zsh-abbr-preview

Preview zsh-abbr abbreviation expansions as you type.

Demo

$ abbr g=git
Added the regular user abbreviation `g`
$ g|  # "|" represents your cursor
→ git

Type an abbreviation and a preview of what it expands to will be displayed.

Installation

Source zsh-abbr-preview in your .zshrc (either before or after sourcing zsh-abbr):

source /path/to/zsh-abbr-preview/zsh-abbr-preview.plugin.zsh

Or use your plugin manager:

# zinit
zinit light olets/zsh-abbr
zinit light cohml/zsh-abbr-preview

# oh-my-zsh
plugins=(... zsh-abbr zsh-abbr-preview)

Configuration

Customize the preview prefix by setting this variable before sourcing the plugin:

ZSH_ABBR_PREVIEW_PREFIX="..."  # default: "→ "

Requirements

• zsh-abbr
• Zsh 5.0+

How It Works

zsh-abbr-preview hooks into zle-line-pre-redraw to check if your current input matches an abbreviation. It uses zsh-abbr's own expansion functions (_abbr_regular_expansion and _abbr_global_expansion) to ensure the preview logic stays in sync with actual abbreviation behavior.

The preview should respects all zsh-abbr configurations, including:

• ABBR_REGULAR_ABBREVIATION_GLOB_PREFIXES - glob patterns for valid prefixes (e.g., "*; ")
• ABBR_REGULAR_ABBREVIATION_SCALAR_PREFIXES - literal prefixes (e.g., "sudo ")
• ABBR_SPLIT_FN - custom word splitting function

When an abbreviation is detected, its expansion is displayed below your prompt using zle -M. Multi-word abbreviations (e.g., git s → git status) are fully supported.

License

MIT