This package provides various handy commands based on the Emacs completion function completing-read, which allows to quickly select from a list of candidates. Consult offers in particular a more advanced buffer switching command consult-buffer which allows to select from buffers, recent files and more. Various search commands are provided, like an asynchronous consult-grep, and consult-line, which resembles Swiper or Helm-Swoop. Please take a look at the full list of commands!

All Consult commands are compatible with completion systems based on the standard Emacs completing-read API, notably the default completion system, Icomplete, Selectrum and Embark. If Icomplete is used, it is recommended to install Icomplete-vertical. The completion system specifics in this package are kept to a minimum. The ability of the Consult commands to work well with arbitrary completion systems is one main advantage of the package. This property allows Consult to fit well into existing setups and it helps you to create a full completion environment out of small and independent components. Note that, if you use Ivy or Helm, you probably don’t need Consult, since both packages already bring their own rich set of additional commands.

There are the Marginalia and Embark packages, which can be combined with Consult. The marginalia-mode enriches the completion display with annotations. The annotations show for example documentation strings or file information. The versatile Embark packages provides local actions, comparable to a context menu, which can be executed while selecting a candidate in the minibuffer or in other contexts. For example, when selecting from a list of files, an action to delete the file is offered. Embark offers more than local actions and can also be used as a completion system through its live-updating candidate collect buffer. The Embark integration is described later in greater detail.

consult-grep

consult-imenu

consult-line

Most provided commands follow the meaningful naming scheme consult-<thing>.

TIP: If you have Marginalia installed and heavy annotators enabled, type M-x ^consult to see all Consult commands with their abbreviated description! Alternatively, type C-h a ^consult to get an overview of all Consult variables and functions with their descriptions.

• consult-buffer (-other-window, -other-frame): Enhanced version of switch-to-buffer with support for virtual buffers. Supports live preview and recursive editing while previewing. The command supports narrowing. You can type f SPC in order to narrow to recent files. Ephemeral buffers can be shown by pressing SPC - it works the same way as switch-buffer. Supported narrowing keys:
  • b Buffers
  • f Files
  • m Bookmarks
  • p Project (only available if consult-project-root-function is configured as shown in the example configuration)
  • v Views (only available if consult-view-*-function is configured as shown in the example configuration)
• consult-bookmark: Select or create bookmark. You might consider the powerful consult-buffer instead as an alternative, which includes bookmarks. However consult-bookmark supports preview of bookmarks and narrowing.
• consult-recent-file (-other-window, -other-frame): Select a recent files. You might prefer the more powerful consult-buffer instead, which includes recent files.

• consult-register: Select from list of registers. The command supports narrowing to register types and preview of marker positions. This command is useful to search the register contents. For quick access it is recommended to use the built-in Emacs commands like jump-to-register. There is also the supplementary function consult-register-preview which can be used as register-preview-function for a consistent display. See the example configuration for how the consult-register-preview function is meant to be used.
• consult-yank, consult-yank-pop: Enhanced version of yank and yank-pop which allows selecting from the kill-ring. Live preview is supported when selecting from the kill-ring.
• consult-kmacro: Select macro from the macro ring and execute it.
• consult-keep-lines, consult-flush-lines: Replacements for keep-lines and flush-lines which use the current completion style for filtering the buffer. The function updates the buffer while typing. In particular, this function can be used to further narrow an exported Embark collect buffer with the same completion filtering as during completing-read.

• consult-goto-line: Jump to line number enhanced with live preview. This is a drop-in replacement for goto-line.
• consult-mark: Jump to a marker in the mark-ring. Supports live preview and recursive editing.
• consult-global-mark: Jump to a marker in the global-mark-ring. Supports live preview and recursive editing.
• consult-outline: Jump to a heading of the outline. Supports live preview and recursive editing.
• consult-imenu: Jump to imenu item in the current buffer. Supports live preview, recursive editing and narrowing.
• consult-project-imenu: Jump to imenu item in project buffers, with the same major mode as the current buffer. Supports live preview, recursive editing and narrowing. This feature has been inspired by imenu-anywhere.

• consult-line: Enter search string and select from matching lines. Supports live preview and recursive editing. The symbol at point and the recent isearch string are added to the “future history” and can be accessed by pressing M-n.
• consult-multi-occur: Replacement for multi-occur which uses completing-read-multiple.
• consult-grep, consult-ripgrep, consult-git-grep: Search for regular expression in current directory. Grep is invoked asynchronously, while you enter the search term. You are required to enter at least consult-async-min-input characters in order for the search to get started. The input string is split into two parts, if the first character is a punctuation character, like #. For example #grep-regexp#filter-string, is split at the second #. The string “grep-regexp” is passed to Grep, the “filter-string” is passed to the fast Emacs filtering to further narrow down the list of matches. This is particularily useful if you are using an advanced completion style like orderless. consult-grep supports preview. If consult-project-root-function is configured and the function returns non-nil, consult-grep searches the current project directory. Otherwise the default-directory is searched. If consult-grep is invoked with prefix argument, you can specify the directory manually, i.e., C-u M-g r.
• consult-find, consult-locate: Find file by matching the path against a regexp. Like consult-grep either the project root or the current directory is used as root directory for the search. The input string is treated similarly to consult-grep, where the first part is passed to find, and the second part is used for Emacs filtering. Note that find uses wildcards, e.g. enter *consult*, to find all files containing the string “consult”. In case you want to use another search utility like fd, you can write wrapper command my-fdfind as shown in the example configuration.

