSCode/LSP API design

Features

• VSCode compatible expansion handling
  • rust-analyzer's Magic completion
  • vscode-html-languageserver-bin's closing tag completion
  • Other complex expansion are supported
• Flexible Custom Source API
  • The source can support documentation / resolve / confirm
• Better fuzzy matching algorithm
  • gu can be matched get_user
  • fmodify can be matched fnamemodify
  • See matcher.lua for implementation details
• Buffer source carefully crafted
  • The buffer source will index buffer words by filetype specific regular expression if needed

Usage

Detailed docs in here or :help compe.

Prerequisite

Neovim version 0.5.0 or above.

You must set completeopt to menuone,noselect which can be easily done as follows.

Using Vim script

set completeopt=menuone,noselect

Using Lua

vim.o.completeopt = "menuone,noselect"

The source option is required if you want to enable but others can be omitted.

Vim script Config

let g:compe = {}
let g:compe.enabled = v:true
let g:compe.autocomplete = v:true
let g:compe.debug = v:false
let g:compe.min_length = 1
let g:compe.preselect = 'enable'
let g:compe.throttle_time = 80
let g:compe.source_timeout = 200
let g:compe.resolve_timeout = 800
let g:compe.incomplete_delay = 400
let g:compe.max_abbr_width = 100
let g:compe.max_kind_width = 100
let g:compe.max_menu_width = 100
let g:compe.documentation = v:true

let g:compe.source = {}
let g:compe.source.path = v:true
let g:compe.source.buffer = v:true
let g:compe.source.calc = v:true
let g:compe.source.nvim_lsp = v:true
let g:compe.source.nvim_lua = v:true
let g:compe.source.vsnip = v:true
let g:compe.source.ultisnips = v:true
let g:compe.source.luasnip = v:true
let g:compe.source.emoji = v:true

Lua Config

require'compe'.setup {
  enabled = true;
  autocomplete = true;
  debug = false;
  min_length = 1;
  preselect = 'enable';
  throttle_time = 80;
  source_timeout = 200;
  resolve_timeout = 800;
  incomplete_delay = 400;
  max_abbr_width = 100;
  max_kind_width = 100;
  max_menu_width = 100;
  documentation = {
    border = { '', '' ,'', ' ', '', '', '', ' ' }, -- the border option is the same as `|help nvim_open_win|`
    winhighlight = "NormalFloat:CompeDocumentation,FloatBorder:CompeDocumentationBorder",
    max_width = 120,
    min_width = 60,
    max_height = math.floor(vim.o.lines * 0.3),
    min_height = 1,
  };

  source = {
    path = true;
    buffer = true;
    calc = true;
    nvim_lsp = true;
    nvim_lua = true;
    vsnip = true;
    ultisnips = true;
    luasnip = true;
  };
}

Mappings

inoremap <silent><expr> <C-Space> compe#complete()
inoremap <silent><expr> <CR>      compe#confirm('<CR>')
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-e>     compe#close('<C-e>')
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-f>     compe#scroll({ 'delta': +4 })
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-d>     compe#scroll({ 'delta': -4 })

If you use cohama/lexima.vim

" NOTE: Order is important. You can't lazy loading lexima.vim.
let g:lexima_no_default_rules = v:true
call lexima#set_default_rules()
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-Space> compe#complete()
inoremap <silent><expr> <CR>      compe#confirm(lexima#expand('<LT>CR>', 'i'))
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-e>     compe#close('<C-e>')
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-f>     compe#scroll({ 'delta': +4 })
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-d>     compe#scroll({ 'delta': -4 })

If you use Raimondi/delimitMate

inoremap <silent><expr> <C-Space> compe#complete()
inoremap <silent><expr> <CR>      compe#confirm({ 'keys': "\<Plug>delimitMateCR", 'mode': '' })
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-e>     compe#close('<C-e>')
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-f>     compe#scroll({ 'delta': +4 })
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-d>     compe#scroll({ 'delta': -4 })

If you use windwp/nvim-autopairs

inoremap <silent><expr> <C-Space> compe#complete()
inoremap <silent><expr> <CR>      compe#confirm(luaeval("require 'nvim-autopairs'.autopairs_cr()"))
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-e>     compe#close('<C-e>')
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-f>     compe#scroll({ 'delta': +4 })
inoremap <silent><expr> <C-d>     compe#scroll({ 'delta': -4 })

Highlight

You can change documentation window's highlight group via following.

highlight link CompeDocumentation NormalFloat

Built-in sources

Common

• buffer
• path
• tags
• spell
• calc
• omni (Warning: It has a lot of side-effect.)

