Minibuffer Confines Transcended (mct.el)

Next:   [Index]

Minibuffer Confines Transcended (mct.el)

Copyright (C) 2021 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover Texts being “A GNU Manual,” and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License.”

(a) The FSF’s Back-Cover Text is: “You have the freedom to copy and modify this GNU manual.”

This manual, written by Protesilaos Stavrou, describes the customization options for ‘mct’ (or ‘mct.el’ and variants), and provides every other piece of information pertinent to it.

The documentation furnished herein corresponds to stable version 1.0.0, released on 2023-09-24. Any reference to a newer feature which does not yet form part of the latest tagged commit, is explicitly marked as such.

Current development target is 1.1.0-dev.

If you are viewing the README.org version of this file, please note that the GNU ELPA machinery automatically generates an Info manual out of it.


1 Overview of MCT

Minibuffer and Completions in Tandem, also known as “MCT”, “Mct”, ‘mct’, or ‘mct.el’, is a package that enhances the default minibuffer and ‘*Completions*’ buffer of Emacs 28 (or higher) so that they work together as part of a unified framework. The idea is to make the presentation and overall functionality be consistent with other popular, vertically aligned completion UIs while leveraging built-in functionality.

The main feature set that unifies the minibuffer and the ‘*Completions*’ buffer consists of commands that cycle between the two, making it seem like they are part of a contiguous space (Basic usage).

MCT tries to find a middle ground between the frugal defaults and the more opinionated completion UIs. This is most evident in its approach on how to present completion candidates. Instead of showing them outright or only displaying them on demand, MCT implements a minimum input threshold as well as a slight delay before it pops up the ‘*Completions*’ buffer and starts updating it to respond to user input.


2 Customizations

MCT is highly configurable to adapt to the varying needs of users. This section documents each user option.


2.1 Live completion

Brief: Control auto-display and live-update of the ‘*Completions*’ buffer.

Symbol: mct-live-completion (‘choice’ type)

Possible values:

  1. nil
  2. t (default)
  3. visible

This user option governs the overall behaviour of MCT with regard to how it uses the Completions’ buffer:

  • When nil, the user has to manually request completions, using the regular activating commands (Usage). The Completions’ buffer is never updated live to match user input. Updating has to be handled manually. This is like the out-of-the-box minibuffer completion experience.
  • When set to visible, the Completions’ buffer is live updated only if it is visible (present in a window). The actual display of the completions is still handled manually. For this reason, the visible style does not read the mct-minimum-input, meaning that it will always try to live update the visible completions, regardless of input length (Minimum input threshold).
  • When non-nil (the default), the Completions’ buffer is automatically displayed once the mct-minimum-input is met and is hidden if the input drops below that threshold. While visible, the buffer is updated live to match the user’s input.

Note that every command or completion category that is declared in the mct-completion-passlist ignores this option altogether. This means that every such symbol will always show the Completions’ buffer automatically and will always update its contents live to match any further user input (Passlist for commands or completion categories). Same principle for the mct-completion-blocklist, which will always disable both the automatic display and live updating of the Completions’ buffer (Blocklist for commands or completion categories).

Size boundaries of the Completions.


2.2 Minimum input threshold

Brief: Try to live update completions when input is >= N.

Symbol: mct-minimum-input (‘natnum’ type)

By default, MCT expects the user to type ‘3’ characters before it tries to compute completion candidates, display the ‘*Completions*’ buffer and keep it updated live to match any subsequent input.

Setting this user option to a value greater than 1 can help reduce the total number of candidates that are being computed. That is because the Completions can consist of thousands of items that all need to be rendered at once in a buffer.

In terms of the user experience, the minimum input threshold can make sessions feel less visually demanding when the user (i) knows what they are looking for and (ii) types fast enough so that the ‘*Completions*’ never have the time to pop up.

This variable is ignored for commands or completion categories that are specified in the mct-completion-passlist and mct-completion-blocklist.

Live updates per command or completion category.


2.3 Delay between live updates

Brief: Delay in seconds before updating the Completions’ buffer.

Symbol: mct-live-update-delay (‘number’ type)

The delay in seconds between live updates of the Completions’ buffer. The default value is ‘0.3’.

This variable is ignored for commands or completion categories that are specified in the mct-completion-passlist and mct-completion-blocklist.

Live updates per command or completion category.


2.4 Live updates per command or completion category

By default, MCT has the same behaviour across all types of completion. Specifically, it respects the mct-live-completion option on whether and when to perform live completion, the mct-minimum-input threshold before doing so, and the mct-live-update-delay between changes to the ‘*Completions*’ buffer.

Live completion.

Minimum input threshold.

Delay between live updates.

A passlist and a blocklist can override those options for the commands or categories specified.


2.4.1 Passlist for commands or completion categories

Brief: List of symbols where live completions are always enabled.

Symbol: mct-completion-passlist (‘repeat symbol’ type)

The value of this user option is a list of symbols. Those can refer to commands like find-file or completion categories such as file, buffer, or what other packages define like Consult’s consult-location category.

Any entry in the passlist ignores the value of mct-live-completion and the mct-minimum-input. It also bypasses any possible delay introduced by mct-live-update-delay. In other words, it immediately displays the ‘*Completions*’ buffer and instantly updates it to match user input.

When the mct-completion-blocklist and the mct-completion-passlist are in conflict, the former takes precedence.

Known completion categories.


2.4.2 Blocklist for commands or completion categories

Brief: List of symbols where live completions are always disabled.

Symbol: mct-completion-blocklist (‘repeat symbol’ type)

The value of this user option is a list of symbols. Those can refer to commands like find-file or completion categories such as file, buffer, or what other packages define like Consult’s consult-location category.

This means that they ignore mct-live-completion. They do not automatically display the Completions’ buffer, nor do they update it to match user input.

The Completions’ buffer can still be accessed with commands that place it in a window (such as mct-list-completions-toggle, mct-switch-to-completions-top).

When the mct-completion-blocklist and the mct-completion-passlist are in conflict, the former takes precedence.

