autocomplete targets after `just -g`

[teto]

using nixpkgs' just version 1.35.0, just -g <TAB> wont autocomplete any targets even if my justfile is just

golden-test:
  nix run  .#fastbuild.golden-test

I would expect pressing the tabulation key to show/autocomplete golden-test
Tested with bash and zsh.

[casey]

Weird, I'm not sure what the issue is here since I don't use nix, and it seems to be working locally for me. Leaving this open in case anyone has any insight.

[teto]

must be something in my setup then. Thanks for the confirmation. I'll investigate when I have time.

[neunenak]

I'm also not getting tab completion with just -g, in my normal fish shell but also zsh/bash. I don't have any nix recipes in my global justfile so it's not that. @teto I think it's worth re-opening this issue.

[Ukio-G]

+1, has same issue

[saif97]

Same here, zsh's auto-complete defaults to the local JustFile when -g (for global) & --justfile flags are set.

To reproduce, just create a justfile in ~/.justfile add dummy commands then try:

I'm kinda new to Just, let me know if I'm doing sth wrong. Else, I managed to patch it locally. I'll hopefully raise a PR soon.

[spkane]

@casey I also see this issue, but on macOS in Bash, where just completion works fine inside a specific directory with a Justfile, but once I use -g it fails to complete any commands.

• just 1.45.0
• macos 26.2

If I were to guess I'd think that it wasn't processing the global file yet, so it doesn't see any recipes. This seems likely, as even trying to use completion in a directory with a Jsutfile appears to result in showing the local recipes, even when you have already typed just -g and are doing completion after that.

[spkane]

Using Claude Code and some vibe-coding this was the fix for my bash completion that I ended up applying, but the same sort of logic likely needs to be added to all the completions.

--- just.orig	2025-12-22 11:39:56.719023328 -0800
+++ just	2025-12-22 11:36:24.333393095 -0800
@@ -35,11 +35,20 @@
                     COMPREPLY=( $(compgen -W "${opts}" -- "${cur}") )
                     return 0
                 else
-                    local recipes=$(just --summary 2> /dev/null)
+                    # Check if --global-justfile or -g flag is present
+                    local use_global=""
+                    for word in "${words[@]}"; do
+                        if [[ "$word" == "-g" || "$word" == "--global-justfile" ]]; then
+                            use_global="--global-justfile"
+                            break
+                        fi
+                    done
+
+                    local recipes=$(just $use_global --summary 2> /dev/null)

                     if echo "${cur}" | \grep -qF '/'; then
                         local path_prefix=$(echo "${cur}" | sed 's/[/][^/]*$/\//')
-                        local recipes=$(just --summary 2> /dev/null -- "${path_prefix}")
+                        local recipes=$(just $use_global --summary 2> /dev/null -- "${path_prefix}")
                         local recipes=$(printf "${path_prefix}%s\t" $recipes)
                     fi

[hposca]

Using claude and a lot of patience I was able to make @spkane 's suggestion work for ZSH (running just 1.46.0 on Linux 6.12.63-1-lts):

diff <(just --completions zsh) zsh-completion-global:

102a103,111
>             # Check if --global-justfile or -g flag is present
>             local use_global=""
>             for word in "${words[@]}"; do
>                 if [[ "$word" == "-g" || "$word" == "--global-justfile" ]]; then
>                     use_global="--global-justfile"
>                     break
>                 fi
>             done
> 
104c113
<                 ${(s: :)$(_call_program commands just --summary)}
---
>                 ${(s: :)$(_call_program commands just $use_global --summary)}
123c132
<                 _message "`just --show $recipe`"
---
>                 _message "`just $use_global --show $recipe`"
140,154d148
<     local variables; variables=(
<         ${(s: :)$(_call_program commands just --variables)}
<     )
<     local commands; commands=(
<         ${${${(M)"${(f)$(_call_program commands just --list)}":#    *}/ ##/}/ ##/:Args: }
<     )
< 
<     if compset -P '*='; then
<         case "${${words[-1]%=*}#*=}" in
<             *) _message 'value' && ret=0 ;;
<         esac
<     else
<         _describe -t variables 'variables' variables -qS "=" && ret=0
<         _describe -t commands 'just commands' commands "$@"
<     fi
155a150,169
>     # Check if --global-justfile or -g flag is present
>     local use_global=""
>     for word in "${words[@]}"; do
>         if [[ "$word" == "-g" || "$word" == "--global-justfile" ]]; then
>             use_global="--global-justfile"
>             break
>         fi
>     done
> 
>     # Get recipes from --summary (includes full module::recipe paths)
>     local summary_output=$(_call_program commands just $use_global --summary)
> 
>     # Split into array properly
>     local -a recipes
>     recipes=("${(@s: :)summary_output}")
> 
>     # Add recipes directly to completion
>     compadd -a recipes
> 
>     return 0
162a177,184
>     # Check if --global-justfile or -g flag is present
>     local use_global=""
>     for word in "${words[@]}"; do
>         if [[ "$word" == "-g" || "$word" == "--global-justfile" ]]; then
>             use_global="--global-justfile"
>             break
>         fi
>     done
164c186
<         ${(s: :)$(_call_program commands just --variables)}
---
>         ${(s: :)$(_call_program commands just $use_global --variables)}

Then I updated my ~/.zshrc to use the zsh-completion-global file instead of the default completion:

if command -v just >/dev/null 2>&1 ; then
  # source <(just --completions zsh)
  source $HOME/zsh-completion-global
fi

[Munsio]

Hey!
As there is also the possibility to specify a justfile with -f / --justfile if it is not to much could we probably include those as well?
From a quick glance over the code it should be possible by checking for those flags in the $word checks.

Here is an really old issue to that topic: #936