[FEATURE] Prompt history recall — Ctrl+R search + inline autosuggestions (zsh-autosuggestions style)

Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened Mar 9, 2026 by shenxingy Closed Apr 6, 2026

Problem

Reusing past prompts in Claude Code is painful. There's no way to:

  • Search through prompts you've typed before
  • Get inline suggestions as you type (like zsh-autosuggestions)

Current workaround: copy-pasting from external notes (I've been using WeChat's file transfer assistant as a scratchpad 😅).

Project-specific prompts are too narrow to justify a full /skill file, but broad enough that I type them repeatedly across sessions.

Proposed Solution

Two complementary features, in order of implementation complexity:

1. Ctrl+R — Fuzzy search over prompt history (lower effort)

  • Every submitted prompt is saved to a history store (similar to shell ~/.zsh_history)
  • Ctrl+R opens a fuzzy search picker (fzf-style) over past prompts
  • Selected prompt fills the input box (not auto-submitted — user can edit first)
  • History scoped by project directory, with option to search all-projects

2. Inline autosuggestions while typing (higher effort, higher value)

  • As the user types, a gray ghost-text suggestion appears showing the best-matching past prompt
  • or Tab accepts the suggestion (does not submit — fills input for further editing)
  • Identical UX to zsh-autosuggestions / Warp Terminal's command history
  • Fallback gracefully if no match found (no ghost text shown)

Why this matters

The input box already supports up-arrow history cycling (see #32400, #15631), but that's sequential, not searchable. For users who reuse project-specific prompts frequently, fuzzy search is an order-of-magnitude better UX.

Related issues: #25877 (predictive text), #32400 (history scoping), #26304 (agent Ctrl+R)

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