Perhaps a less drastic measure is to set mct-minimum-input to an appropriate value. Or better use mct-completion-passlist.

Known completion categories.


2.4.3 Known completion categories

Below are the known completion categories that can be added to the mct-completion-passlist and mct-completion-blocklist (and relevant custom code). This resource is non-exhaustive and will be updated to match available information.

  • bookmark
  • buffer
  • charset
  • coding-system
  • color
  • command (e.g. ‘M-x’)
  • customize-group
  • environment-variable
  • expression
  • face
  • file
  • function (the describe-function command bound to ‘C-h f’)
  • info-menu
  • imenu
  • input-method
  • kill-ring
  • library
  • minor-mode
  • multi-category
  • package
  • project-file
  • symbol (the describe-symbol command bound to ‘C-h o’)
  • theme
  • unicode-name (the insert-char command bound to ‘C-x 8 RET’)
  • variable (the describe-variable command bound to ‘C-h v’)

From the ‘consult’ package:

  • consult-grep
  • consult-isearch
  • consult-isearch
  • consult-kmacro
  • consult-location

From the ‘embark’ package:

  • embark-keybinding

In general, it is best not to add symbols which include several thousands of candidates to the passlist. So no command, function, symbol, unicode-name, variable.

When in doubt, do not add a symbol to either the pass- or block- list.

Find completion category.


2.4.4 Find completion category

While using a command that provides a minibuffer prompt, type ‘M-:’ (the eval-expression command) and evaluate ‘(mct--completion-category)’. It will return the completion category, if any. Note that this only works when the variable enable-recursive-minibuffers is non-nil.

To review echo area messages, use ‘C-h e’ (view-echo-area-messages).

Known completion categories.


2.5 Size boundaries of the Completions

Brief: Set the maximum and minimum height of the Completions’ buffer.

Symbol: mct-completion-window-size (‘choice’ type between nil and cons cell)

The value is a cons cell in the form of ‘(max-height . min-height)’ where each value is either a natural number or a function which returns such a number.

The default maximum height of the window is calculated by the function mct--frame-height-fraction, which finds the closest round number to 1/3 of the frame’s height. While the default minimum height is 1. This means that during live completions the Completions’ window will shrink or grow to show candidates within the specified boundaries. To disable this bouncing effect, set both max-height and min-height to the same number.

If nil, do not try to fit the Completions’ buffer to its window.

Live completion.


2.6 Dynamic completion tables in mct-mode

Brief: Whether to keep dynamic completion live.

Symbol: mct-persist-dynamic-completion (‘boolean’ type)

Possible values:

  1. nil
  2. t (default)

Without any intervention from MCT, the default Emacs behavior for commands such as find-file or for a file completion category is to hide the ‘*Completions*’ buffer after updating the list of candidates in a non-exiting fashion (e.g. select a directory and expect to continue typing the path). This, however, runs contrary to the interaction model of MCT when it performs live completions, because the user expects the Completions’ buffer to remain visible while typing out the path to the file (Live completion).

When this user option is non-nil (the default) it makes all non-exiting commands keep the ‘*Completions*’ visible when updating the list of candidates.

This applies to prompts in the file completion category whenever the user selects a candidate with mct-choose-completion-no-exit, mct-edit-completion, minibuffer-complete, minibuffer-force-complete (i.e. any command that does not exit the minibuffer).

Selecting candidates with mct-mode.

The two exceptions are (i) when the current completion session runs a command or category that is blocked by the mct-completion-blocklist or (ii) the user option mct-live-completion is nil.

Blocklist for commands or completion categories.

The underlying rationale:

Most completion commands present a flat list of candidates to choose from. Picking a candidate concludes the session. Some prompts, however, can recalculate the list of completions based on the selected candidate. A case in point is find-file (or any command with the file completion category) which dynamically adjusts the completions to show only the elements which extend the given file system path. We call such cases “dynamic completion”. Due to their particular nature, these need to be handled explicitly. The present user option is provided primarily to raise awareness about this state of affairs.


2.7 Hide the Completions mode line

Brief: Do not show a mode line in the Completions’ buffer.

Symbol: mct-hide-completion-mode-line (‘boolean’ type)

By default, the ‘*Completions*’ buffer has its own mode line, just like every other window. Set this user option to non-nil to remove the mode line.


2.8 Remove shadowed file paths

Brief: Delete shadowed parts of file names from the minibuffer.

Symbol: mct-remove-shadowed-file-names (‘boolean’ type)

When the built-in file-name-shadow-mode is enabled and this user option is non-nil, MCT will delete the part of the file path that is shadowed (meaning that it is overriden) by the given input.

For example, if the user types ‘~/’ after a long path name, everything preceding the ‘~/’ is removed so the interactive selection process starts again from the user’s ‘$HOME’.


2.9 MCT in the minibuffer and completion in regular buffers

Emacs draws a distinction between two types of completion sessions:

  • Completion where the minibuffer is involved (such as to switch buffers or find a file).
  • Completion in a regular buffer to expand the text before point. The minibuffer is not active. We call this “in-buffer completion” or allude to the underlying function: completion-in-region.

The former scenario is what MCT has supported since its inception. Enable mct-mode to get started. There was a time where MCT also supported in-buffer completion but this was discontinued in version ‘1.0.0’ of the package as Emacs 29 gained the requisite capabilities. To get the familiar MCT key bindings for in-buffer completion, use these in your init file:

;; Get the key bindings
(let ((map completion-in-region-mode-map))
  (define-key map (kbd "C-n") #'minibuffer-next-completion)
  (define-key map (kbd "C-p") #'minibuffer-previous-completion)
  (define-key map (kbd "RET") #'minibuffer-choose-completion))

;; Tweak the appearance
(setq completions-format 'one-column)
(setq completion-show-help nil)
(setq completion-auto-help t)

;; Optionally, tweak the appearance further
(setq completions-detailed t)
(setq completion-show-inline-help nil)
(setq completions-max-height 6)
(setq completions-highlight-face 'completions-highlight)

Note that the in-buffer completions will produce a new buffer window below the current one. Some users find this intrusive. In such a case, the use of a popup box is better. Consider the corfu package by Daniel Mendler, which uses such a popup (Alternatives).


