Passing an empty selection to API

[syaghoubi00]

With the addition of agents, I wanted to setup a keybinding to do a quick @perplexityai search, however, a nil selection causes the entire buffer to be passed to perplexity by default.

The goal is to be able to ask a generic question, not based on the current visual selection or buffer.

I'm not sure of the best approach to working around this.
Maybe implementing require("CopilotChat.select").empty?

The current keybind code:

    -- Ask the Perplexity agent a quick question
    {
      "<leader>aS",
      function()
        local input = vim.fn.input("Perplexity: ")
        if input ~= "" then
          require("CopilotChat").ask("@perplexityai " .. input, {
            selection = nil
          })
        end
      end,
      desc = "Quick Chat with Perplexity (CopilotChat)",
      mode = { "n", "v" },
    },

---

UPDATE - The fixed keymap, following @deathbeam's answer:

    -- Ask the Perplexity agent a quick question
    {
      "<leader>aS",
      function()
        local input = vim.fn.input("Perplexity: ")
        if input ~= "" then
          require("CopilotChat").ask(input, {
            agent = "perplexityai",
            selection = false,
          })
        end
      end,
      desc = "Perplexity Search (CopilotChat)",
      mode = { "n", "v" },
    },

[deathbeam]

you can set selection to false and then it should work

[deathbeam]

Also as side note, you can also use agent = 'perplexityai' for the function instead of using @perplexityai, its going to be a bit cleaner probably and remembered in the chat

[syaghoubi00]

Working, Thanks!

Getting a warning about a type mismatch, but other than that, all good.

Diagnostics:
1. Cannot assign `boolean` to `fun(source: CopilotChat.source):(CopilotChat.select.selection)?|nil`.
   - `boolean` cannot match `fun(source: CopilotChat.source):(CopilotChat.select.selection)?|nil`
   - `boolean` cannot match any subtypes in `fun(source: CopilotChat.source):(CopilotChat.select.selection)?|nil`
   - Type `boolean` cannot match `fun(source: CopilotChat.source):(CopilotChat.select.selection)?`
   - Type `boolean` cannot match `nil` [assign-type-mismatch]

[deathbeam]

Awesome. And the type mismatch should be fixed now as well

[jellydn]

Hi @syaghoubi00 This is a nice usage. Could you open a PR this? Thanks

[syaghoubi00]

@deathbeam already patched the type issue with #731. Maybe in the wiki there could be an examples/tips sections and I could add the keybind example to that?

[jellydn]

You could add to readme as it has a section for this

[krishna-bala]

@deathbeam I think your recent changes (commit a1de0aa) broke this functionality.

I also tried setting selection = function() return nil end , but that did not work either.

-- selects entire buffer
require('CopilotChat').toggle({selection = function() return nil end})

-- also selects entire buffer
require('CopilotChat').toggle({selection = false})

[krishna-bala]

Thanks for the quick update - here's a workaround if anyone else wants this functionality, although I'm sure there's a better way.

  keys = {
    {
      "<leader>aa",
      function()
        local win = vim.api.nvim_open_win(vim.api.nvim_create_buf(false, true), true, {
          relative = "editor",
          width = 1,
          height = 1,
          row = 0,
          col = 0,
          style = "minimal",
          border = "none",
        })
        require("CopilotChat").toggle()
        vim.api.nvim_win_close(win, true)
      end,
      desc = "CopilotChat",
      mode = { "n", "v" },
    },
  }

edit: sorry this workaround doesn't work properly if you've previously opened copilotchat with some selection. will add my workaround here if I figure it out.

[v3ceban]

Here's my workaround so far:

-- CopilotChat config
selection = function(source)
  local select = require "CopilotChat.select"
  return select.visual(source)
end,

-- keymap
vim.keymap.set({ "n" }, "<leader>cs", function()
  local input = vim.fn.input "Perplexity: "
  if input ~= "" then
    -- Create a temporary buffer
    local temp_buf = vim.api.nvim_create_buf(false, true)
    -- Switch to the temporary buffer
    local current_win = vim.api.nvim_get_current_win()
    local current_buf = vim.api.nvim_get_current_buf()
    vim.api.nvim_win_set_buf(current_win, temp_buf)

    -- Ask the question in perplexity with empty context
    CopilotChat.ask(input, {
      agent = "perplexityai",
      context = false,
      remember_as_sticky = false,
    })

    -- Return to original buffer and delete temporary buffer
    vim.api.nvim_win_set_buf(current_win, current_buf)
    vim.api.nvim_buf_delete(temp_buf, { force = true })
  end
end, { desc = "Copilot search with perplexity (no context)" })

[v3ceban]

And to chat with the whole buffer in normal mode I use (in case anyone needs it):

vim.keymap.set({ "n" }, "<leader>cc", function()
  local cursor_pos = vim.fn.getcurpos()
  vim.cmd "normal! ggVG"
  vim.fn.setpos(".", cursor_pos)
  CopilotChat.open {
    context = "buffer",
    remember_as_sticky = false,
  }
end, { desc = "Copilot open chat" })

[deathbeam]

If you want to skip selection just for single request perplexity request, alternatively you can also do something like this:

-- CopilotChat config
selection = function(source)
  if vim.g.skip_copilot_selection then
    return nil
  end
  local select = require "CopilotChat.select"
  return select.visual(source)
end,

-- keymap
vim.keymap.set({ "n" }, "<leader>cs", function()
  local input = vim.fn.input "Perplexity: "
  if input ~= "" then
    vim.g.skip_copilot_selection = true

    -- Ask the question in perplexity with empty context
    CopilotChat.ask(input, {
      agent = "perplexityai",
      context = false,
      remember_as_sticky = false,
    })

    vim.g.skip_copilot_selection = false
  end
end, { desc = "Copilot search with perplexity (no context)" })

I think it should work.

But also thinking about it again, for single .ask requests, i should be able to actually support overriding selection, maybe I will just add that back, it just wont be remembered and thats it

[deathbeam]

Actually ended up adding back selection saving for now, still not happy with the implementation but it has some uses and when there is no clean alternative then I would rather just support it than showing somewhat ugly workarounds to people.