📝 g023's Code Completer

In-terminal code editor with AI-powered code completion
Powered by DeepSeek V4 & Textual

✨ Overview

g023's Code Completer is a terminal-based text editor that brings AI-assisted coding directly into your command line. Built with Python and the Textual TUI framework, it provides a lightweight, distraction-free editing environment with deep integration of DeepSeek's state-of-the-art language model to help you write code faster.

Whether you're editing configuration files, writing Python scripts, or tweaking HTML/CSS, the editor offers syntax highlighting, smooth keyboard navigation, and on-demand AI completions – all without leaving your terminal.

Note: This is work in progress. Feel free to test with me.

🎯 Features

Feature	Description
Syntax Highlighting	Supports Python, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, JSON, and many more languages
AI Code Completion	Trigger intelligent completions with Alt+G
Non‑blocking Async	Completions run in the background – your workflow never pauses
File Management	Open (Ctrl+O) and save (Ctrl+S) files easily
Modal File Browser	Visually browse and select files from anywhere in your home directory
Smart Indentation	Tab inserts 4 spaces; type‑aware and consistent
Status Bar	Real‑time feedback and messages about file operations and completions
Mouse Support	Fully interactive with your terminal mouse (if supported)

🚀 Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• Textual – the modern TUI framework
• A DeepSeek API key – get one from DeepSeek Platform

📦 Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/g023/code_completer.git
cd code_completer

# Install the required dependency
pip install textual

🔑 Configuration

The editor needs your DeepSeek API key to work. You can provide it in two ways:

Option 1: Environment Variable (recommended)

export DEEPSEEK_API_KEY="your-api-key-here"

Option 2: Key File

Place a file named K.dat one directory above the project root. The file should contain your API key as a single line.

💡 The key resolution logic looks for ../K.dat relative to the script location. This keeps your key out of the repository while still working across environments.

🎮 Usage

Starting the Editor

python code_completer.py

To open a specific file on launch:

python code_completer.py path/to/your/file.py

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+O	Open a file
Ctrl+S	Save the current file
Ctrl+Q	Quit the editor
Alt+G	Request AI completion at cursor position
Tab	Insert 4 spaces (indent)
Mouse	Click to move cursor, navigate file browser

🧠 How It Works

The editor is split into two main components:

1. The Editor Frontend (code_completer.py)

• Built with Textual – a reactive TUI framework with CSS-like styling
• Manages the main editing area, file browser modal, and status updates
• Handles user input, syntax highlighting, and file I/O

2. The AI Backend (_ds4.py)

• A minimal, zero‑dependency DeepSeek client
• Implements rate limiting, retry logic, and automatic API key resolution
• Supports chat_prefix_complete() – DeepSeek V4’s efficient prefix completion API

Completion Pipeline

1. When you press Alt+G, the current code and cursor position are captured.
2. The code is split into prefix (text before cursor) and suffix (text after cursor).
3. A structured prompt is sent to DeepSeek V4 using the chat_prefix_complete endpoint – this tells the model to only return raw completion text (no greetings, no markdown, no explanations).
4. The response is then cleaned:
   • Meta‑phrases like "Here's the completion:" are stripped.
   • Lines ending with a question mark are removed (when enabled).
   • Short or empty completions are filtered out.
5. The cleaned completion is inserted at the cursor – asynchronously, so the editor never freezes.

All heavy API calls run in a dedicated thread; UI updates are safely posted back to the main thread.

⚙️ Tunable Parameters

The behaviour of the AI completion can be adjusted by editing the constants at the top of code_completer.py:

Parameter	Default	Description
COMPLETION_TEMPERATURE	0.15	Lower = more deterministic, higher = more creative
COMPLETION_MAX_TOKENS	512	Maximum length of the completion response
MIN_COMPLETION_LENGTH	3	Drop completions shorter than this (filters stray characters)
MAX_COMPLETION_LENGTH	2000	Hard cap on returned characters
STRIP_QUESTION_LINES	True	Remove lines that look like clarifying questions
STRIP_META_LINES	True	Remove conversational filler (e.g., "Sure, here's...")

🔧 Troubleshooting

"DeepSeek API key not found"

• Make sure you’ve set the DEEPSEEK_API_KEY environment variable, or created ../K.dat relative to the project folder.
• Verify the key is valid and has sufficient credits.

"DeepSeek init error"

• Check your internet connection.
• Ensure you’ve installed textual (pip install textual).
• Try running the script from outside a virtual environment if you suspect dependency conflicts.

Completions are empty or very short

• The built‑in cleaning logic may be filtering out legitimate output. Try setting STRIP_META_LINES = False and MIN_COMPLETION_LENGTH = 1 temporarily to see the raw response.
• DeepSeek V4 works best with clear context. Make sure your code is well‑structured and the cursor is placed logically.

The editor feels sluggish

• Completions run asynchronously, so they shouldn’t block typing. If you experience lag, check your terminal emulator settings or try a different terminal (e.g., Alacritty, Kitty, iTerm2).

📜 License

MIT – feel free to use, modify, and distribute.

🙏 Acknowledgments

• DeepSeek for their powerful and affordable language models.
• Textual for making terminal UI development a joy.
• The open‑source community for endless inspiration.