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:

iTerm2: Settings → Profiles → Keys → General → set Left/Right Option key to “Esc+”
Apple Terminal: Settings → Profiles → Keyboard → check “Use Option as Meta Key”
VS Code: set "terminal.integrated.macOptionIsMeta": true in VS Code settings

See Terminal configuration for details.

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. Input and conversation history are kept. Use this to recover if the display becomes garbled or partially blank
`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. As of v2.1.169, wrapped single-line input behaves the same as multiline
`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. When a dialog such as a permission prompt is open, `Esc` closes the dialog rather than interrupting Claude. Before v2.1.202, `Esc` on some dialogs interrupted Claude and left the dialog open
`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 any modes you have enabled, such as `auto` or `bypassPermissions`. 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. As of v2.1.132 this shortcut 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 Windows, `Ctrl+Backspace` also deletes the previous word
`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
Control sequence	`Ctrl+J`	Works in any terminal without configuration
Paste mode	Paste directly	For code blocks, logs

Shift+Enter works without configuration in iTerm2, WezTerm, Ghostty, Kitty, Warp, Apple Terminal, and Windows Terminal. For VS Code, Cursor, Devin Desktop, Alacritty, and Zed, run /terminal-setup to install the binding.

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
`?` on empty input	Toggle the shortcut help panel	Typing `?` when the input already contains text inserts the character. Before v2.1.211, an edit that left a lone `?` in the input, such as backspacing from `?x`, also toggled the panel and discarded the edit

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. In fullscreen rendering, press ? to show the full shortcut reference panel inside the viewer. 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 default 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
`f{char}`	Jump to next occurrence of character
`F{char}`	Jump to previous occurrence of character
`t{char}`	Jump to just before next occurrence of character
`T{char}`	Jump to just after previous occurrence of character
`;`	Repeat last f/F/t/T motion
`,`	Repeat last f/F/t/T motion in reverse
`/`	Open reverse history search, same as `Ctrl+R`. As of v2.1.191, the empty search prompt shows a hint: press `Esc` then `i` then `/` to open the command menu instead

In vim normal mode, if the cursor is at the beginning or end of input and can’t move further, j/k and the arrow keys navigate command history instead.

Editing (NORMAL mode)

Command	Action
`x`	Delete character
`dd`	Delete line
`D`	Delete to end of line
`dw`/`de`/`db`	Delete word/to end/back
`cc`	Change line
`C`	Change to end of line
`cw`/`ce`/`cb`	Change word/to end/back
`s`	Substitute character: delete the character under the cursor and enter INSERT mode. Requires Claude Code v2.1.211 or later
`S`	Substitute line: clear the line and enter INSERT mode. Requires Claude Code v2.1.211 or later
`yy`/`Y`	Yank (copy) line
`yw`/`ye`/`yb`	Yank word/to end/back
`p`	Paste after cursor
`P`	Paste before cursor
`>>`	Indent line
`<<`	Dedent line
`J`	Join lines
`u`	Undo
`.`	Repeat last change

Text objects (NORMAL mode)

Text objects work with operators like d, c, and y:

Command	Action
`iw`/`aw`	Inner/around word
`iW`/`aW`	Inner/around WORD (whitespace-delimited)
`i"`/`a"`	Inner/around double quotes
`i'`/`a'`	Inner/around single quotes
`i(`/`a(`	Inner/around parentheses
`i[`/`a[`	Inner/around brackets
`i{`/`a{`	Inner/around braces

Visual mode

Press v for character-wise selection or V for line-wise selection. Motions extend the selection, and operators act on it directly.

Command	Action
`d`/`x`	Delete selection
`y`	Yank selection
`c`/`s`	Change selection
`p`	Replace selection with register contents
`r{char}`	Replace every selected character with `{char}`
`~`/`u`/`U`	Toggle, lowercase, or uppercase selection
`>`/`<`	Indent or dedent selected lines
`J`	Join selected lines
`o`	Swap cursor and anchor
`iw`/`aw`/`i"`/…	Select a text object
`v`/`V`	Toggle between character-wise and line-wise, or exit

Block-wise visual mode with Ctrl+V is not supported.

