Keyboard Shortcuts
Updated
RightNow Agent, the terminal coding agent, is paused. Its guides stay online as reference.
Find the shortcut for the pane you are using, then check its state-specific action.
Bindings are built in and cannot be remapped. The shortcuts bar at the bottom of the TUI shows the keys for the current pane and state.
Simple and vim navigation
| Action | Simple mode | Vim mode |
|---|---|---|
| Previous / next entry | Simple mode: Up / Down | Vim mode: k / j |
| Previous / next user turn | Simple mode: Shift+Left / Shift+Right | Vim mode: H / L |
| Previous / next assistant response | Simple mode: No single-key binding | Vim mode: K / J |
| Collapse / expand | Simple mode: Left / Right | Vim mode: h / l |
| Top / bottom | Simple mode: Use page scrolling | Vim mode: g / G |
| Focus composer | Simple mode: Space or type a letter | Vim mode: i, Tab, or Space |
Simple mode is the default. Toggle vim navigation with /vim-mode or set vim_mode = true under [ui] in ~/.rightnow/config.toml. Single-letter scrollback keys need vim mode; arrows, Tab, Esc, Space, PageUp, PageDown, and Ctrl shortcuts work in both.
Composer
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Enter | Action: In normal input mode, send while idle or queue the draft during a turn. While blocked on a background task or subagent, send the draft as the next turn. On an empty composer mid-turn, send the first queued item now. |
| Ctrl+Enter / Ctrl+I | Action: Send now: cancel the foreground turn and send the current or first queued message next, keeping background tasks, subagents, and the remaining queue. VS Code-family terminals use Ctrl+L; Apple Terminal adds Ctrl+O. |
| Ctrl+M | Action: Toggle multiline mode. In that mode, Enter adds a line and Shift+Enter or Alt+Enter sends. Empty-composer Enter still sends a queued item during a turn. |
| Shift+Tab | Action: Cycle Normal, Plan, Auto, and Always-approve. Skip Auto when disabled and Always-approve when policy blocks it. A visible planning hint can take the next press directly to Plan. |
| Tab | Action: Move focus to scrollback. |
| Up | Action: On an empty normal composer, open prompt history with the newest item loaded. |
| ! | Action: On an empty composer, enter shell mode. |
| Ctrl+C | Action: With the composer focused, clear a non-empty draft first; with an empty composer, cancel the running turn. During cancellation, Ctrl+C quits. |
| Esc Esc | Action: While idle in normal input mode, with no overlay or prompt-history search: press twice within 800 ms to clear a focused non-empty prompt, or open rewind from an empty prompt when the session has messages. Rewind is suppressed for about 1 second after cancellation. |
| Ctrl+Z | Action: Undo the last edit, such as a cleared draft. |
With [ui] follow_up_behavior = "queue", queued follow-ups wait for the current turn to end. With "steer", they can enter the running turn at the next tool or model safe gap. Send now interrupts the foreground turn.
Scrollback
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| PageUp / PageDown | Action: Scroll one page, also from an ordinary focused composer. |
| Ctrl+K / Ctrl+J | Action: Scroll one line without changing the selected entry. |
| Ctrl+U / Ctrl+D | Action: Scroll half a page. VS Code-family terminals use Shift+D in vim navigation; use PageDown in simple mode. |
| Enter / Ctrl+F | Action: Open the selected block in the fullscreen viewer. |
| Ctrl+E | Action: Expand or collapse all thinking blocks. |
| y / Y | Action: In vim mode, copy the selected block, or its metadata such as the command that ran. |
| Tab | Action: Return focus to the composer. |
Blocking cards
| Context | Keys | Action |
|---|---|---|
| All cards | Keys: Tab / Shift+Tab | Action: Cycle the current card's rows without moving to another pane. |
| Question | Keys: Arrows, 1-9, a-f, Enter | Action: Move through questions, choose an answer, or submit free text. |
| Permission | Keys: Arrows, 1-9, Enter | Action: Select a permission response. Ctrl+O enables always-approve when policy permits; Ctrl+C cancels the request. |
| Cancel turn | Keys: Arrows, 1-4, Enter | Action: Choose what to cancel. Esc keeps everything running. |
| Question options | Keys: Esc | Action: Clear the current selection first, then park focus in scrollback. Tab returns to the card. In a dashboard session overlay, Esc on the first question returns to the dashboard. |
| Permission options | Keys: Esc | Action: Park focus in scrollback without approving or denying. Tab returns to the card. |
