I’m working with PhpStorm and I notice that when the AI inline completion feature is active, the regular popup with code suggestions doesn’t show up automatically. By default, I only see the inline AI suggestions appearing as I type.
I know I can manually trigger the popup completion using a keyboard shortcut, and when I do that, both the AI inline completion and the traditional popup suggestions appear together. This is exactly what I want to achieve.
Is there a setting or configuration option that would make PhpStorm display both the AI inline completion and the popup code completion menu at the same time automatically? I don’t want to keep pressing shortcuts every time I need to see all available options.
I’ve looked through the settings but couldn’t find a specific option for this behavior. Has anyone managed to configure PhpStorm to show both completion types simultaneously without manual intervention?
Yes, this is a common issue in PhpStorm where the AI completion takes precedence over the traditional suggestion popup. Unfortunately, there isn’t a built-in feature to display both at the same time automatically. However, you can try adjusting a few settings to improve your experience. Navigate to Editor > General > Code Completion and set the “Autopopup code completion” delay to 50ms and ensure that “Show suggestions as you type” is enabled. Additionally, in the AI Assistant settings, try making the completion trigger delay slightly longer than your regular completion delay, which might allow both popups to show simultaneously in certain scenarios. Disabling “Insert single suggestions automatically” may also help keep the popup visible longer when multiple options are available. These tweaks should reduce the need for constant manual shortcuts.
This drove me absolutely nuts for months after we rolled out AI completion at work. PhpStorm basically treats AI inline as the main system and kills the regular popup to avoid clutter.
Here’s a workaround that worked for me. Go to Settings > Editor > General > Code Completion and turn on “Show the documentation popup” - set the delay super short, like 10ms. This keeps PhpStorm’s completion engine more active.
Next, hit the AI Assistant settings and turn off “Show inline completion on typing” for now. Enable “Show completion in lookup” instead. This puts AI suggestions inside the normal popup rather than inline.
Test that both systems play nice together, then you can turn inline completion back on. For whatever reason, this sequence makes PhpStorm remember to show both.
Also turn on “Show parameter info popup” with auto popup enabled. It keeps the suggestion engine running in the background, which helps trigger the regular popup even with AI running.
Not perfect but beats constantly hitting Ctrl+Space.
Had the exact same problem trying to get AI suggestions and regular completions to play nice in my IDE.
I tried tweaking PhpStorm’s settings forever, but honestly? The different completion systems just fight each other and create weird behavior.
What actually worked was ditching the built-in stuff and setting up external automation instead. Rather than wrestling with PhpStorm’s completion engine, I built workflows that handle code suggestions from outside the IDE.
Basically, you want something that watches your coding patterns, figures out what you’re working on, and feeds you the right snippets when you need them. You get AI suggestions AND normal completions without the conflicts.
I’ve been using Latenode for this. It monitors project files, connects to AI services, and triggers smart completions based on what you’re actually doing - not just what the IDE guesses you want.
Way better control over when suggestions pop up, and you can customize everything to show exactly what matters.
This happens because PhpStorm prioritizes AI completion over regular suggestions, messing up the completion pipeline. I dealt with this for weeks on a huge codebase and found a fix that actually works. Go to Settings > Editor > General > Code Completion and turn on “Sort completion suggestions based on machine learning”. This makes PhpStorm treat AI and regular completions equally instead of letting AI take over. Then turn off “Preselect the most relevant item” for now - this stops either system from auto-selecting and killing the popup before you see everything. In AI Assistant settings, change completion trigger from “immediate” to “after short delay” - I use 100-150ms. This gives regular completion time to load before AI jumps in. Restart PhpStorm after making these changes. Your popup should now show both types automatically without constantly triggering it manually. You’ll notice a small delay at first but both systems will sync up.
check if “auto insert single choice” is off in your completion settings. when that’s on, phpstorm just grabs the 1st suggestion without showing the popup. also, set completion case sensitivity to “none” - ai suggestions can mess with popup timing due to case matching issues.