Keyboard Shortcuts

Released (v0.17.0)Available in stable release v0.17.0.

NMSh provides rich, native editor keybindings across macOS, Linux, and Windows terminal hosts. It natively supports the Kitty keyboard protocol (utilized by modern emulators like Ghostty and Kitty) for unambiguous modifier detection, while preserving traditional terminal escape sequences.

Input & Multiline Editing

Shortcut	Action	Notes
Enter	Submit command	Executes current buffer in the live shell.
Shift + Enter	Insert newline	True multiline input support.
Ctrl + J	Fallback newline	Alternate newline trigger for standard terminal configurations.
Backspace	Delete character before caret	Standard backspace.
Option + Backspace / Alt + Backspace	Delete word before caret	Deletes previous token/word.
Ctrl + U	Delete line before caret	Clears from cursor back to the start of the current line.
Ctrl + K	Delete line after caret	Clears from cursor forward to the end of the line.
Delete	Delete character after caret	Forward deletion.

Caret Movement & Text Navigation

Shortcut	Action	Notes
Left / Right Arrow	Move caret left / right	Single grapheme movement.
Alt + Left / Option + Left / Ctrl + Left	Move word left	Word boundary navigation.
Alt + Right / Option + Right / Ctrl + Right	Move word right	Word boundary navigation.
Home / Cmd + Left	Move to start of line	Goes to first character on current row.
End / Cmd + Right	Move to end of line	Goes to last character on current row.
Cmd + Up	Move to buffer start	Jumps to beginning of entire multiline input.
Cmd + Down	Move to buffer end	Jumps to end of entire multiline input.

Text Selection

NMSh supports terminal-native cursor-driven selection inside the composer:

Shortcut	Action	Notes
Shift + Left / Shift + Right	Select character left / right	Expands/contracts selection.
Shift + Up / Shift + Down	Select row up / down	Multiline vertical selection.
Alt + Shift + Left / Option + Shift + Left	Select word left	Selects whole word token to the left.
Alt + Shift + Right / Option + Shift + Right	Select word right	Selects whole word token to the right.
Cmd + Shift + Left	Select to line start	Selects everything to beginning of row.
Cmd + Shift + Right	Select to line end	Selects everything to end of row.
Alt + A / Cmd + A	Select entire buffer	Highlights all text in the composer.

Autocomplete & Suggestions

Shortcut	Action	Notes
Tab	Accept top suggestion / cycle	Invokes shell tab-completion or accepts top ghost suggestion.
Right Arrow / End	Accept ghost text	Fills in the suggested completion if caret is at end of input.
Alt + Right / Option + Right	Accept next word of suggestion	Accepts a single token from ghost text.
Ctrl + N	Next suggestion	Cycles downward through completion menu choices.
Ctrl + P	Previous suggestion	Cycles upward through completion menu choices.
Escape	Dismiss suggestion popup	Closes suggestion overlay without altering input text.

Transcript & Viewport Control

Shortcut	Action	Notes
PageUp / PageDown	Scroll viewport	Detaches viewport from the bottom to inspect history.
Ctrl + O	Toggle output folding	Expands or collapses long command output blocks.
Ctrl + R	Interactive history search	Opens history picker with fuzzy filtering.
Ctrl + F	Transcript search (/find)	Launches in-transcript search bar.
Ctrl + Shift + P / F1	Command Palette	Launches the slash-command selector.
Shift + Tab	Focus previous control	Cycles focus between composer, status bar, and active accessories.

Terminal Host Integration Details

Ghostty & Kitty

When running in Ghostty or Kitty, NMSh negotiates Kitty keyboard protocol flags (CSI > 1 u). This eliminates ambiguous escape sequences (such as distinguishing Escape from Alt-prefixed characters) and enables key combinations like Cmd+Arrow and Shift+Enter out of the box.

macOS Terminal.app & iTerm2

In Terminal.app and iTerm2, ensure “Use Option as Meta key” or “Esc+” is enabled in your profile settings to allow Option+Backspace and word navigation keys to function properly.