3 Usage

This section outlines the various patterns of interaction that MCT establishes.


3.1 Cyclic behaviour for mct-mode

When mct-mode is enabled, some new keymaps are activated which add commands for cycling between the minibuffer and the completions. Suppose the following standard layout:

-----------------
|        |      |
| Buffers| Buf  |
|        |      |
-----------------
|        |      |
| Buf    | Buf  |
|        |      |
-----------------
-----------------
|               |
|  Completions  |
|               |
-----------------
-----------------
|  Minibuffer   |
-----------------

When inside the minibuffer, pressing ‘C-n’ (or down arrow) takes you to the top of the completions, while ‘C-p’ (or up arrow) moves to the bottom. The commands are mct-switch-to-completions-top for the former and mct-switch-to-completions-bottom for the latter. If the ‘*Completions*’ are not shown, then the buffer pops up automatically and point moves to the given position.

Similarly, while inside the ‘*Completions*’ buffer, ‘C-p’ (or up arrow) at the top of the buffer switches to the minibuffer, while ‘C-n’ (or down arrow) at the bottom of the buffer also goes to the minibuffer. If point is anywhere else inside the buffer, those key bindings perform a regular line motion (if the ‘*Completions*’ are set to a grid view, then the left and right arrow keys perform the corresponding lateral motions). The commands are mct-previous-completion-or-mini and mct-next-completion-or-mini. Both accept an optional numeric argument. If the Nth line lies outside the boundaries of the completions’ buffer, they move the point to the minibuffer.

The display of the ‘*Completions*’ can be toggled at any time from inside the minibuffer with ‘C-l’ (mnemonic is “[l]ist completions” and the command is mct-list-completions-toggle).


3.2 Selecting candidates with mct-mode

There are several ways to select a completion candidate with mct-mode.

  1. Suppose that you are typing ‘mod’ with the intent to select the ‘modus-themes.el’ buffer. To complete the candidate follow up ‘mod’ with the ‘TAB’ key (minibuffer-complete). If the match is unique, the text will be expanded. Otherwise the ‘*Completions*’ buffer will appear. This does not exit the minibuffer, meaning that it does not confirm your choice. To confirm your choice, use ‘RET’. If you ever make a mistake and expand the wrong candidate, just use undo. Lastly note that if the candidates meet the completion-cycle-threshold hitting ‘TAB’ again will switch between them.
  2. While cycling through the completions’ buffer, type ‘RET’ to select and confirm the current candidate (mct-choose-completion-exit). This works for all types of completion prompts.
  3. Similar to the above, but without exiting the minibuffer (i.e. to confirm your choice) is mct-choose-completion-no-exit which is bound to ‘TAB’ in the completions’ buffer. This is particularly useful for certain contexts where selecting a candidate does not necessarily mean that the process has to be finalised (e.g. when using find-file). In those cases, the event triggered by ‘TAB’ is followed by the renewal of the list of completions, where relevant (e.g. ‘TAB’ over a directory in find-file, which then shows the contents of that directory).

    The command can correctly expand completion candidates even when the active style in completion-styles is ‘partial-completion’. In other words, if the minibuffer contains input like ‘~/G/P/m’ and the point is in the completions’ buffer over ‘Git/Projects/mct/’ the minibuffer’ contents will become ‘~/Git/Projects/mct/’ and then show the contents of that directory.

  4. Type ‘M-e’ (mct-edit-completion) in the completions’ buffer to place the current candidate in the minibuffer, without exiting the session. This allows you to edit the text before confirming it. If point is in the minibuffer before performing this action, the current candidate is either the one at the top of the completions’ buffer or that which is under the last known point in said buffer (the last known position is reset when the window is deleted). Internally, mct-edit-completion uses mct-choose-completion-no-exit to expand the completion candidate, so it retains its behaviour (as explained right above).

    Sometimes there is a need to switch to the minibuffer without selecting the candidate at point, such as to retype some part of the input. In those cases, type ‘e’ in the completions’ buffer to move to the minibuffer. The command is called mct-focus-minibuffer, which can also be assigned to the global keymap, though MCT leaves such a decision up to the user (same for mct-focus-mini-or-completions).

  5. In prompts that allow the selection of multiple candidates (internally via the completing-read-multiple function) using ‘M-RET’ (mct-choose-completion-dwim) in the ‘*Completions*’ will append the candidate at point to the list of selections and keep the completions available so that another item may be selected. Any of the aforementioned applicable methods can confirm the final selection. If, say, you want to pick a total of three candidates, do ‘M-RET’ for the first two and ‘RET’ (mct-choose-completion-exit) for the last one. In contexts that are not CRM-powered, the ‘M-RET’ has the same effect as ‘TAB’ (mct-choose-completion-no-exit).

    Indicator for completing-read-multiple.

  6. When point is at the minibuffer, select the current candidate in the completions buffer with ‘C-RET’ (mct-complete-and-exit), which has the same effect as first completing with ‘TAB’ and then immediately exit the minibuffer with the completed candidate as the selected one.
  7. Emacs 28 has the ability to group candidates inside the completions’ buffer under headings. For example, the Consult package makes use of those (Third-party extensions). MCT provides motions that jump between such headings, placing the point at the first candidate right below the heading’s text. Use ‘M-n’ (mct-next-completion-group) and ‘M-p’ (mct-previous-completion-group) to move to the next or previous one, respectively (also work with they keys for forward-paragraph and backward-paragraph). Both commands accept an optional numeric argument. For the sake of avoiding surprises, these commands do not cycle between the completions and the minibuffer: they stop at the first or last heading.

