Shell (!) mode: Tab should trigger normal terminal completion, not switch to Issues
- Dominant language
- Shell
- Stars
- 11.2k
- Forks
- 1.9k
- Avg merge
- 14h 16m
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 6
Description
### Describe the feature or problem you'd like to solve
When executing a shell command directly by prefixing it with ! , pressing Tab does not behave like a normal terminal's tab-completion (completing file/directory paths, commands, or flags). Instead, it switches focus/navigation to the Issues view within the CLI. This breaks the expected muscle-memory of a shell prompt and makes it harder to quickly complete paths or commands while working in ! shell mode.
### Proposed solution
When a command is prefixed with ! (direct shell execution), pressing Tab currently gets intercepted by Copilot CLI's own UI (switching focus/view to Issues) instead of being passed through to the underlying shell for standard completion (file paths, commands, flags — like a normal terminal). Since ! is meant to give a raw shell pass-through experience, Tab keystrokes while in that mode should be forwarded to the shell's native completion instead of being captured by the CLI's own keybindings.
### Example prompts or workflows
1. In the Copilot CLI, type !cd ../../projects/my- and press Tab — expected: shell completes the path to the matching directory, same as typing it directly in a terminal.
2. Type !git chec and press Tab — expected: shell completes to git checkout (or cycles matches), not a switch to the Issues panel.
3. Type !ls src/ and press Tab to cycle through files/folders in src/ — expected: standard filename completion, same as bash/zsh/PowerShell.
### Additional context
_No response_
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by tracing Tab handling in ! shell mode and the keybinding that switches to the Issues view; the issue does not name a file or test. Verify the behavior with the listed path, git checkout, and src/ completion workflows, and consider the work done when Tab uses the underlying shell's normal completion instead of changing CLI views.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- shell
- Domain
- cli
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Quiet
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 55/100