BeancountAutocomplete: Smart Account Completion for Sublime Text

I track my finances using Beancount. It’s a text-based accounting system and that’s basically all you need to know. I’ve automated transaction importing so there’s not so much in the way of manual updates required. However, when I do need to jump in and edit anything typing account names is, in a word, tedious. So, with the help of Claude Code, I decided to do something about it. I’ve just released BeancountAutocomplete, a Sublime Text plugin that solves this problem with intelligent account name completion.

The Problem

Beancount account hierarchies are maintained using colon separators. This helps with organising your data but it also means typing the same long account names over and over:

2026-01-15 * "Grocery shopping"
  Expenses:Food:Groceries    50.67 GBP
  Assets:Bank:Account

You’re only 1 typo away from an unrecognised account. It’s a minor concern but better to get it right first time I say.

The Solution

BeancountAutocomplete provides intelligent autocomplete for your Beancount accounts directly in Sublime Text. As you type, the plugin:

Scans your Beancount file for all open directives
Caches account names for instant suggestions
Filters by what you type with case-insensitive matching
Excludes closed accounts automatically
Updates when your file changes without restarting the editor

Just start typing Exp and you’ll see all your Expenses accounts. Type Assets:Bank and narrow down to just your bank accounts. It’s autocomplete done right.

Smart Features

Closed Account Filtering

The plugin understands Beancount’s account lifecycle so if you’ve closed an account with a close directive then it won’t appear in your autocomplete suggestions. No more accidentally posting to inactive accounts.

Performance-Focused Caching

The plugin uses file modification time to intelligently cache your accounts. It only re-scans your Beancount file when it actually changes, keeping autocomplete fast even with large ledgers.

Case-Insensitive Matching

Type assets or ASSETS or AsSeTs—it all works. The matching is flexible so you can type naturally without worrying about capitalisation.

Installation

Installation via Package Control is pending but will be simple:

Open Sublime Text
Press Cmd+Shift+P (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux)
Type “Package Control: Install Package”
Search for “BeancountAutocomplete”
Press Enter

Then configure the path to your Beancount file in Preferences → Settings:

{
    "beancount_file": "/path/to/your/accounts.beancount"
}

That’s it. Start typing account names in any file and autocomplete just works.

If you want to use the plugin now, you can install it manually from the latest release:

macOS/Linux:

# Download and extract the latest release
curl -L https://github.com/rhydlewis/BeancountAutocomplete/releases/latest/download/BeancountAutocomplete.zip -o BeancountAutocomplete.zip
unzip BeancountAutocomplete.zip

# Copy only the required files to Sublime Text packages directory
# For macOS:
cp -r BeancountAutocomplete-* ~/Library/Application\ Support/Sublime\ Text/Packages/BeancountAutocomplete

# For Linux:
cp -r BeancountAutocomplete-* ~/.config/sublime-text/Packages/BeancountAutocomplete

# Clean up
rm -rf BeancountAutocomplete.zip BeancountAutocomplete-*

Windows (PowerShell):

# Download the latest release
Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://github.com/rhydlewis/BeancountAutocomplete/releases/latest/download/BeancountAutocomplete.zip" -OutFile "BeancountAutocomplete.zip"

# Extract to Packages directory
Expand-Archive -Path "BeancountAutocomplete.zip" -DestinationPath "$env:APPDATA\Sublime Text\Packages\BeancountAutocomplete" -Force

# Clean up
Remove-Item "BeancountAutocomplete.zip"

After installation, restart Sublime Text to complete the setup.

Open Source

BeancountAutocomplete is open source (MIT License) and available on GitHub.

If you are a Beancount and Sublime Text user, this plugin might be a small quality-of-life improvement that adds up over hundreds of transactions.

beancount

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