• consult-error: Jump to an error. Supports live preview and recursive editing. In contrast to consult-flycheck it shows the line and is more general since it is not tied to a specific backend.
• consult-flycheck: Jump to flycheck error. Supports live preview and recursive editing. The command supports narrowing. Press e SPC, w SPC, i SPC to only show errors, warnings and infos respectively. This command requires to install the additional consult-flycheck.el package since the main consult.el package only depends on Emacs core components.
• consult-flymake: Jump to Flymake diagnostic, like consult-flycheck.

• consult-complex-command: Select a command from the command-history. This command is a completing-read version of repeat-complex-command and can also be considered a replacement for the command-history command from chistory.el.
• consult-history: Insert a string from the current buffer history. This command can be invoked from the minibuffer. In that case the history stored in the minibuffer-history-variable is used.

• consult-minor-mode-menu: Enable/disable minor mode. Supports narrowing to on/off/local/global modes by pressing i/o/l/g SPC respectively.
• consult-mode-command: Run a command from the currently active minor or major modes. Supports narrowing to local-minor/global-minor/major mode via the keys l/g/m.

• consult-apropos: Replacement for apropos with completion.
• consult-man: Find Unix man page, via Unix apropos or man -k. The selected man page is opened using the Emacs man command.
• consult-file-externally: Select a file and open it externally, e.g. using xdg-open on Linux.
• consult-completion-in-region: Function which can be used as completion-in-region-function. This way, the minibuffer completion UI will be used for completion-at-point. This function is particularily useful in combination with Icomplete-vertical, since Icomplete does not provide its own completion-in-region-function. In contrast, Selectrum already comes with its own function.
• consult-theme: Select a theme and disable all currently enabled themes. Supports live preview of the theme while scrolling through the candidates.

Consult enhances completing-read with live previews of candidates, additional narrowing capabilities to candidate subsets and asynchronously generated candidate lists. This functionality is provided by the internal consult--read function, which is used by most Consult commands. The consult--read function is a thin wrapper around completing-read. This allows Consult to work with different completion systems in the backend, while still offering more advanced features.

Some Consult commands support live previews. For example when you scroll through the items of consult-line, the buffer will scroll to the corresponding position. It is possible to jump back and forth between the minibuffer and the buffer to perform recursive editing while the search is ongoing.

Previews are enabled by default but can be disabled via the consult-preview-key variable. Furthermore it is possible to specify keybindings which trigger the preview manually as shown in the example configuration. The default setting of consult-preview-key is =’any= which means that the preview will be triggered on any keypress when the selected candidate changes. Each command can be configured individually with its own :preview-key, such that preview can be manual for some commands, for some commands automatic and for some commands completely disabled.

Consult has special support to narrow to candidate subsets. This functionality is useful if the list of candidates consists of candidates of multiple types or candidates from multiple sources, like the consult-buffer command, which shows both buffers and recently opened files.

When you use the consult-buffer command, you can press b SPC and the list of candidates will be restricted such that only buffers are shown. If you press DEL afterwards, the full candidate list will be shown again. Furthermore a narrowing prefix key and a widening key can be configured which can be pressed to achieve the same effect, see the configuration variables consult-narrow-key and consult-widen-key.

If which-key is installed, the possible narrowing keys are shown in the which-key window after pressing the prefix key consult-narrow-key. Furthermore there is the consult-narrow-help command which can be bound to a key in the consult-narrow-map if this is desired, as shown in the example configuration.

Consult has support for asynchronous generation of candidate lists. This feature is used for example by consult-grep, where the list of matches is generated dynamically while the user is typing a grep regular expression. The grep process is executed in the background. When modifying the grep regular expression, the background process is terminated and a new process is started with the modified regular expression.

The matches, which have been found, can then be narrowed using the installed Emacs completion-style. This can be very powerful if you are using for example the orderless completion style.

This two-level filtering is possible by splitting the input string. Part of the input string is treated as input to grep and part of the input is used for filtering. The input string is split at a punctuation character, using a similar syntax as Perl regular expressions.

