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Interactive REPL

Use the Tish REPL with multi-line input, tab completion, history, and colored output.

Starting the REPL

With no arguments, Tish starts the interactive REPL (VM backend by default):

tish

Or explicitly:

tish repl
tish repl --backend vm    # default: line editing, completion, history
tish repl --backend interp  # interpreter backend (same multi-line, no completion)

Exit with Ctrl-D (Unix) or Ctrl-Z then Enter (Windows).

Multi-line input (Python-style)

The REPL uses a continuation prompt when the parser needs more input:

  • > — new statement
  • ... — continuation (e.g. unclosed {, (, [ or mid-statement)

Type until the statement is complete; then it runs and the result is printed.

Example

> fn greet(name) {
...   return "Hello, " + name
... }
> greet("World")
"Hello, World"

Pasting multi-line code works: keep typing or paste, and the REPL runs when the program is complete.

Tab completion

  • Bare-word: Complete variable names, keywords, and globals (console, JSON, Math, etc.).
    Example: type con then Tab → console.
  • After a dot: Complete properties and methods of the value before the dot.
    Example: [1,2,3]. then Tab → list of array methods (length, map, filter, …).

Press Tab once to see the full list when there are multiple matches (Node-style). A grey preview hint appears as you type.

History

  • Up/Down — move through previous lines.
  • History file — history is saved to ~/.tish_history (or %USERPROFILE%\.tish_history on Windows) and restored in the next session (Python-style).

Colored output

When stdout is a terminal, values are printed with type-based colors (Node/Bun-style):

  • Numbers — yellow
  • Strings — green (with quotes)
  • Booleans — blue
  • Null — dim grey
  • Object keys — cyan
  • Punctuation — dim grey

Piped or non-TTY output is plain text (no ANSI codes).

Keybindings and .inputrc

When running in a terminal that uses GNU Readline (or compatible), keybindings can be configured via ~/.inputrc (or ~/.editrc on some macOS setups). For example:

# ~/.inputrc
set editing-mode emacs
set completion-ignore-case on

This applies to the same readline-style editing (arrow keys, Ctrl-A/E, kill-line, etc.) that tools like Python and Bash use.

Tips

  • Ctrl-C — cancel current input and clear the line (or multi-line buffer).
  • Ctrl-D at the primary > prompt — exit. If you're in a continuation (... ), the current buffer is parsed and run once (or a parse error is shown) before exit.
  • Tab completion and grey hints require an interactive terminal (TTY). If you run with stdin not connected to a TTY, you'll see a note and editing/completion will be limited.