Keybindings
This is the source-of-truth catalog of every keyboard shortcut the TUI recognizes. Bindings are grouped by context — the focus or modal state they fire in. A binding listed under "Composer" only takes effect when the composer is focused; one under "Transcript" only when the transcript has focus; and so on.
Bindings are not (yet) user-configurable — tracked for a future release (#436, #437). This document is the contract that future config-file overrides will name into.
Global (any context)
| Chord |
Action |
F1 or Ctrl-? |
Toggle the help overlay |
Ctrl-K |
Open the command palette (slash-command finder) |
Ctrl-C |
Cancel current turn / dismiss modal / arm-then-confirm quit |
Ctrl-D |
Quit (only when the composer is empty) |
Tab |
Cycle TUI mode: Plan → Agent → YOLO → Plan |
Shift-Tab |
Cycle reasoning effort: off → high → max → off |
Ctrl-R |
Open the resume-session picker |
Ctrl-L |
Refresh / clear the screen |
Ctrl-Shift-E / Cmd-Shift-E |
Toggle the file-tree sidebar |
Esc |
Close topmost modal · cancel slash menu · dismiss toast |
Composer
Editing the message you're about to send.
| Chord |
Action |
Enter |
Send the message (or run the slash command) |
Alt-Enter / Ctrl-J |
Insert a newline without sending |
Ctrl-U |
Delete to start of line |
Ctrl-W |
Delete previous word |
Ctrl-A / Home |
Move to start of line |
Ctrl-E / End |
Move to end of line |
Ctrl-← / Alt-← |
Move backward one word |
Ctrl-→ / Alt-→ |
Move forward one word |
Ctrl-V / Cmd-V |
Paste from clipboard (also bracketed-paste auto-handled) |
Ctrl-Y |
Yank (paste) from kill buffer |
↑ / ↓ |
Cycle composer history (also selects popup/attachment items) |
Ctrl-P / Ctrl-N |
Cycle composer history (alternative) |
Ctrl-S |
Stash current draft (/stash list, /stash pop to recover) |
Alt-R |
Search prompt history (Alt-R to exit) |
Tab |
Slash-command / @-mention completion (popup-aware) |
Ctrl-O |
Open external editor for the composer draft |
@ mentions
Type @<partial> to open the file mention popup. ↑/↓ cycle the entries, Tab or Enter accepts. Esc hides the popup. As of v0.8.10 (#441), completions are re-ranked by mention frecency — files you mention often + recently float to the top.
# quick-add (memory)
When [memory] enabled = true, typing # foo and pressing Enter appends foo as a timestamped bullet to your memory file without sending a turn. See docs/MEMORY.md.
Transcript (when transcript has focus)
| Chord |
Action |
↑ / ↓ / j / k |
Scroll one line (v0.8.13+: bare arrows also scroll when composer empty) |
PgUp / PgDn |
Scroll one page |
Home / g |
Jump to top |
End / G |
Jump to bottom |
Esc |
Return focus to composer |
y |
Yank selected region to clipboard |
v |
Begin / extend visual selection |
o |
Open URL under cursor (OSC 8 capable terminals) |
| Chord |
Action |
↑ / ↓ / j / k |
Move selection |
Enter |
Activate the selected item (open / focus / cancel) |
Tab |
Cycle to next sidebar panel (Files → Tasks → Agents → Todos) |
Esc |
Return focus to composer |
Slash-command palette (after Ctrl-K or typing /)
| Chord |
Action |
↑ / ↓ |
Move selection |
Enter / Tab |
Run / complete the highlighted command |
Esc |
Dismiss palette |
Approval modal (when a tool requests approval)
| Chord |
Action |
y / Y |
Approve once |
a / A |
Approve all (auto-approve subsequent calls) |
n / N / Esc |
Deny |
e |
Edit the approved input before running |
Onboarding (first-run flow)
| Chord |
Action |
Enter |
Advance to next step (Welcome → Language → API → …) |
Esc |
Step back one screen |
1–5 |
Pick a language (Language step) |
y / Y |
Trust the workspace (Trust step) |
n / N |
Skip the trust prompt |
v0.8.13 audit notes
- Ctrl-S is stash, not history search. Fixed in this revision —
Alt-R is history search.
- Phantom
Alt+Up removed. The "Edit last queued message" binding was listed in README but never existed in the key dispatch code.
- Bare Up/Down arrows scroll transcript when composer empty (v0.8.13). Previously the
should_scroll_with_arrows gate was hardcoded to false, meaning bare arrows always navigated composer history even when the composer was empty. Users in virtual terminals (Ghostty, Codex, Kitty-protocol) were especially affected because they couldn't use Cmd+Up / Alt+Up shortcuts.
- Configurable keymap (#436) and
tui.toml (#437) remain deferred. The TuiPrefs struct and loader exist in settings.rs but are not wired at startup. The named-binding registry that would let ~/.deepseek/tui.toml override individual entries is still pending.
- No other broken bindings found. Every other chord listed above resolves to a live handler in
crates/tui/src/tui/ui.rs (key-event dispatch) or crates/tui/src/tui/app.rs (mode + state transitions).
Hunter Bown