Using Jedi

Jedi is can be used with a variety of plugins, language servers <language-servers> and other software. It is also possible to use Jedi in the Python shell or with IPython.

Below you can also find a list of recipes for type hinting.

Editor Plugins

Visual Studio Code

Sublime Text 2/3

SynWrite

TextMate

  • Textmate (Not sure if it’s actually working)

Kate

GNOME Builder

Gedit

Eric IDE

Web Debugger

xonsh shell

Jedi is a preinstalled extension in xonsh shell. Run the following command to enable:

xontrib load jedi

and many more!

Tab Completion in the Python Shell

Jedi is a dependency of IPython. Autocompletion in IPython is therefore possible without additional configuration.

Here is an example video how REPL completion can look like in a different shell.

There are two different options how you can use Jedi autocompletion in your python interpreter. One with your custom $HOME/.pythonrc.py file and one that uses PYTHONSTARTUP.

Using PYTHONSTARTUP

To use Jedi completion in Python interpreter, add the following in your shell setup (e.g., .bashrc). This works only on Linux/Mac, because readline is not available on Windows. If you still want Jedi autocompletion in your REPL, just use IPython instead:

export PYTHONSTARTUP="$(python -m jedi repl)"

Then you will be able to use Jedi completer in your Python interpreter:

$ python
Python 3.9.2+ (default, Jul 20 2020, 22:15:08)
[GCC 4.6.1] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import os
>>> os.path.join('a', 'b').split().in<TAB>            # doctest: +SKIP
..dex   ..sert

Using a Custom $HOME/.pythonrc.py

jedi.utils.setup_readline(namespace_module=<module '__main__' from '/home/docs/checkouts/readthedocs.org/user_builds/jedi/envs/v0.18.0/bin/sphinx-build'>, fuzzy=False)[source]

This function sets up readline to use Jedi in a Python interactive shell.

If you want to use a custom PYTHONSTARTUP file (typically $HOME/.pythonrc.py), you can add this piece of code:

try:
    from jedi.utils import setup_readline
except ImportError:
    # Fallback to the stdlib readline completer if it is installed.
    # Taken from http://docs.python.org/2/library/rlcompleter.html
    print("Jedi is not installed, falling back to readline")
    try:
        import readline
        import rlcompleter
        readline.parse_and_bind("tab: complete")
    except ImportError:
        print("Readline is not installed either. No tab completion is enabled.")
else:
    setup_readline()

This will fallback to the readline completer if Jedi is not installed. The readline completer will only complete names in the global namespace, so for example:

ran<TAB>

will complete to range.

With Jedi the following code:

range(10).cou<TAB>

will complete to range(10).count, this does not work with the default cPython readline completer.

You will also need to add export PYTHONSTARTUP=$HOME/.pythonrc.py to your shell profile (usually .bash_profile or .profile if you use bash).

Recipes

Here are some tips on how to use Jedi efficiently.

Type Hinting

If Jedi cannot detect the type of a function argument correctly (due to the dynamic nature of Python), you can help it by hinting the type using one of the docstring/annotation styles below. Only gradual typing will always work, all the docstring solutions are glorified hacks and more complicated cases will probably not work.

Sphinx style

http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/stable/domains.html#info-field-lists

def myfunction(node, foo):
    """
    Do something with a ``node``.

    :type node: ProgramNode
    :param str foo: foo parameter description
    """
    node.| # complete here

Epydoc

http://epydoc.sourceforge.net/manual-fields.html

def myfunction(node):
    """
    Do something with a ``node``.

    @type node: ProgramNode
    """
    node.| # complete here

Numpydoc

https://github.com/numpy/numpy/blob/master/doc/HOWTO_DOCUMENT.rst.txt

In order to support the numpydoc format, you need to install the numpydoc package.

def foo(var1, var2, long_var_name='hi'):
    r"""
    A one-line summary that does not use variable names or the
    function name.

    ...

    Parameters
    ----------
    var1 : array_like
        Array_like means all those objects -- lists, nested lists,
        etc. -- that can be converted to an array. We can also
        refer to variables like `var1`.
    var2 : int
        The type above can either refer to an actual Python type
        (e.g. ``int``), or describe the type of the variable in more
        detail, e.g. ``(N,) ndarray`` or ``array_like``.
    long_variable_name : {'hi', 'ho'}, optional
        Choices in brackets, default first when optional.

    ...

    """
    var2.| # complete here