Zsh completiton with substring matching

AI wrote this:

I wanted to type part of a filename, press Tab, and get the right file—even when that text appears in the middle.

Two things make this comfortable: Zsh’s matching rules and the fzf-tab picker.

Match anywhere in a filename ↓

Add this to ~/.zshrc, after your existing completion setup:

This enables case-insensitive substring completion. For example:

hx zero → hx GROUND_ZERO.md hx fuego → hx 2026-10-14-hyprfuego.md

No need to type the beginning, remember the capitalization, or work around a date prefix. This part uses Zsh’s built-in completion system.

Pick between matches with fzf-tab ↓

fzf-tab (https://github.com/Aloxaf/fzf-tab) adds an interactive fuzzy search menu to Tab completion. It uses the candidates supplied by Zsh.

If several filenames contain zero, typing:

hx zero

opens a picker. Keep typing to filter the results, use the arrow keys to choose, and press Enter to insert the filename.

You can also start without a fragment:

hx

Then type something like shapes inside the picker to find a matching file. Enter inserts it; another Enter runs the command. Esc cancels.