4 Installation


4.1 Install the package

mct’ is available on the official GNU ELPA archive for users of Emacs version 27 or higher. One can install the package without any further configuration. The following commands shall suffice:

M-x package-refresh-contents
M-x package-install RET mct

A package is also available via Guix:

guix package -i emacs-mct

Previous: , Up: Installation   [Index]

4.2 Manual installation method

Assuming your Emacs files are found in ‘~/.emacs.d/’, execute the following commands in a shell prompt:

cd ~/.emacs.d

# Create a directory for manually-installed packages
mkdir manual-packages

# Go to the new directory
cd manual-packages

# Clone this repo and name it "mct"
git clone https://git.sr.ht/~protesilaos/mct mct

Finally, in your ‘init.el’ (or equivalent) evaluate this:

;; Make Elisp files in that directory available to the user.
(add-to-list 'load-path "~/.emacs.d/manual-packages/mct")

Everything is in place to set up the package.


5 Sample setup

Minimal setup for the minibuffer and in-buffer completion:

(require 'mct)
(mct-mode 1)

And with more options:

(require 'mct)

(setq mct-completion-window-size (cons #'mct-frame-height-third 1))
(setq mct-remove-shadowed-file-names t) ; works when `file-name-shadow-mode' is enabled
(setq mct-hide-completion-mode-line t)
(setq mct-minimum-input 3)
(setq mct-live-completion t)
(setq mct-live-update-delay 0.6)
(setq mct-persist-dynamic-completion t)

;; This is for commands or completion categories that should always pop
;; up the completions' buffer.  It circumvents the default method of
;; waiting for some user input (see `mct-minimum-input') before
;; displaying and updating the completions' buffer.
(setq mct-completion-passlist
      '(;; Some commands
        Info-goto-node
        Info-index
        Info-menu
        vc-retrieve-tag
        ;; Some completion categories
        imenu
        file
        buffer
        kill-ring
        consult-location))

;; The blocklist follows the same principle as the passlist, except it
;; disables live completions altogether.
(setq mct-completion-blocklist nil)

(mct-mode 1)

Other useful extras from the Emacs source code (read their doc strings):

(setq completion-styles
      '(basic substring initials flex partial-completion))
(setq completion-category-overrides
      '((file (styles . (basic partial-completion initials substring)))))

(setq completion-cycle-threshold 2)
(setq completion-ignore-case t)
(setq completion-show-inline-help nil)

(setq completions-detailed t)

(setq enable-recursive-minibuffers t)
(setq minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default t)

(setq read-buffer-completion-ignore-case t)
(setq read-file-name-completion-ignore-case t)

(setq resize-mini-windows t)
(setq minibuffer-eldef-shorten-default t)

(file-name-shadow-mode 1)
(minibuffer-depth-indicate-mode 1)
(minibuffer-electric-default-mode 1)

;; Do not allow the cursor in the minibuffer prompt
(setq minibuffer-prompt-properties
      '(read-only t cursor-intangible t face minibuffer-prompt))

(add-hook 'minibuffer-setup-hook #'cursor-intangible-mode)

;;; Minibuffer history
(require 'savehist)
(setq savehist-file (locate-user-emacs-file "savehist"))
(setq history-length 500)
(setq history-delete-duplicates t)
(setq savehist-save-minibuffer-history t)
(add-hook 'after-init-hook #'savehist-mode)

;;; Third-party extensions

;;;; Enable Consult previews in the Completions buffer.
;; Requires the `consult' package.
(add-hook 'completion-list-mode-hook #'consult-preview-at-point-mode)

;;;; Setup for Orderless
;; Requires the `orderless' package

;; We make the SPC key insert a literal space and the same for the
;; question mark.  Spaces are used to delimit orderless groups, while
;; the quedtion mark is a valid regexp character.
(let ((map minibuffer-local-completion-map))
  (define-key map (kbd "SPC") nil)
  (define-key map (kbd "?") nil))

;; Because SPC works for Orderless and is trivial to activate, I like to
;; put `orderless' at the end of my `completion-styles'.  Like this:
(setq completion-styles
      '(basic substring initials flex partial-completion orderless))
(setq completion-category-overrides
      '((file (styles . (basic partial-completion orderless)))))

6 Keymaps

MCT defines its own keymaps, which extend those that are active in the minibuffer and the ‘*Completions*’ buffer, respectively:

You can invoke describe-keymap to learn more about them.

If you want to edit any key bindings, do it in these keymaps, not in those they extend and override (the names of the original ones are the same as above, minus the ‘mct-’ prefix).


7 User-level tweaks or custom code

In this section we cover custom code that builds on what MCT offers.


7.1 Sort completion candidates on Emacs 29

Starting with Emacs 29 (current development target), the user option completions-sort controls the sorting method of candidates in the ‘*Completions*’ buffer. Beside the default of using string-lessp, it accepts a custom function. Consider any of the following examples:

;; Some sorting functions...
(defun my-sort-by-alpha-length (elems)
  "Sort ELEMS first alphabetically, then by length."
  (sort elems (lambda (c1 c2)
                (or (string-version-lessp c1 c2)
                    (< (length c1) (length c2))))))

(defun my-sort-by-history (elems)
  "Sort ELEMS by minibuffer history.
Use `mct-sort-sort-by-alpha-length' if no history is available."
  (if-let ((hist (and (not (eq minibuffer-history-variable t))
                      (symbol-value minibuffer-history-variable))))
      (minibuffer--sort-by-position hist elems)
    (my-sort-by-alpha-length elems)))

(defun my-sort-multi-category (elems)
  "Sort ELEMS per completion category."
  (pcase (mct--completion-category)
    ('nil elems) ; no sorting
    ('kill-ring elems)
    ('project-file (my-sort-by-alpha-length elems))
    (_ (my-sort-by-history elems))))

;; Specify the sorting function.
(setq completions-sort #'my-sort-multi-category)

Known completion categories.


