diff --git a/Project.toml b/Project.toml
index c2985bd8..7791f0ff 100644
--- a/Project.toml
+++ b/Project.toml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ version = "1.23.0"
 Base64 = "2a0f44e3-6c83-55bd-87e4-b1978d98bd5f"
 Conda = "8f4d0f93-b110-5947-807f-2305c1781a2d"
 Dates = "ade2ca70-3891-5945-98fb-dc099432e06a"
+FuzzyCompletions = "fb4132e2-a121-4a70-b8a1-d5b831dcdcc2"
 InteractiveUtils = "b77e0a4c-d291-57a0-90e8-8db25a27a240"
 JSON = "682c06a0-de6a-54ab-a142-c8b1cf79cde6"
 Markdown = "d6f4376e-aef5-505a-96c1-9c027394607a"
diff --git a/deps/kspec.jl b/deps/kspec.jl
index 283557cf..f340f911 100644
--- a/deps/kspec.jl
+++ b/deps/kspec.jl
@@ -49,11 +49,13 @@ end
     installkernel(name::AbstractString, options::AbstractString...;
                   julia::Cmd,
                   specname::AbstractString,
-                  env=Dict())
+                  fuzzy_completion_mode::Bool=false
+                  env::Dict{<:AbstractString}=Dict())
 
 Install a new Julia kernel, where the given `options` are passed to the `julia`
 executable, the user-visible kernel name is given by `name` followed by the
 Julia version, and the `env` dictionary is added to the environment.
+If `fuzzy_completion_mode` is `true`, then <kbd>shift-tab</kbd> completions will be done fuzzily.
 
 The new kernel name is returned by `installkernel`.  For example:
 ```
@@ -85,7 +87,9 @@ installkernel(
 function installkernel(name::AbstractString, julia_options::AbstractString...;
                    julia::Cmd = `$(joinpath(Sys.BINDIR,exe("julia")))`,
                    specname::AbstractString = replace(lowercase(name), " "=>"-"),
-                   env::Dict{<:AbstractString}=Dict{String,Any}())
+                   fuzzy_completion_mode::Bool = false,
+                   env::Dict{<:AbstractString} = Dict{String,Any}(),
+                   )
     # Is IJulia being built from a debug build? If so, add "debug" to the description.
     debugdesc = ccall(:jl_is_debugbuild,Cint,())==1 ? "-debug" : ""
 
@@ -100,6 +104,8 @@ function installkernel(name::AbstractString, julia_options::AbstractString...;
         ijulia_dir = get(ENV, "IJULIA_DIR", dirname(@__DIR__)) # support non-Pkg IJulia installs
         append!(kernelcmd_array, [joinpath(ijulia_dir,"src","kernel.jl"), "{connection_file}"])
 
+        push!(env, "IJULIA_COMPLETION_MODE" => fuzzy_completion_mode ? "fuzzy" : "repl")
+
         ks = Dict(
             "argv" => kernelcmd_array,
             "display_name" => name * " " * Base.VERSION_STRING * debugdesc,
diff --git a/src/handlers.jl b/src/handlers.jl
index e8fb828d..03f567b1 100644
--- a/src/handlers.jl
+++ b/src/handlers.jl
@@ -50,6 +50,7 @@ ind2chr(m::Msg, str::String, i::Integer) = i == 0 ? 0 :
 
 import REPL: REPLCompletions
 import REPL.REPLCompletions: sorted_keywords, emoji_symbols, latex_symbols
+import FuzzyCompletions
 
 complete_type(::Type{<:Function}) = "function"
 complete_type(::Type{<:Type}) = "type"
@@ -123,8 +124,12 @@ function complete_request(socket, msg)
     end
 
     codestart = find_parsestart(code, cursorpos)
-    comps_, positions = REPLCompletions.completions(code[codestart:end], cursorpos-codestart+1, current_module[])
-    comps = unique!(REPLCompletions.completion_text.(comps_)) # julia#26930
+    completion_mode = get(ENV, "IJULIA_COMPLETION_MODE", "repl")
+    completions, completion_text = completion_mode == "fuzzy" ? (FuzzyCompletions.completions, FuzzyCompletions.completion_text) :
+                                                                (REPLCompletions.completions,  REPLCompletions.completion_text)
+    comps_, positions = completions(code[codestart:end], cursorpos-codestart+1, current_module[])
+    completion_mode == "fuzzy" && filter!(≥(0)∘FuzzyCompletions.score, comps_) # cut off too many candidates, they would be useless in most jupyter frontends
+    comps = unique!(completion_text.(comps_)) # julia#26930
     # positions = positions .+ (codestart - 1) on Julia 0.7
     positions = (first(positions) + codestart - 1):(last(positions) + codestart - 1)
     metadata = Dict()