Keyboard

A terminal’s keyboard belongs to the program running in it. Termina keeps its own commands to chords a shell does not use, and handles a few keys itself where every terminal does.

The full list of commands and their default chords is on the Keybindings page. This page covers the rules behind them, and how to change any of them.

Chords that leave the shell its keys

• On Linux and Windows an application chord is Ctrl+Shift+key, never Ctrl+key. The plain form belongs to the shell: Ctrl+T is readline’s transpose, Ctrl+W deletes a word, Ctrl+C is SIGINT, Ctrl+V is literal-next. So New Tab is Ctrl+Shift+T, Copy is Ctrl+Shift+C and Paste is Ctrl+Shift+V.
• On macOS it is Cmd+key, because Cmd is not a key a shell ever sees: Cmd+T, Cmd+C, Cmd+V.
• A few chords are the platform’s own. Settings is Ctrl+, (Cmd+, on macOS). Zoom is Ctrl+=, Ctrl+- and Ctrl+0 (Cmd+=, Cmd+-, Cmd+0). Full Screen is F11 (Ctrl+Cmd+F on macOS). Close Window is Ctrl+Shift+Q, as in GNOME Terminal and Konsole (Cmd+Shift+W on macOS).
• The chords work with the menu bar hidden. They are handled by the window, ahead of the terminal, not by the menus.

Every default chord is declared once, with its menu item, and the menu, the palette and the reference all read the chord a command is on now, so none of them can advertise a chord that does nothing.

The command palette

Ctrl+Shift+P (Cmd+Shift+P on macOS) opens it, as in Windows Terminal and VS Code.

• Type part of a name. “nw” finds New Window, “tab close” finds Close Tab with the words in either order, and “file new” reaches New Tab through the menu it lives in. The matched letters are shown in bold, and each row shows its chord.
• Everything is there: every menu command, every open tab by its title (with the chord that reaches it), every shell profile (“New Tab: zsh”), and every theme (“Theme: Clear Dark”).
• A command that cannot run right now is greyed, not hidden. Reopen Closed Tab, with nothing closed yet, stays in the list with the reason as its tooltip, and the cursor steps over it.
• A line under the list says what the highlighted command does, and a legend names the keys.
• Enter or a click runs the command; Esc closes the palette.

The keys in it are the arrows and Emacs’s:

The query field takes the Emacs editing keys: Ctrl+A, Ctrl+E, Ctrl+F, Ctrl+B, Alt+F, Alt+B, Ctrl+D, Ctrl+K, Alt+D, Ctrl+W, Alt+W, Ctrl+Y and Ctrl+/.

The palette’s own chord

Ctrl+Shift+P is the palette’s default, and like every other chord it can be changed: it is the Command Palette… row under View on Settings → Keyboard (below). It used to have a row of its own on the Terminal page; a chord chosen there is kept.

Until 0.13.0 the default was Alt+X, Emacs’s M-x. That took M-x from Emacs and zsh running in the terminal, so it moved. If you had chosen a chord yourself, Alt+X included, you keep it.

Changing a shortcut

Settings → Keyboard lists every command under the menu it lives in, each with the shortcut it is on now. The settings search finds them by name, such as “close tab”.

• Click a shortcut and press the new one. It applies at once, in every window.
• A shortcut another command has is not taken on the first press. The row names the command that has it. Press it again to move it, and that command is left with none.
• Backspace or Delete removes a shortcut, leaving the command on no key.
• Reset puts one command back on its default. If another command has that chord now, it asks first, because that command is left with none. Reset All Shortcuts asks, then puts every command back.
• Commands with no shortcut of their own can be given one: Rename Tab, Duplicate Tab, Move Pane to New Tab and Sync Settings Now among them.
• Tab and Shift+Tab leave the field, as they do everywhere; Ctrl+Tab is a chord.

Two rules come from the shell’s side of the keyboard:

• A bare key is refused. A function key works on its own; any other key needs Ctrl, Alt or Cmd, or the shell would lose it. Shift alone does not count, since Shift+X is a capital letter.
• On Linux and Windows, Ctrl with a letter is allowed, with a note that the shell no longer receives it. Bound to a command, Ctrl+R is no longer readline’s history search. None of the defaults are Ctrl+letter for that reason.

Everything that shows a chord shows the one in force: the menus, the palette’s rows and its opener, the Keyboard Shortcuts reference, and the tooltips on the tab strip’s + and close buttons. A command with no shortcut shows none. The Keybindings page on this site lists the defaults.

The shortcuts you change can follow you to your other computers: see Settings sync.

In the settings file

Each changed command is one line in settings.properties, keyed by the command:

keys.newTab=Ctrl+Shift+Y
keys.closeTab=none

• A command with no line is on its default, unless another command has been given that chord. none leaves a command on no key.
• The name is the command’s id, usually its menu name run together (newTab, closeTab, splitRight, commandPalette), though not always: Sync Settings Now is syncNow. The tab chords are goToTab1 to goToTab9 (goToTab9 is the last tab), and the profile chords newTabProfile1 to newTabProfile9.
• A chord is written with Ctrl, Alt, Shift, Meta (Cmd) and Shortcut, which is Cmd on macOS and Ctrl elsewhere, then the key: Shortcut+Shift+T, Alt+X, F9.
• A line that does not parse, or takes a chord another line already took, is ignored, as if it were not there. A line naming a command this version does not have is left in the file.

The Keyboard Shortcuts reference

Help → Keyboard Shortcuts… (Ctrl+Shift+/, Cmd+/ on macOS) lists every chord the window answers to, grouped by menu, with a search box. It is built from the window’s own binding table, with the chords in force, so it cannot list a chord that does not work and shows a changed shortcut as you changed it. It also lists the keys and gestures the terminal handles itself (below). Esc closes it.

Alt, Option and AltGr

• Alt is Meta by default. Alt+F sends ESC f, which readline reads as M-f (forward a word), and the same goes for M-b, M-d and the rest.
• On macOS, Option is Meta too, and the key is sent as itself. Option is normally a compose key (Option+F types ƒ), and Termina sends ESC f, not an escape followed by ƒ.
• Turn it off under Settings → Terminal → Input → Use Alt as Meta to let Alt or Option compose characters instead, which is what macOS Option normally does.
• AltGr is left alone. On Windows and Linux AltGr arrives as Ctrl+Alt, and layouts use it to type @, { and €. A character AltGr composes reaches the shell as that character.
• Ctrl+Alt+letter sends Meta plus the control byte, readline’s C-M-f and C-M-b, when the key is the plain letter and not an AltGr character. Like Meta, this needs Alt as Meta on.
• Printable characters come from what the system composed, so dead keys and input methods work.

Keys the terminal handles itself

• The four scrolling keys go to the program on the alternate screen. A full-screen program such as less has no scrollback behind it, and binds Shift+PageUp itself.
• Middle-click pastes the clipboard, not the X11 primary selection, which JavaFX cannot read.
• Esc does not leave full screen. Only F11 (Ctrl+Cmd+F on macOS) does, so Esc in vim leaves insert mode as it should.
• Ctrl+3 through Ctrl+8 send xterm’s control bytes, and the keypad arrows work with NumLock off.

The mouse gestures, such as Shift+drag to select inside a program that has the mouse, are on Selection and the mouse.

Tabs from the keyboard

These are the defaults; each can be changed on Settings → Keyboard.

A number past the last tab selects nothing, so that you do not land on the wrong tab. See Tabs and windows and Shell profiles.