7.2 Indicator for completing-read-multiple

Previous versions of MCT would prepend a ‘[CRM]’ tag to the minibuffer prompt of commands powered by completing-read-multiple. While this is a nice usability enhancement, it is not specific to MCT and thus should not be part of ‘mct.el’. Use this in your init file instead:

;; Add prompt indicator to `completing-read-multiple'.  We display
;; [`completing-read-multiple': <separator>], e.g.,
;; [`completing-read-multiple': ,] if the separator is a comma.  This
;; is adapted from the README of the `vertico' package by Daniel
;; Mendler.  I made some small tweaks to propertize the segments of
;; the prompt.
(defun crm-indicator (args)
  (cons (format "[`crm-separator': %s]  %s"
                (propertize
                 (replace-regexp-in-string
                  "\\`\\[.*?]\\*\\|\\[.*?]\\*\\'" ""
                  crm-separator)
                 'face 'error)
                (car args))
        (cdr args)))

(advice-add #'completing-read-multiple :filter-args #'crm-indicator)

7.3 Ido-style navigation through directories

Older versions of MCT had a command for file navigation that would delete the whole directory component before point, effectively going back up one directory. While the functionality can be useful, it is not integral to the MCT experience and thus should not belong in ‘mct.el’. Add this to your own configuration file instead:

;; Adaptation of `icomplete-fido-backward-updir'.
(defun my-backward-updir ()
  "Delete char before point or go up a directory."
  (interactive nil mct-mode)
  (cond
   ((and (eq (char-before) ?/)
         (eq (mct--completion-category) 'file))
    (when (string-equal (minibuffer-contents) "~/")
      (delete-minibuffer-contents)
      (insert (expand-file-name "~/"))
      (goto-char (line-end-position)))
    (save-excursion
      (goto-char (1- (point)))
      (when (search-backward "/" (minibuffer-prompt-end) t)
        (delete-region (1+ (point)) (point-max)))))
   (t (call-interactively 'backward-delete-char))))

(define-key minibuffer-local-filename-completion-map (kbd "DEL") #'my-backward-updir)

8 Third-party extensions

MCT only tweaks the default minibuffer. To get more out of it, consider these exceptionally well-crafted extras:

Consult by Daniel Mendler

Adds several commands that make interacting with the minibuffer more powerful. There also are multiple packages that build on it, such as consult-dir by Karthik Chikmagalur and consult-notmuch by José Antonio Ortega Ruiz.

Embark by Omar Antolín Camarena

Provides configurable contextual actions for completions and many other constructs inside buffers. A genius package!

Marginalia by Daniel and Omar

Displays informative annotations for all known types of completion candidates.

Orderless by Omar

A completion style that matches a variety of patterns (regexp, flex, initialism, etc.) regardless of the order they appear in.

all-the-icons-completion by Itai Y. Efrat

Glue code that adds icons from the ‘all-the-icons’ package to the ‘*Completions*’ buffer. It can make things prettier and/or more informative, while it can also be combined with Marginalia.

MCT does not support the use-case of completion-in-region. This is the kind of completion session that is done inside the buffer and does not involve the minibuffer. However, you may prefer:

Corfu by Daniel Mendler

An interface for the completion-in-region which uses a child frame (basically a pop-up) at the position of the cursor to display candidates. As with all of Daniel’s packages, Corfu aims for a clean implementation that does the right thing by being consistent with core Emacs mechanisms.

Cape also by Daniel

Additional completion-at-point-functions (CAPFs) that extend those of core Emacs. These backends can be used by packages that visualise completion-in-region.


8.1 Enable Consult previews

One of the nice features of the Consult package is the ability to preview the candidate at point. All we need to enable it in the ‘*Completions*’ buffer is the following snippet:

(add-hook 'completion-list-mode-hook #'consult-preview-at-point-mode)

9 Alternatives

In the grand scheme of things, it may be helpful to think of MCT as proof-of-concept on how the default Emacs completion can become more expressive. MCT’s value rests in its potential to inspire developers to (i) patch Emacs so that its out-of-the-box completion is more interactive, and (ii) expose the shortcomings in the current implementation of the ‘*Completions*’ buffer, which should again provide an impetus for further changes to Emacs. Otherwise, MCT is meant for users who can tolerate the status quo and simply want a thin layer of interactivity for minibuffer completion, in-buffer completion, and their intersection with the Completions’ buffer.

Like MCT, these alternatives provide a thin layer of functionality over the built-in infrastructure. Unlike MCT, they are not constrained by the design of the ‘*Completions*’ buffer and concomitant functionality. They all make for a natural complement to the standard Emacs experience (also Extensions).

Vertico by Daniel Mendler

this is a more mature and feature-rich package with a large user base and a highly competent maintainer.

Vertico has some performance optimizations on how candidates are sorted and presented, which means that it displays results right away without any noticeable performance penalty. Whereas MCT does not change the underlying behaviour of how candidates are displayed. As such, MCT will be slower in scenaria where there are lots of candidates because core Emacs lacks those optimizations. One such case is with the describe-symbol (‘C-h o’) prompt. If the user asks for the completions’ buffer without inputting any character (so without narrowing the list), there will be a noticeable delay before the buffer is rendered. This is mitigated in MCT by the requirement for mct-minimum-input, though the underlying mechanics remain intact.

In terms of the interaction model, the main difference between Vertico and MCT is that the former uses the minibuffer by default and shows the completions there. The minibuffer is expanded to show the candidates in a vertical list. Whereas MCT keeps the ‘*Completions*’ buffer and the minibuffer as separate entities, the way standard Emacs does it.

The presence of a fully fledged buffer means that the user can invoke all relevant commands at their disposal, such as to write the buffer to a file for future review, use Isearch to move around, copy a string or rectangle to a register, and so on.

Vertico has official extensions which can make it work exactly like MCT without any of MCT’s drawbacks. These extensions can also expand Vertico’s powers such as by providing granular control over the exact style of presentation for any given completion category (e.g. display Imenu in a separate buffer, show the switch-to-buffer list horizontally in the minibuffer, and present find-file in a vertical list—whatever the user wants).

All things considered, there is no compelling reason why one may prefer MCT over Vertico in terms of the available functionality: Vertico is better.

