Filter/search prompt Choices

[badranX]

How to achieve the same behavior of prompt_toolkit.shortcuts.choice but with an extra text input field that allows user to filter/search choices. Is there a library based on prompt-toolkit that support that already?

Thanks

[ZeLoExE]

You can do this by combining a Buffer for the search input with a dynamic FormattedTextControl to render only matching choices.

Example:

from prompt_toolkit import prompt
from prompt_toolkit.completion import WordCompleter

choices = [
    "Google",
    "Cloudflare",
    "Quad9",
    "AdGuard",
    "OpenDNS",
]

completer = WordCompleter(
    choices,
    ignore_case=True,
)

result = prompt(
    "Pick a provider: ",
    completer=completer,
)

print(result)

For a more custom UI with live filtering and keyboard navigation, the usual approach is:

• use a Buffer to capture the search text
• filter the choices when the buffer changes
• render the results with FormattedTextControl
• handle selection with key bindings

Also, prompt_toolkit.shortcuts.radiolist_dialog can help with selection UIs, but for a VS Code-style Ctrl+P search you still need to add the filtering layer yourself.

[ZeLoExE]

You can do this by combining a Buffer for the search input with a dynamic FormattedTextControl to render only matching choices.

Example:

from prompt_toolkit import prompt
from prompt_toolkit.completion import WordCompleter

choices = [
    "Google",
    "Cloudflare",
    "Quad9",
    "AdGuard",
    "OpenDNS",
]

completer = WordCompleter(
    choices,
    ignore_case=True,
)

result = prompt(
    "Pick a provider: ",
    completer=completer,
)

print(result)

For a more custom UI with live filtering and keyboard navigation, the usual approach is:

• use a Buffer to capture the search text
• filter the choices when the buffer changes
• render the results with FormattedTextControl
• handle selection with key bindings

Also, prompt_toolkit.shortcuts.radiolist_dialog can help with selection UIs, but for a VS Code-style Ctrl+P search you still need to add the filtering layer yourself.

I should also mention that if you are looking for a ready-made solution, you may want to check projects built on top of prompt-toolkit such as questionary or InquirerPy. They provide interactive selection prompts and can be extended with filtering/search behavior.

For a fully custom Ctrl+P-style picker, building it directly with prompt-toolkit primitives gives more control.