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To make Tab completion case-insensitive in an SSH session, configure the remote account’s interactive zsh. Add zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}' to the active .zshrc, then reload it. The empty first entry tries ordinary case-sensitive completion before the case-insensitive fallback.

Why the setting belongs on the remote host

When you press Tab after connecting with SSH, the remote shell handles completion. A setting in the Mac’s local Terminal configuration does not automatically change the remote account’s shell or startup files. Apple identifies zsh as the default shell in Terminal on Mac, but other shells are possible, and that does not establish which shell an SSH destination runs. Check the shell at the prompt where completion fails.

Run these commands in that shell:

print -r -- $SHELL
print -r -- $ZSH_VERSION
print -r -- $ZDOTDIR

$ZSH_VERSION helps confirm that the active shell is zsh. These values are diagnostic clues, not proof by themselves of which startup file was loaded.

Set up case-insensitive completion

  1. On the remote host, identify the interactive zsh configuration file. Usually it is ~/.zshrc. If ZDOTDIR is set, zsh uses $ZDOTDIR/.zshrc instead. The documented interactive startup sequence reads /etc/zshrc and then the user’s .zshrc in $ZDOTDIR; when ZDOTDIR is unset, it defaults to $HOME. Login shells also read login-specific files.

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  2. Add this line to the active user configuration:

    zstyle ':completion:*' matcher-list '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}'
  3. Load the change in the current session. For the usual location, run:

    source ~/.zshrc

    If the account uses a different ZDOTDIR, source the corresponding .zshrc there. If the current session still does not behave as expected, reconnect and test again.

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Choose between fallback and immediate matching

Behavior Setting Effect
Normal matching first, then a case-insensitive retry matcher-list '' 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}' Retains ordinary completion when it succeeds; tries the case-insensitive rule when the earlier attempt finds no matches.
Case-insensitive matching immediately matcher-list 'm:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}' Uses the case-insensitive rule on the first attempt.

The fallback form is a useful starting point if you want case-insensitivity only when normal matching does not find a candidate. The Zsh manual describes matcher-list entries as an ordered sequence tried for each selected completer.

What the matcher changes

In m:{a-zA-Z}={A-Za-z}, the brace expressions pair lowercase and uppercase letters as corresponding characters. That lets a typed prefix match a candidate with different capitalization in either direction. The lowercase m uses the trial completion’s spelling in the inserted result, so zsh can insert the candidate’s capitalization rather than preserve the exact case you typed. The manual’s uppercase M form has different insertion behavior: it preserves the corresponding text from the command line.

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Use correspondence classes as shown rather than substituting unordered classes such as [a-z] and [A-Z]; the latter do not pair letters one by one in this matcher pattern.

Test the kind of completion that is failing

At the remote prompt, test a known candidate with a prefix whose capitalization differs from the candidate. Try both a lowercase prefix against a capitalized candidate and an uppercase prefix against a lowercase one. Choose a candidate available in the completion context you are testing: filename completion does not necessarily test command or argument completion.

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Filename globbing and completion matching are separate mechanisms. The Zsh documentation discusses a separate NO_CASE_GLOB interaction for file matching; toggling that option is not the general fix for command and argument completion. If the behavior occurs only when the typed word includes a glob pattern, investigate that case separately because the manual documents restrictions on matcher control in that situation.

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If Tab completion still ignores case

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