Panes and global actions
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+P | Action: Open the command palette. With scrollback focused, ? also opens it. |
| Ctrl+M | Action: With scrollback focused, Ctrl+M opens the model picker; with the composer focused, it toggles multiline input. |
| Ctrl+O | Action: Toggle always-approve for the session; enabling it requires policy to permit it. |
| Ctrl+. / Ctrl+X | Action: Ctrl+X opens keyboard shortcuts help when the terminal cannot pass Ctrl+. |
| F2 / Ctrl+, / Cmd+, | Action: F2 opens settings; Ctrl+, and Cmd+, are alternate bindings. |
| Ctrl+S | Action: Open the session picker. |
| Ctrl+; / Ctrl+' | Action: Toggle the prompt queue when it is non-empty. Local macOS VS Code-family terminals use Ctrl+4. |
| Ctrl+T | Action: Toggle the todos pane. |
| Ctrl+G | Action: Toggle the tasks pane in the full TUI. In minimal mode, edit the draft in an external editor. |
| Ctrl+B | Action: Send the running foreground command to the background. |
| Ctrl+L | Action: Open the extensions manager for MCP servers and plugins. VS Code-family terminals use /plugins instead. |
| Ctrl+\ | Action: Open or close the Agent Dashboard. |
| Ctrl+N | Action: Arm new-session creation; press again within 1 second to confirm. |
| Ctrl+Q | Action: Arm quit; press again within 2.5 seconds. VS Code-family terminals use Ctrl+D. |
Image paste
| Action | Windows | macOS | Linux |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paste a screenshot or copied image | Windows: Alt+V | macOS: Cmd+V | Linux: Ctrl+V |
| Paste a copied image file | Windows: Ctrl+V | macOS: Cmd+V | Linux: Ctrl+V |
| Drag an image into the composer | Windows: Explorer | macOS: Finder | Linux: Files or Dolphin |
Other file types insert their absolute path as text. Windows Terminal defaults to text-only Ctrl+V; Alt+V reads an image clipboard.
Welcome screen
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+S | Action: Open the session picker. |
| Ctrl+W | Action: Open New Worktree inside a git repository. |
| Ctrl+I | Action: Import Claude settings when offered. |
| Ctrl+Shift+I | Action: Dismiss the import row when offered. |
Agent Dashboard
| Key | Action while the dashboard is focused |
|---|---|
| Up / Down / j / k | Action while the dashboard is focused: Select an agent row and open its peek. |
| Enter | Action while the dashboard is focused: Open the selected agent, or send the typed reply or dispatch prompt. |
| Ctrl+S | Action while the dashboard is focused: Send the reply or dispatch prompt and attach to the agent. |
| Ctrl+/ | Action while the dashboard is focused: Toggle search and filter input. |
| Ctrl+R | Action while the dashboard is focused: Rename the selected top-level session. |
| Ctrl+T | Action while the dashboard is focused: Pin or unpin the selected agent. |
| Ctrl+G | Action while the dashboard is focused: Group by state or working directory. |
| Ctrl+X | Action while the dashboard is focused: Busy top-level session: stop its turn, child agents, background work, schedules, and queued prompts. Idle deletable row: double-press within 2 seconds to permanently delete. |
| Ctrl+O | Action while the dashboard is focused: Toggle always-approve for the selected loaded top-level session when policy permits. Roster-only rows do not change. |
| Tab | Action while the dashboard is focused: Move focus between the list and the reply or dispatch input. |
| Esc | Action while the dashboard is focused: Step back through search, peek, filter, focus and selection before exiting. |
| Ctrl+\ | Action while the dashboard is focused: Exit the dashboard or return from an attached agent. |
| Ctrl+. / ? | Action while the dashboard is focused: Show dashboard shortcuts. |
Mouse
Click a scrollback entry to select it, use the wheel to scroll, or click the composer to focus it. On Linux X11 or XWayland, middle-click pastes PRIMARY when DISPLAY is set. See Terminal Support for clipboard routes and SSH.
Opt-in: with mouse_reporting_toggle = true under [ui], Ctrl+R in the scrollback toggles mouse reporting so the terminal handles selection and copy natively.
While a turn is running, Esc cancels at once and keeps the draft in minimal mode and in the default simple scrollback mode. In fullscreen vim mode it does not start cancellation; use Ctrl+C. Once cancellation is pending, Esc retries it in every mode. Open menus, searches, selections, and cards take Escape first.
Related
Next task
Send and manage a prompt in the interactive guide.