Shortcuts and input#

This page is the practical shortcut guide: the keys users reach for every day, how they differ by platform, and when the command palette or mouse is a better approach. The exhaustive binding/action list remains in Keyboard and input reference.

Linux is the first development focus. Windows, macOS, and BSD columns describe planned behavior. See Your first session for the revision-specific defaults and shell-key compatibility notes.

Find an action by task: tabs and panes, word editing, copy and selection, search, text and view, or custom bindings. The command palette shows effective keys for your current build, including user overrides.

Choose an input approach#

Open the command palette with Ctrl+Shift+P on Windows/Linux/BSD or Cmd+Shift+P on macOS. If you forget a key chord, use the palette rather than guessing.

Move back through interface pages#

In the command palette, Settings, Profiles, Customizations, Themes, Quick Actions, or Connection Hub, Esc, Alt+Left, or Backspace outside an editable field returns one level. Backspace inside an input still edits text; on a Mac keyboard it is labeled Delete. At a root page, Back returns to the invoking command menu with its query and selection, or closes a page opened directly. This is not a shell shortcut while one of those interface pages has focus. For example, open Profiles, edit a profile, and use Back to revisit the list; unsaved edits still require discard confirmation. Forward Delete keeps its normal edit/removal meaning, and Alt+Left does not interrupt IME input.

Feature launchers#

Workspace shortcuts#

A key difference: fresh vs clone#

Alt+Shift+R / Alt+Shift+D on Windows/Linux/BSD creates a fresh default-shell split. Alt+R / Alt+D creates an independent split that clones the active launch profile/directory.

Ctrl+R and Ctrl+D remain shell-owned for history search and delete/EOF.

On macOS, fresh splits use native-style Cmd+D / Cmd+Shift+D; cloning uses Cmd+Alt+Shift+R / Cmd+Alt+Shift+D.

Resize panes#

Use the mouse/divider when you are making a large one-time resize. Use the keyboard when making small controlled adjustments while staying in the terminal flow.

Edit a word at the prompt#

At an active shell prompt, Ctrl+Backspace deletes the previous input word and Ctrl+Delete (labeled Ctrl+Suppr on some keyboards) deletes the next input word. On a Mac keyboard without a forward Delete key, use Ctrl+Fn+Delete for the next word. For example, while correcting a command before running it, move the cursor to the start of an unwanted argument and use Ctrl+Delete rather than deleting each character. The active shell editor decides the word boundary; the shortcut edits input and does not submit the command.

Automexia routes these keys to the integrated Bash, Zsh, or Fish editor. In Command Prompt, backward deletion keeps its native behavior and forward deletion is guarded by a recognized active prompt. A custom binding can replace the default. Search, Vi mode, full-screen applications, and applications using their own keyboard protocol keep ownership of their input; do not expect a shell-editing action in those contexts.

Clipboard and selection#

The selection-aware Ctrl+C#

On Windows/Linux/BSD, Ctrl+C has a deliberate dual behavior:

• if Automexia has a non-empty terminal selection, it copies that selection;
• if there is no selection, it sends the normal interrupt to the shell/application.

Ctrl+Shift+C is the explicit copy binding on Windows/Linux/BSD. With the Automexia Windows profile, both Ctrl+V and Ctrl+Shift+V paste into the selected pane, whether it hosts PowerShell, Command Prompt, WSL, SSH, or another terminal session. Linux/BSD keeps Ctrl+Shift+V as its paste binding.

On macOS, use Cmd+C / Cmd+V for normal copy/paste. Ctrl+C remains available for shell/application semantics when no terminal-owned behavior takes precedence.

Paste always uses Automexia's existing clipboard filtering and bracketed-paste path and does not synthesize an extra Enter. If a Windows terminal application such as Vim needs to receive Ctrl+V itself, restore terminal ownership explicitly:

[bindings]
keys = [
  { key = "V", with = "control", action = "ReceiveChar" },
]

Keyboard selection#

Use:

• Shift+Arrow to start/extend/reverse selection by cell or row.
• Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to move the active end by a Unicode-aware word boundary.

Once a selection exists, an Arrow without Shift, printable input, paste, or IME commit clears terminal selection before the input goes to the shell. Search and Vi mode keep their own input ownership.

