Suggestions while typing

Start a command at a zsh prompt and the rest of the newest command of yours that starts that way shows dimmed after the cursor. → takes it, and ↩︎ runs only what you typed.

Your shell keeps its own line editor: your zsh config, theme and key bindings work as before. Next Term only draws the suggestion.

Keys

Keys	What they do
→, End, ⌃E or ⌃F	Take the whole suggestion
⌥→	Take one word of it
⎋	Hide it for the rest of the line (in vi insert mode, zsh gets ⎋ too)
↩︎	Run what you typed, without the suggestion
⇧⌘⌫ (Edit › Forget This Suggestion)	Remove the command showing from Next Term’s record, so it’s never suggested again

Forget This Suggestion is also in the terminal’s right-click menu while one shows. Other keys go to the shell as always, and typing on through a suggestion trims it as you go.

What it suggests

• Your newest matching command. The one you ran last that starts with what you typed. Matching ignores case until you type a capital.
• The next command, on an empty prompt. Right after a command, the empty prompt shows the one that usually follows it, when that’s clear. Type anything and it goes.
• Only what can still run. Before a suggestion shows it is checked: a cd to a folder that’s gone, a file or program that isn’t there, or a command that never ran well isn’t suggested.

It is drawn over the terminal and never typed into it. Copy, Find, the scrollback, and an agent reading the tab never take it for something you typed. It goes on your line only when you take it, and only while the line is still the one it showed on.

Where it comes from

Suggestions come from Next Term’s own record of the commands you ran in its zsh tabs, kept on this Mac only. Until the record has your commands, zsh’s own history in each shell fills in.

• Never recorded: a command an agent or Next Term ran, a line that holds a secret (one of your stored keys, a token or a password), a line that starts with a space or spans several lines, and anything while suggestions are off or Private Mode is on.
• zsh’s history file stays yours. Next Term never reads it or changes it.
• Agents never see it. An agent reading the tab over MCP gets the line you typed, never Next Term’s suggestion.

See what the record keeps.

Private Mode

View › Private Mode stops suggestions and recording in every tab, until you turn it off or quit Next Term. Nothing you run while it is on is kept. The menu item is ticked while it is on.

With zsh-autosuggestions or Atuin

If zsh-autosuggestions already shows its own suggestions in a shell (or Atuin does, through it), Next Term shows none there. It asks you once, in a small notice in the tab that never takes the keyboard:

• Use Next Term’s: Next Term shows its suggestions, and the plugin’s are turned off in Next Term’s tabs only, for as long as each shell runs. Your .zshrc stays as it is, and other terminals keep the plugin.
• Keep zsh-autosuggestions (or Atuin’s suggestions): the plugin keeps showing its own.
• Close (×): the plugin keeps them until Next Term starts again, and Next Term asks again then. The second time, the plugin keeps them for good.

Settings › Terminal › While typing lists each choice with Ask Again.

Turn it off

Suggestions are on by default in zsh tabs. The first two times one shows, a hint says “→ accepts · Esc hides”, with Turn Off.

View › Suggestions While Typing turns them off or on, for every tab at once. It is ticked while they are on.

Settings › Terminal › While typing does the same, and says more:

• On or Off. Off, Next Term shows no suggestion and records no command. What it kept stays until you clear it. A zsh plugin’s own suggestions show as before.
• How many commands are kept, with Clear History…, which removes them all. zsh’s own history isn’t touched.
• What VoiceOver says when one shows: the command, then “→ accepts”; just “Suggestion, → accepts”; or nothing.

Where it doesn’t show

• in bash and fish tabs, and in remote tabs;
• while a program runs, such as Claude Code, Codex or another agent, and in full-screen programs such as less and vim;
• while an input method is composing text, or the Tab completion list is open;
• anywhere but the end of the line, and on the second and later lines of a command;
• in a terminal that doesn’t have the keyboard, or that you scrolled up in;
• while an agent drives the tab over MCP: its keys never take a suggestion.

A tab’s tooltip says who shows its suggestions: Next Term’s, a plugin’s, or off (and why).