Command history

Claude Code maintains command history for the current session:

Input history is stored per working directory
Input history resets when you run /clear to start a new session. The previous session’s conversation is preserved and can be resumed.
Submitting the same prompt twice in a row records one history entry, so pressing Up steps to the previous distinct prompt
Use Up/Down arrows to navigate (see keyboard shortcuts above)
History expansion with ! is disabled by default

Reverse search with Ctrl+R

Press Ctrl+R to interactively search through your command history. In fullscreen rendering, Ctrl+R opens a search dialog instead: type to filter, press Up and Down to move through matches, and press Ctrl+S to cycle the scope through this session, this project, and all projects. Press Enter or Tab to place a match in the prompt input, or Esc to cancel. The steps below describe the default inline search:

Start search: press Ctrl+R to activate reverse history search
Type query: enter text to search for in previous commands. The search term is highlighted in matching results
Navigate matches: press Ctrl+R again to cycle through older matches
Search scope: the inline search always searches prompts from all projects
Accept match:
- Press Tab or Esc to accept the current match and continue editing
- Press Enter to accept and execute the command immediately
Cancel search:
- Press Ctrl+C to cancel and restore your original input
- Press Backspace on empty search to cancel

The inline search scans your full prompt history, newest first, with duplicates collapsed to the newest occurrence. The fullscreen dialog lists the 100 most recent unique prompts in the selected scope. Matching prompts display with the search term highlighted, so you can find and reuse previous inputs. Accepting a match or canceling the search takes effect immediately, even while Claude Code is still loading the history. Before v2.1.202, accepting or canceling during that load could report an internal error.

Background Bash commands

Claude Code supports running Bash commands in the background, allowing you to continue working while long-running processes execute.

How backgrounding works

When Claude Code runs a command in the background, it runs the command asynchronously and immediately returns a background task ID. Claude Code can respond to new prompts while the command continues executing in the background. To run commands in the background, you can either:

Prompt Claude Code to run a command in the background
Press Ctrl+B to move a regular Bash tool invocation to the background. Tmux users must press Ctrl+B twice due to tmux’s prefix key.

Key features:

Output is written to a file and Claude can retrieve it using the Read tool
Background tasks have unique IDs for tracking and output retrieval
Background tasks are automatically cleaned up when Claude Code exits. Backgrounding the session instead of exiting it hands them to the background session, where they keep running. See background a running session
Background tasks are automatically terminated if output exceeds 5GB, with a note in stderr explaining why
As of v2.1.193, on macOS and Linux, running background tasks are terminated when the operating system signals memory pressure, provided the session has been idle for at least 30 minutes with no turn or subagent running. Set CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_BG_SHELL_PRESSURE_REAP to 1 to turn this off

To disable all background task functionality, set the CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_BACKGROUND_TASKS environment variable to 1. See Environment variables for details. Common backgrounded commands:

Build tools (webpack, vite, make)
Package managers (npm, yarn, pnpm)
Test runners (jest, pytest)
Development servers
Long-running processes (docker, terraform)

Shell mode with `!` prefix

Run shell commands directly without going through Claude by prefixing your input with !:

! npm test
! git status
! ls -la

Shell mode:

Adds the command and its output to the conversation context
Shows real-time progress and output
Supports the same Ctrl+B backgrounding for long-running commands
Doesn’t require Claude to interpret or approve the command
Supports history-based autocomplete: type a partial command and press Tab to complete from previous ! commands in the current project
Supports live file path autocomplete as of v2.1.193 on all platforms: type a token containing a forward slash, such as ./src/ or ~/, to see a dropdown of matching files and directories, then press Tab to accept. Use forward slashes on Windows too; the dropdown is triggered by /, not \
Exit with Escape, Backspace, or Ctrl+U on an empty prompt
Pasting text that starts with ! into an empty prompt enters shell mode automatically, matching typed ! behavior

As of v2.1.186, Claude responds to the command output automatically once it lands in the transcript, so you can run ! npm test and get an explanation of the failures without a second prompt. The response costs the same as sending a normal prompt. To restore the earlier behavior where the output is added to context without a response, set respondToBashCommands to false in settings.json. Before v2.1.186, shell mode always added output to context without a response. This is useful for quick shell operations while maintaining conversation context.

Prompt suggestions

When you first open a session, a grayed-out example command appears in the prompt input to help you get started. Claude Code picks this from your project’s git history, so it reflects files you’ve been working on recently. After Claude responds, suggestions continue to appear based on your conversation history, such as a follow-up step from a multi-part request or a natural continuation of your workflow.

Press Tab or Right arrow to place the suggestion in the prompt input, then Enter to submit
Start typing to dismiss it

The suggestion runs as a background request that reuses the parent conversation’s prompt cache, so the additional cost is minimal. Claude Code skips suggestion generation when the cache is cold to avoid unnecessary cost. Suggestions are automatically skipped after the first turn of a conversation and in plan mode. In print mode they are off by default. Pass --prompt-suggestions with -p "<prompt>" --output-format stream-json --verbose to emit a prompt_suggestion message after each turn instead. To disable prompt suggestions entirely, set the environment variable or toggle the setting in /config:

export CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_PROMPT_SUGGESTION=false

Side questions with /btw

Use /btw to ask a quick question about your current work without adding to the conversation history. This is useful when you want a fast answer but don’t want to clutter the main context or derail Claude from a long-running task.

