Keyboard Shortcuts - Claude Code
50+ customizable shortcuts for cancel, history, transcript, and more.
Claude Code ships with 50+ keyboard shortcuts covering session control, history navigation, transcript viewing, and prompt editing.
What it does
Default bindings include Ctrl+C to cancel the current turn, Ctrl+R for reverse history search, Ctrl+O for the transcript viewer, and Alt+T to toggle extended thinking. You can remap any of them by editing ~/.claude/keybindings.json. Bindings respect modifier combinations and chord sequences.
When to use it
- You want to move faster in long sessions without reaching for the mouse.
- Your muscle memory from vim, emacs, or readline needs specific keys.
- You have conflicts with your terminal multiplexer or IDE bindings.
- You run Claude Code across machines and want a portable keymap.
Gotchas
- Some shortcuts won't fire inside tmux unless you pass through the prefix key.
- Remote sessions over SSH can swallow Alt-based chords. Use Escape-prefix alternatives.
- Vim mode overrides several defaults while in normal mode - see the vim mode guide for the full map.
Official docs: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/keybindings.md
Technical content at the intersection of AI and development. Building with AI agents, Claude Code, and modern dev tools - then showing you exactly how it works.
Get the weekly deep dive
Tutorials on Claude Code, AI agents, and dev tools - delivered free every week.
Was this helpful?