Examples:

• #defun: Search for “defun” using grep.
• #defun#consult: Search for “defun” using grep, filter with the word “consult”.
• /defun/consult: It is also possible to use other punctuation characters.
• #to#: Force searching for “to” using grep, since the grep pattern must be longer than consult-async-min-input characters by default.
• #defun -- --invert-match#: Pass argument --invert-match to grep.

For asynchronous processes like find and grep, the prompt has a small indicator showing the process status:

• : the usual prompt colon, before input is provided.
• * with warning face, the process is running.
• : with success face, success, process exited with an error code of zero.
• ! with error face, failure, process exited with a nonzero error code.
• ; with error face, interrupted, for example if more input is provided.

There is an ephemeral error log buffer _*consult-async-stderr* (note the leading space!), you can access the buffer using consult-buffer and switch-to-buffer by first pressing SPC and then selecting the buffer.

NOTE: Please install the embark-consult package from MELPA, which provides Consult-specific Embark actions and the Occur buffer export.

Embark is a versatile package which offers context dependent actions, comparable to a context menu. See the Embark manual for an extensive description of its capabilities.

Actions are commands which can operate on the currently selected candidate (or target in Embark terminology). When completing files, for example the delete-file command is offered. Embark also allows to to execute arbitrary commands on the currently selected candidate via M-x.

Furthermore Embark provides the embark-collect-snapshot command, which collects candidates and presents them in an Embark collect buffer, where further actions can be applied to them. A related feature is the embark-export command, which allows to export candidate lists to a buffer of a special type. For example in the case of file completion, a Dired buffer is opened.

In the context of Consult, particularily exciting is the possibility to export the matching lines from consult-line, consult-outline, consult-mark and consult-global-mark. The matching lines are exported to an Occur buffer where they can be edited via the occur-edit-mode (press key e). Similarily, Embark supports exporting the matches found by consult-grep, consult-ripgrep and consult-git-grep to a Grep buffer, where the matches across files can be edited, if the wgrep package is installed.

Consult can be installed from MELPA via the Emacs built-in package manager. Alternatively it can be directly installed from the development repository via other non-standard package managers.

It is recommended to manage package configurations with the excellent use-package macro. The Consult package only provides commands and does not add any keybindings or modes. In order to use the Consult commands, you must configure the keybindings yourself. As a result, the package is not intrusive but requires a little setup effort. Feel free to only bind the commands you consider useful to your workflow!

Note that there are two packages as of now: consult and consult-flycheck. consult-flycheck is a separate package such that the core consult package only depends on Emacs core components. The consult package will work out of the box with the default completion, Icomplete and Selectrum.

;; Example configuration for Consult
(use-package consult
  ;; Replace bindings. Lazily loaded due by `use-package'.
  :bind (("C-x M-:" . consult-complex-command)
         ("C-c h" . consult-history)
         ("C-c m" . consult-mode-command)
         ("C-c k" . consult-keep-lines)
         ("C-c C-k" . consult-flush-lines)
         ("C-x b" . consult-buffer)
         ("C-x 4 b" . consult-buffer-other-window)
         ("C-x 5 b" . consult-buffer-other-frame)
         ("C-x r x" . consult-register)
         ("C-x r b" . consult-bookmark)
         ("M-g g" . consult-goto-line)
         ("M-g M-g" . consult-goto-line)
         ("M-g o" . consult-outline)       ;; "M-s o" is a good alternative.
         ("M-g l" . consult-line)          ;; "M-s l" is a good alternative.
         ("M-g m" . consult-mark)          ;; I recommend to bind Consult navigation
         ("M-g k" . consult-global-mark)   ;; commands under the "M-g" prefix.
         ("M-g r" . consult-git-grep)      ;; or consult-grep, consult-ripgrep
         ("M-g f" . consult-find)          ;; or consult-locate, my-fdfind
         ("M-g i" . consult-project-imenu) ;; or consult-imenu
         ("M-g e" . consult-error)
         ("M-s m" . consult-multi-occur)
         ("M-y" . consult-yank-pop)
         ("<help> a" . consult-apropos))

  ;; The :init configuration is always executed (Not lazy!)
  :init

  ;; Custom command wrappers. It is generally encouraged to write your own
  ;; commands based on the Consult commands. Some commands have arguments which
  ;; allow tweaking. Furthermore global configuration variables can be set
  ;; locally in a let-binding.
  (defun my-fdfind (&optional dir)
    (interactive "P")
    (let ((consult-find-command '("fdfind" "--color=never" "--full-path")))
      (consult-find dir)))

  ;; Replace `multi-occur' with `consult-multi-occur', which is a drop-in replacement.
  (fset 'multi-occur #'consult-multi-occur)

  ;; Configure register preview function.
  ;; This gives a consistent display for both `consult-register' and
  ;; the register preview when editing registers.
  (setq register-preview-delay 0
        register-preview-function #'consult-register-preview)