Mouse behavior#

• Primary/left drag selects text.
• Double/triple click expands selection according to terminal semantic-unit/line rules.
• Right-click copies and clears an existing selection; with no selection it pastes through normal paste filtering.
• Middle-click pastes the primary selection on platforms that provide one.
• Left-click never pastes; it is reserved for focus, selection, links, image previews, and pane activation.
• Rotating the mouse wheel or starting a trackpad scroll selects the pane under the pointer and sends that initiating scroll to it; pointer hover alone does not change pane selection.
• Full-screen terminal applications that enable mouse reporting keep mouse ownership. Hold Shift for the established host-UI override where supported.

Search and scrollback#

Ctrl+F / Cmd+F and Ctrl+Shift+F / Cmd+Shift+F switch one continuous search session between the current pane and all visible panes. The query and query focus stay in place, matches are recalculated, and the same surface moves between the selected pane's footer and the safe bottom-centered workspace position. Repeating the active scope shortcut only refocuses the query. An exceptionally narrow pane uses the safe position without changing its pane ownership. All-pane search covers only the active local tab in every visible split; hidden tabs are not activated.

PANE and ALL PANES are clickable, mutually exclusive choices. Pointer selection returns focus to the query. The result badge counts visible matches across the current scope and caps display work at 999+; next/previous navigation can continue through scrollback. The complete surface captures pointer and keyboard input, so no search interaction falls through to window controls or sends bytes or an implicit Enter to the shell.

While search mode is open:

Font and view#

On Linux, Ctrl+Alt+O shows link/path hints in the development defaults. Select a displayed hint, inspect its exact target, and press Enter separately to open it through the platform handler. Typing its label only selects it; it does not run the terminal line as a command. See Files, output, and images before adding custom rules or acting on links from untrusted output.

Font zoom changes the application-wide font-size preference, including other open terminal views. Ctrl+0 or Cmd+0 clears the saved font-size override. Linux development build font-size and appearance preferences persist for the next launch; this does not restore running sessions.

Windows-only convenience defaults#

The current Windows defaults also include:

• Ctrl+1 … Ctrl+8 for window tabs 1…8 and Ctrl+9 for the last tab;
• Ctrl+PageUp/PageDown for previous/next window tab;
• Ctrl+Shift+PageUp/PageDown to reorder a window tab;
• Ctrl+Shift+A to select all;
• Ctrl+Shift+Space for Vi mode;
• Ctrl+Shift+K to clear history;
• Ctrl+Alt+Space to toggle the quake window;
• Alt+Shift+T to toggle light/dark appearance (also available on Linux/BSD).

Linux/BSD additionally supports Ctrl+Shift+[ / Ctrl+Shift+] for previous/next window tab and uses Alt+Shift+Space for the common Vi-mode toggle.

macOS application shortcuts#

The native defaults include:

• Cmd+Q quit;
• Cmd+H hide;
• Cmd+Alt+H hide others;
• Cmd+M minimize;
• Cmd+A select all;
• Cmd+K clear visible screen then history;
• Cmd+Shift+[ / Cmd+Shift+] previous/next window tab;
• Cmd+1 … Cmd+8, Cmd+9 direct window-tab selection.

Image-preview navigation#

To preview a local image path:

1. Hover a supported filename/path for a temporary card, or click it to pin.
2. When pinned, use Down/Right for the next visible image path and Up/Left for the previous one.
3. Press Esc to close the pinned preview.
4. Alternatively, select a path and press Ctrl+Alt+I / Cmd+Alt+I.

See Files, output, and images for the three different image approaches.

Custom shortcuts#

Add explicit bindings under [bindings] in config.toml:

[bindings]
keys = [
  { key = "F5", with = "control | shift", action = "ReloadConfig" },
  { key = "O", with = "control | alt", action = "OpenCommandPalette" },
  { key = "PageUp", with = "alt", action = "SelectPrevLocalTab" },
]

Explicit user bindings replace matching default triggers. Unknown actions are rejected rather than silently disabling a default.

Use a custom binding when the action is frequent enough to justify muscle memory. For occasional actions, the command palette is easier to maintain and avoids unnecessary shortcut collisions.

The complete action-name list, mode syntax, key names, and platform defaults are in Keyboard and input reference.