Neovim-specific

• nvim_lsp
• nvim_lua

External-plugin

• vim_lsp
• vim_lsc
• vim-vsnip
• ultisnips
• snippets.nvim
• luasnip
• nvim-treesitter (Warning: it sometimes really slow.)

External sources

• tabnine
• zsh
• conjure
• dadbod
• latex-symbols
• tmux
• vCard
• lbdb

Known issues

You can see the known issues in here.

• OS related
• Server related
• Upstream issue
• Next version

Note: The next-version means nvim-cmp now.

FAQ

Can't get it work.

If you are enabling the omni source, please try to disable it.

Incredibly lagging.

If you are enabling the treesitter source, please try to disable it.

Does not work function signature window.

The signature help is out of scope of compe. It should be another plugin e.g. lsp_signature.nvim

If you are enabling the treesitter source, please try to disable it.

How to remove Pattern not found?

You can set set shortmess+=c in your vimrc.

How to use LSP snippet?

1. Set snippetSupport=true for LSP capabilities.

   local capabilities = vim.lsp.protocol.make_client_capabilities()
   capabilities.textDocument.completion.completionItem.snippetSupport = true
   capabilities.textDocument.completion.completionItem.resolveSupport = {
     properties = {
       'documentation',
       'detail',
       'additionalTextEdits',
     }
   }
   
   require'lspconfig'.rust_analyzer.setup {
     capabilities = capabilities,
   }

2. Install vim-vsnip

   Plug 'hrsh7th/vim-vsnip'

   or snippets.nvim

   Plug 'norcalli/snippets.nvim'

   or UltiSnips

   Plug 'SirVer/ultisnips'

   or LuaSnip

   Plug 'L3MON4D3/LuaSnip'

How to use tab to navigate completion menu?

Tab and S-Tab keys need to be mapped to <C-n> and <C-p> when completion menu is visible. Following example will use Tab and S-Tab (shift+tab) to navigate completion menu and jump between vim-vsnip placeholders when possible:

local t = function(str)
  return vim.api.nvim_replace_termcodes(str, true, true, true)
end

local check_back_space = function()
    local col = vim.fn.col('.') - 1
    return col == 0 or vim.fn.getline('.'):sub(col, col):match('%s') ~= nil
end

-- Use (s-)tab to:
--- move to prev/next item in completion menuone
--- jump to prev/next snippet's placeholder
_G.tab_complete = function()
  if vim.fn.pumvisible() == 1 then
    return t "<C-n>"
  elseif vim.fn['vsnip#available'](1) == 1 then
    return t "<Plug>(vsnip-expand-or-jump)"
  elseif check_back_space() then
    return t "<Tab>"
  else
    return vim.fn['compe#complete']()
  end
end
_G.s_tab_complete = function()
  if vim.fn.pumvisible() == 1 then
    return t "<C-p>"
  elseif vim.fn['vsnip#jumpable'](-1) == 1 then
    return t "<Plug>(vsnip-jump-prev)"
  else
    -- If <S-Tab> is not working in your terminal, change it to <C-h>
    return t "<S-Tab>"
  end
end

vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("i", "<Tab>", "v:lua.tab_complete()", {expr = true})
vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("s", "<Tab>", "v:lua.tab_complete()", {expr = true})
vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("i", "<S-Tab>", "v:lua.s_tab_complete()", {expr = true})
vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("s", "<S-Tab>", "v:lua.s_tab_complete()", {expr = true})

How to expand snippets from completion menu?

Use compe#confirm() mapping, as described in section Mappings.

How to automatically select the first match?

compe#confirm() with the select option set to true will select the first item when none has been manually selected. For example:

vim.api.nvim_set_keymap("i", "<CR>", "compe#confirm({ 'keys': '<CR>', 'select': v:true })", { expr = true })

ESC does not close the completion menu

Another plugin might be interfering with it. vim-autoclose does this. You can check the mapping of <ESC> by running

imap <ESC>

vim-autoclose's function looks similar to this:

<Esc> *@pumvisible() ? '<C-E>' : '<C-R>=<SNR>110_FlushBuffer()<CR><Esc>'

In the particular case of vim-autoclose, the problem can be fixed by adding this setting:

let g:AutoClosePumvisible = {"ENTER": "<C-Y>", "ESC": "<ESC>"}

Other plugins might need other custom settings.

Demo

Auto Import

LSP + rust_analyzer's Magic Completion

Buffer Source Completion

Calc Completion

Nvim Lua Completion

Vsnip Completion

Snippets.nvim Completion

Treesitter Completion

Tag Completion

Spell Completion