Icomplete and fido-mode (built-in, multiple authors)

Icomplete is closer in spirit to Vertico, as it too uses the minibuffer to display completion candidates. By default, it presents the list horizontally, though there exists icomplete-vertical-mode (and fido-vertical-mode).

For our purposes, Icomplete and Fido are the same in terms of the paradigm they follow. The latter is a re-spin of the former, as it adjusts certain variables and binds some commands for the convenience of the end-user. fido-mode and its accoutrements are defined in ‘icomplete.el’.

What MCT borrows from Icomplete is for the input delay (explained elsewhere in this document). Internally, I also learnt how to extend local keymaps by studying ‘icomplete.el’.

I had used Icomplete for several months before moving to what now has become ‘mct.el’. I think it is excellent at providing a thin layer over the built-in infrastructure.


10 Acknowledgements

MCT is meant to be a collective effort. Every bit of help matters.

Author/maintainer

Protesilaos Stavrou.

Contributions to code or documentation

Daniel Mendler, James Norman Vladimir Cash, José Antonio Ortega Ruiz, Juri Linkov, Philip Kaludercic, Tomasz Hołubowicz.

Ideas and user feedback

Andrew Tropin, Benjamin (@zealotrush), Case Duckworth, Chris Burroughs, Jonathan Irving, José Antonio Ortega Ruiz, Kostadin Ninev, Manuel Uberti, Morgan Willcock, Philip Kaludercic, Theodor Thornhill, Tomasz Hołubowicz, Z.Du. As well as users: danrobi11.

Packaging

Andrew Tropin and Nicolas Goaziou (Guix).

Inspiration for certain features

icomplete.el’ (built-in—multiple authors), Daniel Mendler (‘vertico’), Omar Antolín Camarena (‘embark’, ‘live-completions’).


11 Official sources

Manual

https://protesilaos.com/emacs/mct

Change log

https://protesilaos.com/emacs/mct-changelog

Source code

https://git.sr.ht/~protesilaos/mct

Mailing list

https://lists.sr.ht/~protesilaos/mct


Appendix A GNU Free Documentation License

Version 1.3, 3 November 2008
Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
https://fsf.org/

Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies
of this license document, but changing it is not allowed.
  1. PREAMBLE

    The purpose of this License is to make a manual, textbook, or other functional and useful document free in the sense of freedom: to assure everyone the effective freedom to copy and redistribute it, with or without modifying it, either commercially or noncommercially. Secondarily, this License preserves for the author and publisher a way to get credit for their work, while not being considered responsible for modifications made by others.

    This License is a kind of “copyleft”, which means that derivative works of the document must themselves be free in the same sense. It complements the GNU General Public License, which is a copyleft license designed for free software.

    We have designed this License in order to use it for manuals for free software, because free software needs free documentation: a free program should come with manuals providing the same freedoms that the software does. But this License is not limited to software manuals; it can be used for any textual work, regardless of subject matter or whether it is published as a printed book. We recommend this License principally for works whose purpose is instruction or reference.

  2. APPLICABILITY AND DEFINITIONS

    This License applies to any manual or other work, in any medium, that contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it can be distributed under the terms of this License. Such a notice grants a world-wide, royalty-free license, unlimited in duration, to use that work under the conditions stated herein. The “Document”, below, refers to any such manual or work. Any member of the public is a licensee, and is addressed as “you”. You accept the license if you copy, modify or distribute the work in a way requiring permission under copyright law.

    A “Modified Version” of the Document means any work containing the Document or a portion of it, either copied verbatim, or with modifications and/or translated into another language.

    A “Secondary Section” is a named appendix or a front-matter section of the Document that deals exclusively with the relationship of the publishers or authors of the Document to the Document’s overall subject (or to related matters) and contains nothing that could fall directly within that overall subject. (Thus, if the Document is in part a textbook of mathematics, a Secondary Section may not explain any mathematics.) The relationship could be a matter of historical connection with the subject or with related matters, or of legal, commercial, philosophical, ethical or political position regarding them.

    The “Invariant Sections” are certain Secondary Sections whose titles are designated, as being those of Invariant Sections, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. If a section does not fit the above definition of Secondary then it is not allowed to be designated as Invariant. The Document may contain zero Invariant Sections. If the Document does not identify any Invariant Sections then there are none.

    The “Cover Texts” are certain short passages of text that are listed, as Front-Cover Texts or Back-Cover Texts, in the notice that says that the Document is released under this License. A Front-Cover Text may be at most 5 words, and a Back-Cover Text may be at most 25 words.

    A “Transparent” copy of the Document means a machine-readable copy, represented in a format whose specification is available to the general public, that is suitable for revising the document straightforwardly with generic text editors or (for images composed of pixels) generic paint programs or (for drawings) some widely available drawing editor, and that is suitable for input to text formatters or for automatic translation to a variety of formats suitable for input to text formatters. A copy made in an otherwise Transparent file format whose markup, or absence of markup, has been arranged to thwart or discourage subsequent modification by readers is not Transparent. An image format is not Transparent if used for any substantial amount of text. A copy that is not “Transparent” is called “Opaque”.

    Examples of suitable formats for Transparent copies include plain ASCII without markup, Texinfo input format, LaTeX input format, SGML or XML using a publicly available DTD, and standard-conforming simple HTML, PostScript or PDF designed for human modification. Examples of transparent image formats include PNG, XCF and JPG. Opaque formats include proprietary formats that can be read and edited only by proprietary word processors, SGML or XML for which the DTD and/or processing tools are not generally available, and the machine-generated HTML, PostScript or PDF produced by some word processors for output purposes only.

    The “Title Page” means, for a printed book, the title page itself, plus such following pages as are needed to hold, legibly, the material this License requires to appear in the title page. For works in formats which do not have any title page as such, “Title Page” means the text near the most prominent appearance of the work’s title, preceding the beginning of the body of the text.

    The “publisher” means any person or entity that distributes copies of the Document to the public.

