4.12 Option for completion framework aesthetics

Brief: Set the overall style of completion framework interfaces.

Symbol: modus-themes-completions (‘alist’ type properties)

This affects Company, Corfu, Flx, Helm, Icomplete/Fido, Ido, Ivy, Orderless, Selectrum, Vertico. The value is an alist that takes the form of a ‘(KEY . PROPERTIES)’ combination. ‘KEY’ is a symbol, while ‘PROPERTIES’ is a list. Here is a sample, followed by a description of the particularities:

(setq modus-themes-completions
      '((matches . (extrabold background intense))
        (selection . (semibold accented intense))
        (popup . (accented))))

The matches key refers to the highlighted characters that correspond to the user’s input. When its properties are nil or an empty list, matching characters in the user interface will have a bold weight and a colored foreground. The list of properties may include any of the following symbols regardless of the order they may appear in:

• background to add a background color;
• intense to increase the overall coloration (also amplifies the background, if present);
• underline to draw a line below the characters;
• italic to use a slanted font (italic or oblique forms);
• The symbol of a font weight attribute such as light, semibold, et cetera. Valid symbols are defined in the modus-themes-weights variable. The absence of a weight means that bold will be used.

The selection key applies to the current line or currently matched candidate, depending on the specifics of the user interface. When its properties are nil or an empty list, it has a subtle gray background, a bold weight, and the base foreground value for the text. The list of properties it accepts is as follows (order is not significant):

• accented to make the background colorful instead of gray;
• text-also to apply extra color to the text of the selected line;
• intense to increase the overall coloration;
• underline to draw a line below the characters;
• italic to use a slanted font (italic or oblique forms);
• The symbol of a font weight attribute such as light, semibold, et cetera. Valid symbols are defined in the modus-themes-weights variable. The absence of a weight means that bold will be used.

The popup key takes the same values as selection. The only difference is that it applies specifically to user interfaces that display an inline popup and thus have slightly different styling requirements than the minibuffer. The two prominent packages are ‘company’ and ‘corfu’.

Apart from specifying each key separately, a fallback list is accepted. This is only useful when the desired aesthetic is the same across all keys that are not explicitly referenced. For example, this:

(setq modus-themes-completions
      '((t . (extrabold intense))))

Is the same as:

(setq modus-themes-completions
      '((matches . (extrabold intense))
        (selection . (extrabold intense))
        (popup . (extrabold intense))))

In the case of the fallback, any property that does not apply to the corresponding key is simply ignored (matches does not have accented and text-also, while selection and popup do not have background).

Configure bold and italic faces.

Also refer to the documentation of the orderless package for its intersection with company (if you choose to use those in tandem).