diff --git a/util/complete/TypeString.scala b/util/complete/TypeString.scala
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..976b672e2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/util/complete/TypeString.scala
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+package sbt.complete
+
+	import DefaultParsers._
+	import TypeString._
+
+/** Basic representation of types parsed from Manifest.toString.
+* This can only represent the structure of parameterized types.
+* All other types are represented by a TypeString with an empty `args`. */
+private[sbt] final class TypeString(val base: String, val args: List[TypeString])
+{
+	override def toString =
+		if(base.startsWith(FunctionName))
+			args.dropRight(1).mkString("(", ",", ")") + " => " + args.last
+		else if(base.startsWith(TupleName))
+			args.mkString("(",",",")")
+		else
+			cleanupTypeName(base) + (if(args.isEmpty) "" else args.mkString("[", ",", "]"))
+}
+
+private[sbt] object TypeString
+{
+	/** Makes the string representation of a type as returned by Manifest.toString more readable.*/
+	def cleanup(typeString: String): String =
+		parse(typeString, typeStringParser) match {
+			case Right(ts) => ts.toString
+			case Left(err) => typeString
+		}
+
+	/** Makes a fully qualified type name provided by Manifest.toString more readable.
+	* The argument should be just a name (like scala.Tuple2) and not a full type (like scala.Tuple2[Int,Boolean])*/
+	def cleanupTypeName(base: String): String =
+		dropPrefix(base).replace('$', '.')
+
+	/** Removes prefixes from a fully qualified type name that are unnecessary in the presence of standard imports for an sbt setting. 
+	* This does not use the compiler and is therefore a conservative approximation.*/
+	def dropPrefix(base: String): String =
+		if(base.startsWith(SbtPrefix))
+			base.substring(SbtPrefix.length)
+		else if(base.startsWith(CollectionPrefix))
+		{
+			val simple = base.substring(CollectionPrefix.length)
+			if(ShortenCollection(simple)) simple else base
+		}
+		else if(base.startsWith(ScalaPrefix))
+			base.substring(ScalaPrefix.length)
+		else if(base.startsWith(JavaPrefix))
+			base.substring(JavaPrefix.length)
+		else
+			TypeMap.getOrElse(base, base)
+
+	final val CollectionPrefix = "scala.collection."
+	final val FunctionName = "scala.Function"
+	final val TupleName = "scala.Tuple"
+	final val SbtPrefix = "sbt."
+	final val ScalaPrefix = "scala."
+	final val JavaPrefix = "java.lang."
+	/* scala.collection.X -> X */
+	val ShortenCollection = Set("Seq", "List", "Set", "Map", "Iterable")
+	val TypeMap = Map(
+		"java.io.File" -> "File",
+		"java.net.URL" -> "URL",
+		"java.net.URI" -> "URI"
+	)
+
+	/** A Parser that extracts basic structure from the string representation of a type from Manifest.toString.
+	* This is rudimentary and essentially only decomposes the string into names and arguments for parameterized types.
+	* */
+	lazy val typeStringParser: Parser[TypeString] =
+	{
+		def isFullScalaIDChar(c: Char) = isScalaIDChar(c) || c == '.' || c == '$'
+		lazy val fullScalaID = identifier(IDStart, charClass(isFullScalaIDChar, "Scala identifier character") )
+		lazy val tpe: Parser[TypeString] =
+			for( id <- fullScalaID; args <- ('[' ~> rep1sep(tpe, ',') <~ ']').?) yield
+				 new TypeString(id, args.toList.flatten)
+		tpe
+	}
+}
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