Interactive mode

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts may vary by platform and terminal. In fullscreen rendering, press ? in the transcript viewer to see available shortcuts there.macOS users: Option/Alt key shortcuts (Alt+B, Alt+F, Alt+Y, Alt+P) require configuring Option as Meta in your terminal. See Enable Option key shortcuts on macOS for the setting in each terminal.

General controls

Shortcut	Description	Context
`Ctrl+C`	Interrupt, or clear input	Interrupts a running operation. If nothing is running, the first press clears the prompt input and a second press exits Claude Code
`Ctrl+X Ctrl+K`	Stop all running background subagents in this session. Press twice within 3 seconds to confirm	Subagent control
`Ctrl+D`	Exit Claude Code session	The first press shows a confirmation hint and a second press within 800ms exits. When the prompt has text, `Ctrl+D` deletes the character after the cursor instead
`Ctrl+G` or `Ctrl+X Ctrl+E`	Open in default text editor	Edit your prompt or custom response in your default text editor. `Ctrl+X Ctrl+E` is the readline-native binding. Turn on Show last response in external editor in `/config` to prepend Claude’s previous reply as `#`-commented context above your prompt; Claude Code strips the comment block when you save
`Ctrl+L`	Redraw screen	Forces a full terminal redraw, keeping input and conversation history. Use this to recover if the display becomes garbled or partially blank. In fullscreen rendering, if you press `Ctrl+L` once, Claude Code redraws the screen and also shows a hint that pressing it again runs `/clear`. If you press it twice within two seconds, Claude Code runs `/clear` and starts a new conversation
`Ctrl+O`	Toggle transcript viewer	Shows detailed tool usage and execution, with a timestamp and the model used on each assistant message. Also expands MCP calls, which collapse to a single line like “Called slack 3 times” by default
`Ctrl+R`	Reverse search command history	Search through previous commands interactively
`Ctrl+V` or `Cmd+V` (iTerm2) or `Alt+V` (Windows and WSL)	Paste image from clipboard	Inserts an `[Image #N]` chip at the cursor so you can reference it positionally in your prompt. On WSL, both `Ctrl+V` and `Alt+V` are bound; use `Alt+V` if your terminal intercepts `Ctrl+V`
`Ctrl+B`	Background running tasks	Backgrounds Bash commands and agents. Tmux users press twice
`Ctrl+T`	Toggle Claude’s task checklist	Show or hide Claude’s to-do checklist in the status area. This is not the background-task view; use `/tasks` to see running shells and subagents
`Ctrl+S`	Stash or restore prompt	With text in the input, stashes it and clears the prompt. Pressed again on an empty prompt, restores the stashed text, cursor position, and pasted content
`Ctrl+Z`	Suspend Claude Code	Unix only. Suspends the process to your shell; run `fg` to resume
`Left/Right arrows`	Cycle through dialog tabs	Navigate between tabs in permission dialogs and menus
`Up/Down arrows` or `Ctrl+P`/`Ctrl+N`	Move cursor or navigate command history	When the input spans more than one visual row, whether wrapped or multiline, first moves the cursor within the prompt. Once the cursor is on the first or last visual row, pressing again navigates command history. While you have messages queued, `Up` from the first row instead takes them back
`Esc`	Interrupt Claude, or close a dialog	Stop the current response or tool call mid-turn so you can redirect. Claude keeps the work done so far. If you have messages queued, Claude Code sends them next. When a dialog such as a permission prompt is open, `Esc` closes the dialog rather than interrupting Claude
`Esc` + `Esc`	Clear input draft, or rewind	When the prompt input contains text, double `Esc` clears it and saves the draft to history so `Up` recalls it. When the input is empty, double `Esc` opens the rewind menu to restore or summarize code and conversation from a previous point
`Shift+Tab`, or `Alt+M` on Windows when the Node or Bun runtime doesn’t enable VT input mode	Cycle permission modes	Cycle through `default` (labeled Manual in the mode indicator), `acceptEdits`, `plan`, and, when available, `bypassPermissions` and then `auto`. From `auto`, the first press switches to `default`. See permission modes.
`Option+P` (macOS) or `Alt+P` (Windows/Linux)	Switch model	Switch models without clearing your prompt
`Option+T` (macOS) or `Alt+T` (Windows/Linux)	Toggle extended thinking	Enable or disable extended thinking mode. Has no effect on Fable 5, which always uses extended thinking. Works on macOS without configuring Option as Meta
`Option+O` (macOS) or `Alt+O` (Windows/Linux)	Toggle fast mode	Enable or disable fast mode

Text editing

Shortcut	Description	Context
`Ctrl+A`	Move cursor to start of current line	In multiline input, moves to the start of the current logical line
`Ctrl+E`	Move cursor to end of current line	In multiline input, moves to the end of the current logical line
`Ctrl+K`	Delete to end of line	Stores deleted text for pasting
`Ctrl+U`	Delete from cursor to line start	Stores deleted text for pasting. Repeat to clear across lines in multiline input. On macOS, terminal emulators including iTerm2 and Terminal.app map `Cmd+Backspace` to this shortcut
`Ctrl+W`	Delete previous word	Stores deleted text for pasting. On macOS, `Option+Delete` also deletes the previous word, and on Windows, `Ctrl+Backspace` does
`Ctrl+Y`	Paste deleted text	Paste text deleted with `Ctrl+K`, `Ctrl+U`, or `Ctrl+W`
`Alt+Y` (after `Ctrl+Y`)	Cycle paste history	After pasting, cycle through previously deleted text. Requires Option as Meta on macOS
`Alt+B`	Move cursor back one word	Word navigation. Requires Option as Meta on macOS
`Alt+F`	Move cursor forward one word	Word navigation. Requires Option as Meta on macOS
`Ctrl+_` or `Ctrl+Shift+-`	Undo last input edit	Restores the previous input text and cursor position