  ;; Configure other variables and modes in the :config section, after lazily loading the package
  :config

  ;; Configure preview. Note that the preview-key can also be configured on a
  ;; per-command basis via `consult-config'.
  ;; The default value is 'any, such that any key triggers the preview.
  ;; (setq consult-preview-key 'any)
  ;; (setq consult-preview-key (kbd "M-p"))
  ;; (setq consult-preview-key (list (kbd "<S-down>") (kbd "<S-up>")))

  ;; Optionally configure narrowing key.
  ;; Both < and C-+ work reasonably well.
  (setq consult-narrow-key "<") ;; (kbd "C-+")
  ;; Optionally make narrowing help available in the minibuffer.
  ;; Probably not needed if you are using which-key.
  ;; (define-key consult-narrow-map (vconcat consult-narrow-key "?") #'consult-narrow-help)

  ;; Optional configure a view library to be used by `consult-buffer'.
  ;; The view library must provide two functions, one to open the view by name,
  ;; and one function which must return a list of views as strings.
  ;; Example: https://github.com/minad/bookmark-view/
  ;; (setq consult-view-open-function #'bookmark-jump
  ;;       consult-view-list-function #'bookmark-view-names)

  ;; Optionally configure a function which returns the project root directory
  (autoload 'projectile-project-root "projectile")
  (setq consult-project-root-function #'projectile-project-root))

;; Optionally add the `consult-flycheck' command.
(use-package consult-flycheck
  :bind (:map flycheck-command-map
              ("!" . consult-flycheck)))

TIP: If you have Marginalia installed, type M-x customize-variable RET ^consult to see all Consult-specific customizable variables with their current values and abbreviated description! Alternatively, type C-h a ^consult to get an overview of all Consult variables and functions with their descriptions.

NOTE: Consult allows fine-grained customization of individual commands. This configuration feature is made available for experienced users with special requirements.

Commands allow flexible, individual customization by setting the consult-config list. You can override any option passed to the internal consult--read API. Note that since consult--read is part of the internal API, options could be removed, replaced or renamed at any time.

Useful options are:

• :preview-key set the preview key, default is consult-preview-key
• :initial set the initial input
• :default set the default value
• :history set the history variable symbol
• :add-history add items to the future history, for example symbol at point
• :sort enable or disable sorting

;; Set preview for `consult-buffer' to key `M-p'
;; and disable preview for `consult-theme' completely.
;; For `consult-line' specify multiple keybindings.
;; Note that you should bind the <S-up> and <S-down> in the
;; `minibuffer-local-completion-map' or `selectrum-minibuffer-map'
;; to the commands which select the previous or next candidate!
(setq consult-config `((consult-theme :preview-key nil)
                       (consult-buffer :preview-key ,(kbd "M-p"))
                       (consult-line :preview-key (list ,(kbd "<S-down>") ,(kbd "<S-up>")))))

Generally it is possible to modify commands for your individual needs by the following techniques:

1. Create your own wrapper function which passes modified arguments to the Consult functions.
2. Modify consult-config in order to change the consult--read settings.
3. Create advices to modify some internal behavior.
4. Write or propose a patch!

It is recommended to install the following package combination:

• consult: This package
• consult-flycheck: Provides the consult-flycheck command
• selectrum or icomplete-vertical: Vertical completion systems
• marginalia: Annotations for the completion candidates
• embark and embark-consult: Action commands, which can act on the completion candidates
• orderless: Completion style, Flexible candidate filtering
• prescient: Frecency-based candidate sorting, also offers filtering

Additional recommended packages for wider integration:

• which-key: Helpful mode showing keybindings, also shows the Consult narrowing keys
• wgrep: Editing of grep buffers, can be used together with consult-grep via Embark

Note that all packages are independent and can potentially be exchanged with alternative components, since there exist no hard dependencies. Furthermore it is possible to get started with only Selectrum and Consult and add more components later to the mix.

You probably guessed from the name that this package took inspiration from Counsel by Oleh Krehel. Some of the Consult commands originated in the Selectrum wiki. The commands have been rewritten and greatly enhanced in comparison to the wiki versions. In particular all Selectrum-specific code has been removed, such that the commands are compatible with the completing-read API.

Consult is intended to be a community effort, please participate in the discussions. Contributions are very welcome. If you have a proposal, take a look at the Consult wishlist.

Code contributions:

• Omar Antolín Camarena
• Sergey Kostyaev
• okamsn
• Clemens Radermacher
• Tom Fitzhenry
• jakanakaevangeli
• inigoserna
• Adam Spiers
• Omar Polo

Advice and useful discussions:

• Clemens Radermacher
• Omar Antolín Camarena
• Protesilaos Stavrou
• Steve Purcell
• Adam Porter
• Manuel Uberti
• Tom Fitzhenry
• Howard Melman