    A section “Entitled XYZ” means a named subunit of the Document whose title either is precisely XYZ or contains XYZ in parentheses following text that translates XYZ in another language. (Here XYZ stands for a specific section name mentioned below, such as “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”, “Endorsements”, or “History”.) To “Preserve the Title” of such a section when you modify the Document means that it remains a section “Entitled XYZ” according to this definition.

    The Document may include Warranty Disclaimers next to the notice which states that this License applies to the Document. These Warranty Disclaimers are considered to be included by reference in this License, but only as regards disclaiming warranties: any other implication that these Warranty Disclaimers may have is void and has no effect on the meaning of this License.

  3. VERBATIM COPYING

    You may copy and distribute the Document in any medium, either commercially or noncommercially, provided that this License, the copyright notices, and the license notice saying this License applies to the Document are reproduced in all copies, and that you add no other conditions whatsoever to those of this License. You may not use technical measures to obstruct or control the reading or further copying of the copies you make or distribute. However, you may accept compensation in exchange for copies. If you distribute a large enough number of copies you must also follow the conditions in section 3.

    You may also lend copies, under the same conditions stated above, and you may publicly display copies.

  4. COPYING IN QUANTITY

    If you publish printed copies (or copies in media that commonly have printed covers) of the Document, numbering more than 100, and the Document’s license notice requires Cover Texts, you must enclose the copies in covers that carry, clearly and legibly, all these Cover Texts: Front-Cover Texts on the front cover, and Back-Cover Texts on the back cover. Both covers must also clearly and legibly identify you as the publisher of these copies. The front cover must present the full title with all words of the title equally prominent and visible. You may add other material on the covers in addition. Copying with changes limited to the covers, as long as they preserve the title of the Document and satisfy these conditions, can be treated as verbatim copying in other respects.

    If the required texts for either cover are too voluminous to fit legibly, you should put the first ones listed (as many as fit reasonably) on the actual cover, and continue the rest onto adjacent pages.

    If you publish or distribute Opaque copies of the Document numbering more than 100, you must either include a machine-readable Transparent copy along with each Opaque copy, or state in or with each Opaque copy a computer-network location from which the general network-using public has access to download using public-standard network protocols a complete Transparent copy of the Document, free of added material. If you use the latter option, you must take reasonably prudent steps, when you begin distribution of Opaque copies in quantity, to ensure that this Transparent copy will remain thus accessible at the stated location until at least one year after the last time you distribute an Opaque copy (directly or through your agents or retailers) of that edition to the public.

    It is requested, but not required, that you contact the authors of the Document well before redistributing any large number of copies, to give them a chance to provide you with an updated version of the Document.

  5. MODIFICATIONS

    You may copy and distribute a Modified Version of the Document under the conditions of sections 2 and 3 above, provided that you release the Modified Version under precisely this License, with the Modified Version filling the role of the Document, thus licensing distribution and modification of the Modified Version to whoever possesses a copy of it. In addition, you must do these things in the Modified Version:

    1. Use in the Title Page (and on the covers, if any) a title distinct from that of the Document, and from those of previous versions (which should, if there were any, be listed in the History section of the Document). You may use the same title as a previous version if the original publisher of that version gives permission.
    2. List on the Title Page, as authors, one or more persons or entities responsible for authorship of the modifications in the Modified Version, together with at least five of the principal authors of the Document (all of its principal authors, if it has fewer than five), unless they release you from this requirement.
    3. State on the Title page the name of the publisher of the Modified Version, as the publisher.
    4. Preserve all the copyright notices of the Document.
    5. Add an appropriate copyright notice for your modifications adjacent to the other copyright notices.
    6. Include, immediately after the copyright notices, a license notice giving the public permission to use the Modified Version under the terms of this License, in the form shown in the Addendum below.
    7. Preserve in that license notice the full lists of Invariant Sections and required Cover Texts given in the Document’s license notice.
    8. Include an unaltered copy of this License.
    9. Preserve the section Entitled “History”, Preserve its Title, and add to it an item stating at least the title, year, new authors, and publisher of the Modified Version as given on the Title Page. If there is no section Entitled “History” in the Document, create one stating the title, year, authors, and publisher of the Document as given on its Title Page, then add an item describing the Modified Version as stated in the previous sentence.
    10. Preserve the network location, if any, given in the Document for public access to a Transparent copy of the Document, and likewise the network locations given in the Document for previous versions it was based on. These may be placed in the “History” section. You may omit a network location for a work that was published at least four years before the Document itself, or if the original publisher of the version it refers to gives permission.
    11. For any section Entitled “Acknowledgements” or “Dedications”, Preserve the Title of the section, and preserve in the section all the substance and tone of each of the contributor acknowledgements and/or dedications given therein.
    12. Preserve all the Invariant Sections of the Document, unaltered in their text and in their titles. Section numbers or the equivalent are not considered part of the section titles.
    13. Delete any section Entitled “Endorsements”. Such a section may not be included in the Modified Version.
    14. Do not retitle any existing section to be Entitled “Endorsements” or to conflict in title with any Invariant Section.
    15. Preserve any Warranty Disclaimers.

    If the Modified Version includes new front-matter sections or appendices that qualify as Secondary Sections and contain no material copied from the Document, you may at your option designate some or all of these sections as invariant. To do this, add their titles to the list of Invariant Sections in the Modified Version’s license notice. These titles must be distinct from any other section titles.

    You may add a section Entitled “Endorsements”, provided it contains nothing but endorsements of your Modified Version by various parties—for example, statements of peer review or that the text has been approved by an organization as the authoritative definition of a standard.

    You may add a passage of up to five words as a Front-Cover Text, and a passage of up to 25 words as a Back-Cover Text, to the end of the list of Cover Texts in the Modified Version. Only one passage of Front-Cover Text and one of Back-Cover Text may be added by (or through arrangements made by) any one entity. If the Document already includes a cover text for the same cover, previously added by you or by arrangement made by the same entity you are acting on behalf of, you may not add another; but you may replace the old one, on explicit permission from the previous publisher that added the old one.

    The author(s) and publisher(s) of the Document do not by this License give permission to use their names for publicity for or to assert or imply endorsement of any Modified Version.

