Keyboard Shortcuts

Every command's keyboard shortcut can be changed, removed, or added with the keys setting. This page covers the setting and lists every command with its id and default shortcut.

Menus, the command palette (⇧⌘P), and button tooltips show each command's current shortcut.

Changing a shortcut

Add a keys section under This app in Settings (⌘,) and relaunch. Each entry is a command's id and the chords that run it.

"keys": {
  "pane.splitRight": ["Mod-Alt-d"],
  "editor.duplicateLine": "Mod-d",
  "terminal.toggle": []
}

With that section, Split Right moves to a new chord, Duplicate Line takes the chord Split Right had, and Toggle Terminal has no shortcut.

• An entry replaces all of its command's default chords.
• A chord you assign is taken from the command that had it. That command keeps its other chords.
• An entry is one chord or a list of chords. An empty list leaves the command with no shortcut.
• A chord you assign also works while you type in a note, in place of whatever the editor used that chord for.

The setting belongs to this app on this computer. It applies whichever server's notes the window shows.

As you type, the Settings dialog lists each entry it cannot use. The command that entry names keeps its default shortcut.

Writing a chord

A chord is its modifiers and then one key, joined with -, as in Mod-Shift-d. Joining with + works too.

Mod is the Command key on a Mac and Ctrl on Linux and Windows. Meta is the Command key on a Mac and the Super or Windows key elsewhere.

A chord needs Mod, Ctrl or Alt, because a key pressed alone is typing. A function key is the exception and can stand alone.

For a character typed with Shift, write Shift and the key it is on: Mod-Shift-], not Mod-}.

Shortcuts that cannot be changed

• Escape, which closes or leaves whatever is in front.
• ⌘1 to ⌘9, which switch workspace, and ⌃1 to ⌃9, which go to a tab.
• The single keys that act on a focused row, such as Enter, D and R.
• Copy, paste and select all in the terminal.
• On a Mac, the menu bar's own shortcuts: Hide, Hide Others, Quit, Minimize, Undo, Redo and Enter Full Screen.

With the terminal focused, Ctrl chords go to the shell whatever they are assigned to. On a Mac that is every Ctrl chord. On Linux and Windows it is Ctrl with neither Shift nor Alt.

Commands and their default shortcuts

The id is what a keys entry names. A command with no default has no shortcut until you give it one.

Notes and search

Editing

These run in the note you are typing in.

Tabs and panes

Workspaces

Locking and note settings

Window and app

Sidebar and panel rows

These act on the focused row of a list, where each already has a single key. A chord given to one works while a row of its kind has focus.