Get currently typed text

[rosshadden]

Is there a way to get the currently entered command, probably between the prompt and the cursor? This is the closest I have come so far:

local lines = wezterm.split_by_newlines(pane:get_lines_as_text())
print(lines[#lines])

In the above, the last element in lines is the "current" line. I could take that last line, split on what I happen to know my prompt is, and take everything after the split. Unfortunately this has some major problems:

1. Most obviously, it's hacky because it all hinges on me parsing out a prompt manually, and is also tightly coupled to my specific prompt in my specific config.
2. The line also includes the "autocomplete"/"typeahead" text of my shell. Now I have never been a fan of typeahead in shells but since I couldn't find a way to disable it in the one I just switched to when I first looked, I am at least trying it out for now before digging further or opening up an issue. But regardless, to work around the typeahead text being present, I would also need to get the cursor position with pane:get_cursor_position and disregard everything after the cursor. Which has the side effect that the cursor being anywhere but at the end of the typed text would be problematic. It's very fair to say this is not wezterm's concern 😅
3. pane:get_lines_as_text supposedly takes a param for number of lines, but passing any integer there made it return nothing in my experience. This may just be a bug.

[wez]

If you're using shell integration, your shell can markup the output using OSC 133 to classify it as one of Input, Output and Prompt.

That information is exposed via the underlying Pane::get_semantic_zones method that is not currently exposed to lua: (this is the interface/default definition which is why it seemingly returns nothing):

wezterm/mux/src/pane.rs

Lines 359 to 362 in 4b457da

	/// Retrieve the set of semantic zones
	fn get_semantic_zones(&self) -> anyhow::Result<Vec<SemanticZone>> {
	Ok(vec![])
	}

a zone has the following definition:

wezterm/term/src/lib.rs

Lines 120 to 127 in 4b457da

	#[derive(Debug, Clone, Copy, Eq, PartialEq, PartialOrd, Ord)]
	pub struct SemanticZone {
	pub start_y: StableRowIndex,
	pub start_x: usize,
	pub end_y: StableRowIndex,
	pub end_x: usize,
	pub semantic_type: SemanticType,
	}

If that was exposed to lua, then you could find the zone that intersects with the cursor position and then you would know which portions of which lines to inspect.

Exposing the method to lua may be as simple as copying and adapting one of these, but referencing get_semantic_zones instead, if you feel like playing around with the code and maybe submitting a PR:

wezterm/wezterm-gui/src/scripting/pane.rs

Lines 48 to 50 in 4b457da

	methods.add_method("get_cursor_position", |_, this, _: ()| {
	Ok(this.pane()?.get_cursor_position())
	});

[rosshadden]

I will play around with this. I used zsh for 15 years but just switched to nushell on the same day I switched to wez. It does have direct support for outputting OSC-7 nicely (asci --osc string_terminator) but until I add support for OSC-133 I will play around with outputting it manually, like the shell script you linked does. When I get more comfortable in this space (I'm just learning about all this semantic zones) I will maybe attempt a PR.

More importantly to me, it's nice to know you're cool with exposing more to lua. I'm enjoying the ability to script the terminal, and the more control the lua API has the better.

[rcorre]

I was trying to do the same thing. I use the starship prompt, which unfortunately doesn't seem to support semantic escapes right now: starship/starship#5463

I ended up with a hacky prompt-based approach, just sharing here in case it's better than nothing for someone. pane:get_lines_as_text(1) does seem to be working as expected now:

  {
      key = 'Y',
      mods = 'CTRL|SHIFT',
      action = wezterm.action_callback(function(window, pane)
        local text = pane:get_lines_as_text(1)
        text = string.gsub(text, "✦ ❯ ", "")
        window:copy_to_clipboard(text, "Clipboard")
      end),
    },