  6. COMBINING DOCUMENTS

    You may combine the Document with other documents released under this License, under the terms defined in section 4 above for modified versions, provided that you include in the combination all of the Invariant Sections of all of the original documents, unmodified, and list them all as Invariant Sections of your combined work in its license notice, and that you preserve all their Warranty Disclaimers.

    The combined work need only contain one copy of this License, and multiple identical Invariant Sections may be replaced with a single copy. If there are multiple Invariant Sections with the same name but different contents, make the title of each such section unique by adding at the end of it, in parentheses, the name of the original author or publisher of that section if known, or else a unique number. Make the same adjustment to the section titles in the list of Invariant Sections in the license notice of the combined work.

    In the combination, you must combine any sections Entitled “History” in the various original documents, forming one section Entitled “History”; likewise combine any sections Entitled “Acknowledgements”, and any sections Entitled “Dedications”. You must delete all sections Entitled “Endorsements.”

  7. COLLECTIONS OF DOCUMENTS

    You may make a collection consisting of the Document and other documents released under this License, and replace the individual copies of this License in the various documents with a single copy that is included in the collection, provided that you follow the rules of this License for verbatim copying of each of the documents in all other respects.

    You may extract a single document from such a collection, and distribute it individually under this License, provided you insert a copy of this License into the extracted document, and follow this License in all other respects regarding verbatim copying of that document.

  8. AGGREGATION WITH INDEPENDENT WORKS

    A compilation of the Document or its derivatives with other separate and independent documents or works, in or on a volume of a storage or distribution medium, is called an “aggregate” if the copyright resulting from the compilation is not used to limit the legal rights of the compilation’s users beyond what the individual works permit. When the Document is included in an aggregate, this License does not apply to the other works in the aggregate which are not themselves derivative works of the Document.

    If the Cover Text requirement of section 3 is applicable to these copies of the Document, then if the Document is less than one half of the entire aggregate, the Document’s Cover Texts may be placed on covers that bracket the Document within the aggregate, or the electronic equivalent of covers if the Document is in electronic form. Otherwise they must appear on printed covers that bracket the whole aggregate.

  9. TRANSLATION

    Translation is considered a kind of modification, so you may distribute translations of the Document under the terms of section 4. Replacing Invariant Sections with translations requires special permission from their copyright holders, but you may include translations of some or all Invariant Sections in addition to the original versions of these Invariant Sections. You may include a translation of this License, and all the license notices in the Document, and any Warranty Disclaimers, provided that you also include the original English version of this License and the original versions of those notices and disclaimers. In case of a disagreement between the translation and the original version of this License or a notice or disclaimer, the original version will prevail.

    If a section in the Document is Entitled “Acknowledgements”, “Dedications”, or “History”, the requirement (section 4) to Preserve its Title (section 1) will typically require changing the actual title.

  10. TERMINATION

    You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Document except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute it is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.

    However, if you cease all violation of this License, then your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated (a) provisionally, unless and until the copyright holder explicitly and finally terminates your license, and (b) permanently, if the copyright holder fails to notify you of the violation by some reasonable means prior to 60 days after the cessation.

    Moreover, your license from a particular copyright holder is reinstated permanently if the copyright holder notifies you of the violation by some reasonable means, this is the first time you have received notice of violation of this License (for any work) from that copyright holder, and you cure the violation prior to 30 days after your receipt of the notice.

    Termination of your rights under this section does not terminate the licenses of parties who have received copies or rights from you under this License. If your rights have been terminated and not permanently reinstated, receipt of a copy of some or all of the same material does not give you any rights to use it.

  11. FUTURE REVISIONS OF THIS LICENSE

    The Free Software Foundation may publish new, revised versions of the GNU Free Documentation License from time to time. Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version, but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns. See https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.

    Each version of the License is given a distinguishing version number. If the Document specifies that a particular numbered version of this License “or any later version” applies to it, you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that specified version or of any later version that has been published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document does not specify a version number of this License, you may choose any version ever published (not as a draft) by the Free Software Foundation. If the Document specifies that a proxy can decide which future versions of this License can be used, that proxy’s public statement of acceptance of a version permanently authorizes you to choose that version for the Document.

  12. RELICENSING

    “Massive Multiauthor Collaboration Site” (or “MMC Site”) means any World Wide Web server that publishes copyrightable works and also provides prominent facilities for anybody to edit those works. A public wiki that anybody can edit is an example of such a server. A “Massive Multiauthor Collaboration” (or “MMC”) contained in the site means any set of copyrightable works thus published on the MMC site.

    “CC-BY-SA” means the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license published by Creative Commons Corporation, a not-for-profit corporation with a principal place of business in San Francisco, California, as well as future copyleft versions of that license published by that same organization.

    “Incorporate” means to publish or republish a Document, in whole or in part, as part of another Document.

    An MMC is “eligible for relicensing” if it is licensed under this License, and if all works that were first published under this License somewhere other than this MMC, and subsequently incorporated in whole or in part into the MMC, (1) had no cover texts or invariant sections, and (2) were thus incorporated prior to November 1, 2008.

    The operator of an MMC Site may republish an MMC contained in the site under CC-BY-SA on the same site at any time before August 1, 2009, provided the MMC is eligible for relicensing.

ADDENDUM: How to use this License for your documents

To use this License in a document you have written, include a copy of the License in the document and put the following copyright and license notices just after the title page:

  Copyright (C)  year  your name.
  Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
  under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3
  or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
  with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover
  Texts.  A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU
  Free Documentation License''.

If you have Invariant Sections, Front-Cover Texts and Back-Cover Texts, replace the “with…Texts.” line with this:

    with the Invariant Sections being list their titles, with
    the Front-Cover Texts being list, and with the Back-Cover Texts
    being list.

If you have Invariant Sections without Cover Texts, or some other combination of the three, merge those two alternatives to suit the situation.

If your document contains nontrivial examples of program code, we recommend releasing these examples in parallel under your choice of free software license, such as the GNU General Public License, to permit their use in free software.


B Indices