/btw what was the name of that config file again?

Side questions have full visibility into the current conversation, so you can ask about code Claude has already read, decisions it made earlier, or anything else from the session. The question and answer are ephemeral: they appear in a dismissible overlay and never enter the conversation history.

Available while Claude is working: you can run /btw even while Claude is processing a response. The side question runs independently and doesn’t interrupt the main turn.
No tool access: side questions answer only from what is already in context. Claude can’t read files, run commands, or search when answering a side question.
Single response: there are no follow-up turns in the overlay. To continue the thread, fork it into its own session with f.
Low cost: the side question reuses the parent conversation’s prompt cache, so the additional cost is minimal.

Earlier side questions from the same session appear as a dimmed list above the current answer. They stay out of the conversation history but remain visible in the overlay until you clear them. To return to the overlay after dismissing it, run /btw with no question. The overlay reopens on your most recent exchange. Press Left to step back through earlier answers. Before v2.1.212, /btw without a question printed a usage message instead. Once the answer appears, the overlay accepts these keys.

Key	Action
`Space`, `Enter`, `Escape`	Dismiss the answer and return to the prompt
`Up` / `Down`	Scroll the answer
`Left` / `Right`	Step between this answer and your earlier `/btw` answers from the session. `Left` moves to older answers and `Right` returns toward the current one. Requires Claude Code v2.1.187 or later
`c`	Copy the answer to your clipboard as raw Markdown. Use this instead of mouse selection, which captures the hard-wrapped terminal rendering rather than the source text
`f`	Fork into a new session. The fork inherits the parent conversation plus this question and answer as real transcript turns, so you can continue with full tool access. The original session is preserved under `/resume`. Available in local sessions only
`x`	Clear the list of earlier `/btw` exchanges shown above the current answer

/btw is the inverse of a subagent: it sees your full conversation but has no tools, while a subagent has full tools but starts with an empty context. Use /btw to ask about what Claude already knows from this session; use a subagent to go find out something new.

Task list

The task list is Claude’s to-do checklist: items Claude created to plan multi-step work, with indicators showing what’s pending, in progress, or complete. It’s separate from the background-task view. To see running shells and subagents, use /tasks instead.

Press Ctrl+T to toggle the task list view. The display shows up to five tasks at a time. When Claude hasn’t created any checklist items yet, the toggle has no visible effect because there’s nothing to display
To see all tasks or clear them, ask Claude directly: “show me all tasks” or “clear all tasks”
Tasks persist across context compactions, helping Claude stay organized on larger projects
To share a task list across sessions, set CLAUDE_CODE_TASK_LIST_ID to use a named directory in ~/.claude/tasks/: CLAUDE_CODE_TASK_LIST_ID=my-project claude

Session recap

When you return to the terminal after stepping away, Claude Code shows a one-line recap of what happened in the session so far. The recap generates in the background once at least three minutes have passed since the last completed turn and the terminal is unfocused, so it’s ready when you switch back. Recaps only appear once the session has at least three turns, and never twice in a row. Run /recap to generate a summary on demand. To turn automatic recaps off, open /config and disable Session recap. Session recap is on by default for every plan and provider. The recap is always skipped in non-interactive mode.

PR review status

When working on a branch with an open pull request, Claude Code displays a clickable PR link in the footer, such as “PR #446”. The link has a colored underline indicating the review state:

Green: approved
Yellow: pending review
Red: changes requested
Gray: draft

The badge disappears once the pull request merges or closes. Cmd+click (macOS) or Ctrl+click (Windows/Linux) the link to open the pull request in your browser. The status refreshes every 60 seconds, and immediately after a gh pr or git push command runs in the session.

PR status requires the gh CLI to be installed and authenticated (gh auth login).

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)

Editing (NORMAL mode)

Text objects (NORMAL mode)

Visual mode

Command history

Reverse search with Ctrl+R

Background Bash commands

How backgrounding works

Shell mode with `!` prefix

Prompt suggestions

Side questions with /btw

Task list

Session recap

PR review status

See also

​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)

​Editing (NORMAL mode)

​Text objects (NORMAL mode)

​Visual mode

​Command history

​Reverse search with Ctrl+R

​Background Bash commands

​How backgrounding works

​Shell mode with ! prefix

​Prompt suggestions

​Side questions with /btw

​Task list

​Session recap

​PR review status

​See also

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)

Editing (NORMAL mode)

Text objects (NORMAL mode)

Visual mode

Command history

Reverse search with Ctrl+R

Background Bash commands

How backgrounding works

Shell mode with `!` prefix

Prompt suggestions

Side questions with /btw

Task list

Session recap

PR review status

See also