Keys
Terminal Delight's keys come in three kinds. Alt with an arrow or a letter, and anything with Ctrl+Alt, belongs to the window: moving between panes, splitting, closing. Ctrl+Shift with a letter belongs to the pane: copy, paste, new tab, the panels. Everything else goes to whatever is on top, and underneath everything is the terminal.
So the window keys work the same whether a pane is showing its terminal or its workbench, and a shell never receives them. Ctrl+C always reaches a running program, and Esc closes the popup on top before a terminal ever sees it.
The ones worth learning first:
| F1 | help: every shortcut, and the language |
| Alt+K | terminal ⇄ workbench |
| Alt+V / Alt+H | split beside / below |
| Alt+arrows | move between panes |
| Alt+W / Ctrl+W | close a pane / a tab |
| Ctrl+Shift+Z | bring back what you closed |
| Ctrl+Shift+T | new tab |
| Ctrl+Shift+C / V | copy / paste |
| Ctrl+Shift+N | which agent needs you |
| Alt+R | read this pane big |
None of it can be rebound: there's no keymap file.
Technical lists every key, surface by surface.
Every key
Where a keystroke goes#
Checked in this order, and the first taker keeps it: F1, then Alt+K, then window chords, the paint overlay, open menus, the focus reader, pane chords, a sticky note being written, a rename box, a floating document, the document face, the workbench, and last the terminal. Window chords are Ctrl+Alt+anything, and Alt with an arrow or R V H W K. Pane chords are Ctrl+Shift with T C V K A B N Z U Y D G F, plus Ctrl+W, Ctrl+F, Ctrl+X and Alt+S. Alt+B and Alt+F stay with readline.
Panes and tabs#
| Alt+← → ↑ ↓ | focus the pane that way; nothing that way, nothing happens |
| Alt+V | split, new pane beside |
| Alt+H, Ctrl+Alt+D | split, new pane below |
| Alt+W | close the pane, into the bay |
| Ctrl+W | close the tab; always asks CLOSE TAB? |
| Ctrl+Shift+T | new tab, with its name box open |
| Ctrl+PgUp / PgDn | previous / next tab |
| Ctrl+Shift+PgUp / PgDn | move the tab left / right, within its group |
| Ctrl+Shift+Z | reopen the newest thing in the bay; again to go further back |
A tab holds up to four panes. Tab names are up to 18 characters, pane names up to 24.
Left bar#
| Ctrl+Shift+B | show or hide the bar |
| Ctrl+Alt+↑ / ↓ | move the highlight a row |
| Ctrl+Alt+→ | unfold; step into; on a task, open it |
| Ctrl+Alt+← | fold; otherwise up to the parent |
| Ctrl+Alt+1–9 | jump to that top-level branch |
| Ctrl+Alt+R | rename the highlighted row, or the active tab |
Terminal#
| Enter | submit |
| Shift+Enter, Alt+Enter | a new line in Claude Code's or Codex's input |
| Ctrl+letter | the control character, as in any terminal |
| Ctrl+← / → | word left / right in the shell |
| Shift+← / → | extend the selection a character; with Ctrl, a word |
| PgUp / PgDn | scroll back, in agent panes; in a shell they go to the shell |
| Ctrl+Home / End | oldest / newest line, in every pane |
| Ctrl+Shift+K | clear the scrollback |
Programs that manage their own screen, such as less, vim and tmux, get the paging keys themselves.
Clipboard and find#
| Ctrl+Shift+C | copy, also to the primary selection |
| Ctrl+Shift+V | paste |
| Ctrl+X | cut: copies the selection, and erases it if it's what you just typed; with nothing selected, the shell gets ^X |
| Ctrl+F | find in this pane |
| Ctrl+Shift+F | find in every pane |
In find, ↓ Tab and ↑ move between hits, Enter jumps to one, Esc closes.
Panels#
| Ctrl+Shift+A | the agent wall |
| Ctrl+Shift+U, Ctrl+Shift+Y | usage; Y for when an input method takes U |
| Ctrl+Shift+D | this pane's DESIGN tray: themes and colour |
| Ctrl+Shift+G | this pane's GAUGES tray: grade, warp and crawl |
| Ctrl+Shift+N | the attention queue |
| Alt+R | the focus reader |
| Alt+S | stick a note on the pane; while writing, post it |
| Alt+Backspace | peel the note off, while there is one |
| Esc | close the popup on top |
The attention queue and the focus reader have keys of their own, on their pages.
Workbench, reading#
| Alt+1–4 | OVERVIEW, ARTIFACTS, DECISIONS, COMMENTS |
| Tab | next shelf |
| ↓ / ↑ | walk the cards |
| Enter | the card's first action; on an empty shell bench, launch an agent |
| 1–9 | answer a waiting question; otherwise digits type |
| any letter | start writing to the agent |
| Alt+M | a private note on the COMMENTS shelf |
| Esc | close one layer; never leaves the bench |
| Ctrl+C | interrupts the agent, as in the terminal |
Workbench, writing#
Nothing reaches the agent until you send.
| Enter | send |
| Shift+Enter, Alt+Enter | new line |
| Ctrl+G | pause the agent's turn |
| Ctrl+C | copy the selection, or the whole draft |
| Ctrl+V, Shift+Insert | paste, images too |
| Ctrl+A | select the whole draft |
| Ctrl+Z | undo |
| Ctrl+U / Ctrl+K | delete to the start / end |
| Ctrl+Backspace / Alt+D | delete a word left / right |
| ↑ / ↓ | move between lines; on an empty draft, recall what you sent |
| Esc | close, dropping the draft |
A comment note takes the same editing keys; Enter posts it and Esc discards it. Nothing typed there reaches the agent.
Documents#
| 0 / 1 | fit / actual size |
| + = / - | zoom in / out |
| arrows, PgUp PgDn | pan, or most of a screen |
| Alt+K | back to the terminal |
| Esc, over a floating document | close it |
Paint overlay#
Raised by terminal-delight ctl paint on. A set's first letter paints it; arrows walk the panes; d hands the pane back; z / Shift+Z turn the shelf; f jumps to favourites and Shift+F stars; Esc folds it. Other letters are swallowed, and chords with a modifier pass through. Themes has more.
Mouse#
| double / triple click | select a word / a line |
| right-click | Open here · Copy link · Copy · Paste · Clear |
| Ctrl+click a link or path | open it |
| Shift+click a file | show it in the file manager |
| Alt+click a document | float it over the pane; again to make it a split |
| Ctrl+Alt+click a document | open it in a pane beside |
| Alt+click a command | copy the line |
| right-click a name | rename; Ctrl+click for colour and group |
| Ctrl+wheel | size what's under the pointer: text, bench or chrome |
| drop a file | on the bench, its path; on the terminal, pasted |
On the desktop#
- Ctrl+Alt+T on GNOME opens Terminal Delight, once
scripts/install-hotkey.shhas bound it. The app itself does nothing with that chord. - Super+Alt+T on Hyprland or Omarchy moves the focused terminal, and the agent in it, into Terminal Delight, once
scripts/install-send-hotkey.shhas bound it. - Super+Alt+P on Omarchy raises the paint overlay, once Terminal Paint, the 🎨 in the Omarchy bar, has bound it. The app answers
terminal-delight ctl paint onwithout it. - Super+W on Omarchy closes the whole window: that's the desktop's key, not Terminal Delight's.
TD_KEYDEBUG=1 prints where each keystroke went.
Sources
- The routing order and chord sets: keylayer.rs; window keys: main.rs; pane keys: pane.rs; the workbench: workbench.rs and pane/bench.rs; documents: docopen.rs.