SpaceVim/docs/layers/autocomplete.md

---
title: "SpaceVim autocomplete layer"
---

# [SpaceVim Layers:](https://spacevim.org/layers) autocomplete

<!-- vim-markdown-toc GFM -->
* [Description](#description)
* [Install](#install)
* [Configuration](#configuration)
    * [Key bindings](#key-bindings)
    * [Snippets directories](#snippets-directories)
    * [Show snippets in auto-completion popup](#show-snippets-in-auto-completion-popup)
* [Key bindings](#key-bindings-1)
    * [auto-complete](#auto-complete)
    * [Neosnippet](#neosnippet)

<!-- vim-markdown-toc -->

## Description

This layer provides auto-completion to SpaceVim.

The following completion engines are supported:

-   [neocomplete](https://github.com/Shougo/neocomplete.vim) - vim with `+lua`
-   [neocomplcache](https://github.com/Shougo/neocomplcache.vim) - vim without `+lua`
-   [deoplete](https://github.com/Shougo/deoplete.nvim) - neovim with `+python3`
-   [YouCompleteMe](https://github.com/Valloric/YouCompleteMe) - disabled by default, to enable ycm, see `:h g:spacevim_enable_ycm`

Snippets are supported via [neosnippet](https://github.com/Shougo/neosnippet.vim).

## Install

To use this configuration layer, add it to your custom configuration file.

```vim
call SpaceVim#layers#load('autocomplete')
```

## Configuration

### Key bindings

You can customize the user experience of auto-completion with the following layer variables:

1.  `auto-completion-return-key-behavior` set the action to perform when the `Return`/`Enter` key is pressed, the possible values are:

-   `complete` completes with the current selection
-   `smart` completes with current selection and expand snippet or argvs
-   `nil` 

2.  `auto-completion-tab-key-behavior` set the action to perform when the `TAB` key is pressed, the possible values are:

-   `smart` cycle candidates, expand snippets, jump parameters
-   `complete` completes with the current selection
-   `cycle` completes the common prefix and cycle between candidates
-   `nil` insert a carriage return

3.  `auto-completion-complete-with-key-sequence` is a string of two characters denoting a key sequence that will perform a `complete` action if the sequence as been entered quickly enough. If its value is `nil` then the feature is disabled.
4.  `auto-completion-complete-with-key-sequence-delay` is the number of seconds to wait for the auto-completion key sequence to be entered. The default value is 0.1 seconds.

The default configuration of the layer is:

```vim
call SpaceVim#layers#load('autocomplete', {
        \ 'auto-completion-return-key-behavior' : 'nil',
        \ 'auto-completion-tab-key-behavior' : 'smart',
        \ 'auto-completion-complete-with-key-sequence' : 'nil',
        \ 'auto-completion-complete-with-key-sequence-delay' : 0.1,
        \ })
```

`jk` is a good candidate for `auto-completion-complete-with-key-sequence` if you don’t use it already.

### Snippets directories

The following snippets or directories are added by default:

-   [Shougo/neosnippet-snippets](https://github.com/Shougo/neosnippet-snippets) : neosnippet's default snippets.
-   [honza/vim-snippets](https://github.com/honza/vim-snippets) : extra snippets
-   `~/.SpaceVim/snippets/` : SpaceVim runtime snippets.
-   `~/.SpaceVim.d/snippets/` : custom global snippets.
-   `./.SpaceVim.d/snippets/` : custom local snippets (project's snippets)

You can provide additional directories by setting the variable `g:neosnippet#snippets_directory` which can take a string in case of a single path or a list of paths.

### Show snippets in auto-completion popup

By default, snippets are shown in the auto-completion popup. To disable this feature, set the variable `auto-completion-enable-snippets-in-popup` to 0.

```vim
call SpaceVim#layers#load('autocomplete', {
        \ 'auto-completion-enable-snippets-in-popup' : 0
        \ })
```

## Key bindings

### auto-complete

| Key bindings | Description                                   |
| ------------ | --------------------------------------------- |
| `<C-n>`      | select next candidate                         |
| `<C-p>`      | select previous candidate                     |
| `<Tab>`      | base on `auto-completion-tab-key-behavior`    |
| `<S-Tab>`    | select previous candidate                     |
| `<Return>`   | base on `auto-completion-return-key-behavior` |

### Neosnippet

| Key Binding | Description                                                    |
| ----------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- |
| `M-/`       | Expand a snippet if text before point is a prefix of a snippet |
| `SPC i s`   | List all current yasnippets for inserting                      |