Theme and display

Shortcut	Description	Context
`Ctrl+T`	Toggle syntax highlighting for code blocks	Only works inside the `/theme` picker menu. Controls whether code in Claude’s responses uses syntax coloring

Multiline input

Method	Shortcut	Context
Quick escape	`\` + `Enter`	Works in all terminals
Option key	`Option+Enter`	After enabling Option as Meta on macOS
Shift+Enter	`Shift+Enter`	Native in iTerm2, WezTerm, Ghostty, Kitty, Warp, Apple Terminal, Windows Terminal. For other terminals, see Enter multiline prompts
Control sequence	`Ctrl+J`	Works in any terminal without configuration
Paste mode	Paste directly	For code blocks, logs

Quick commands

Shortcut	Description	Notes
`/` at start	Command or skill	See commands and skills
`!` at start	Shell mode	Run a command directly, add its output to the session, and have Claude respond to it
`@`	File path mention	Trigger file path autocomplete. In sessions with cross-session messaging, when you type at least one letter after the `@`, Claude Code also suggests your other live sessions on this machine, so you can tell Claude to message the one you pick. Requires Claude Code v2.1.232 or later
`:`	Emoji shortcode	Type a full `:name:` to insert the emoji, or two or more characters for suggestions. See Emoji shortcodes. Requires Claude Code v2.1.217 or later
`?` on empty input	Toggle the shortcut help panel	Typing `?` when the input already contains text inserts the character

Transcript viewer

When the transcript viewer is open (toggled with Ctrl+O), these shortcuts are available. Run /tui with no argument to check which renderer is active. Ctrl+E can be rebound via transcript:toggleShowAll.

Shortcut	Description
`?`	Toggle the keyboard shortcut help panel. Requires fullscreen rendering
`{` / `}`	Jump to the previous or next user prompt, like vim paragraph motion. Requires fullscreen rendering
`Ctrl+E`	Toggle show all content. Available in the classic renderer only, not in fullscreen rendering
`[`	Write the full conversation to your terminal’s native scrollback so `Cmd+F`, tmux copy mode, and other native tools can search it. Requires fullscreen rendering
`v`	Write the conversation to a temporary file and open it in `$VISUAL` or `$EDITOR`. Requires fullscreen rendering
`q`, `Ctrl+C`, `Esc`	Exit transcript view. All three can be rebound via `transcript:exit`

Voice input

Shortcut	Description	Notes
Hold or tap `Space`	Voice dictation	Requires voice dictation to be enabled. Hold to record, or run `/voice tap` for tap-to-toggle. Rebindable

Commands

Type / in Claude Code to see all available commands, or type / followed by any letters to filter. The / menu shows everything you can invoke: built-in commands, bundled and user-authored skills, and commands contributed by plugins and MCP servers. Not all built-in commands are visible to every user since some depend on your platform or plan. In fullscreen rendering, the / command and @ file suggestion lists also respond to the mouse: hovering highlights a row and clicking accepts it. See the commands reference for the full list of commands included in Claude Code.

Vim editor mode

Enable vim-style editing via /config → Editor mode.

Mode switching

Command	Action	From mode
`Esc`	Enter NORMAL mode	INSERT, VISUAL
`i`	Insert before cursor	NORMAL
`I`	Insert at beginning of line	NORMAL
`a`	Insert after cursor	NORMAL
`A`	Insert at end of line	NORMAL
`o`	Open line below	NORMAL
`O`	Open line above	NORMAL
`v`	Start character-wise visual selection	NORMAL
`V`	Start line-wise visual selection	NORMAL

Remap INSERT-mode key sequences

The vimInsertModeRemaps setting maps a two-key INSERT-mode sequence to Escape, so a mapping like jj returns you to NORMAL mode. Requires Claude Code v2.1.208 or later. The following ~/.claude/settings.json example turns on vim mode and maps jj to Escape:

{
  "editorMode": "vim",
  "vimInsertModeRemaps": { "jj": "<Esc>" }
}

Each key is exactly two printable characters typed in sequence, and "<Esc>" is the only supported target. Entries with a different length or target are ignored. Typing the first character of a sequence inserts it normally. Pressing the second character within one second removes that pending character and switches to NORMAL mode, leaving neither character in your input. After the one-second window, or if a different key follows, both characters stay as literal text, so you can still type a word containing the sequence by pausing between the two keys. Claude Code reads this setting from your user settings file, the --settings flag, and managed settings only. Entries in a project’s .claude/settings.json or .claude/settings.local.json are ignored, so a checked-out repository can’t remap your keystrokes.

Command	Action
`h`/`j`/`k`/`l`	Move left/down/up/right
`Space`	Move right
`w`	Next word
`e`	End of word
`b`	Previous word
`0`	Beginning of line
`$`	End of line
`^`	First non-blank character
`gg`	Beginning of input
`G`	End of input

Reference

Glossary

Keyboard shortcuts

General controls

Text editing

Theme and display

Multiline input

Quick commands

Transcript viewer

Voice input

Commands

Vim editor mode

Mode switching

Remap INSERT-mode key sequences

Navigation (NORMAL mode)

​Keyboard shortcuts

​General controls

​Text editing

​Theme and display

​Multiline input

​Quick commands

​Transcript viewer

​Voice input

​Commands

​Vim editor mode

​Mode switching

​Remap INSERT-mode key sequences

​Navigation (NORMAL mode)

Keyboard shortcuts

General controls

Text editing

Theme and display

Multiline input

Quick commands

Transcript viewer

Voice input

Commands

Vim editor mode

Mode switching

Remap INSERT-mode key sequences

Navigation (NORMAL mode)