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Auto Complete

note

This page is a continuation of the Interactions (Reference) which dives into what Interactions are.

note

Auto complete is currently only available for chat input commands.

Enabling Auto Complete​

To enable auto complete, just add autocomplete: true to a command option that supports autocomplete. It can only be added to the STRING, NUMBER, and INTEGER type options. Autocomplete cannot be used on commands that have choices provided.

Receiving and Responding​

Once auto complete is enabled on a command option, discord will automatically start sending auto complete interactions when a user is typing the parameter.

caution

Auto complete choices are only a suggestion! The user can choose to ignore the suggestions and input a custom value.

client.on(ChatInputAutoCompleteEvent.class, event -> {
    if (event.getCommandName().equals("commandName")) {
        // Get the string value of what the user is currently typing
        String typing = event.getFocusedOption().getValue()
                .map(ApplicationCommandInteractionOptionValue::asString)
                .orElse(""); // In case the user has not started typing, we return an empty string

        /*
        Build a list of choices to present to the user as suggested input

        For the sake of simplicity in this demo, we are returning a static list here.
        Ideally you would use fuzzy matching or other techniques to suggest up to 25 choices for the user.
        */
        List<ApplicationCommandOptionChoiceData> suggestions = new ArrayList<>();

        suggestions.add(ApplicationCommandOptionChoiceData.builder().name("Thing 1").value("value").build());
        suggestions.add(ApplicationCommandOptionChoiceData.builder().name("Something 2").value("other").build());
        suggestions.add(ApplicationCommandOptionChoiceData.builder().name("some other input").value("pick me").build());

        // Finally, return the list of choices to the user
        return event.respondWithSuggestions(suggestions);
    }
}).subscribe();

Unlike other interactions, autocomplete cannot be deferred and only has one way to respond. The bot must respond within 3 seconds, failure to do so will result in a "soft failure" in the discord client; the user will still be able to use the command,but the autocomplete box will show an error.

Further Reading​