Keyboard Shortcuts

Reference for key bindings in the Grok Build TUI. Bindings are built in and cannot currently be remapped.

Input Modes

Grok has two input modes that control how you navigate the scrollback:

• Simple mode (default): Arrow keys for navigation, Shift+Arrow for turn navigation, Space to focus the prompt, and any letter key auto-focuses the prompt.
• Vim mode (opt-in): j/k for navigation, H/L for turn navigation, J/K for response navigation, h/l for fold, e/E for expand/collapse, and i/Tab/Space to focus the prompt.

Simple mode is active by default. To switch to Vim mode, set vim_mode = true under [ui] in ~/.grok/config.toml, or toggle it at runtime with /vim-mode. See Configuration for details.

The tables below document bindings for both modes. The "Key" column shows the Vim-mode binding, and the "Alt Key" column shows the equivalent in simple mode (arrow keys, etc.).

Vim-mode required: Single-letter and Shift+letter bindings in the Scrollback context (j/k, h/l, g/G, L/H, y/Y, o/O, r, x, e/E, and the i insert-mode alt) require [ui].vim_mode = true in ~/.grok/config.toml (or /vim-mode to toggle). Arrow keys, Tab, Esc, Space, PageUp/Down, and every Ctrl+letter shortcut work in both modes.

Navigation (Scrollback Focused)

Move through conversation entries in the scrollback pane.

View (Scrollback Focused)

Control how entries are displayed in the scrollback.

Setting respect_manual_folds = true under [scrollback.scroll] in pager.toml (opt-in, off by default — see Configuration) makes a hand-folded block pinned: streaming updates and finish events (for example a thinking block ending) leave it alone instead of resetting it, and expanding a block while auto-scroll is following the tail stops following so you can read; resume with ⇧G, j at the last entry, scrolling past the bottom, or sending a new prompt. ⇧E clears all pins, and Ctrl+E clears pins on thinking blocks.

Block Content

Focus

Switch between the prompt input and scrollback pane.

Agent-Level

Actions that affect the agent session, available from the agent screen.

Note: Ctrl+M is context-dependent. When the prompt is focused, it toggles multiline input mode. Otherwise, it opens the model picker.

Note: Ctrl+' is a Windows alt for Ctrl+; — some Windows consoles drop the Ctrl modifier on punctuation keys.

Image Paste & Drag-and-Drop

Non-image files insert their absolute path as text instead of a chip.

Alt+V on Windows is grok-specific. Windows Terminal's default Ctrl+V only pastes plain text and silently drops image clipboards; Alt+V bypasses the interceptor. To use Ctrl+V for images too, add { "command": null, "keys": "ctrl+v" } to actions in your Windows Terminal settings.json.

During an active turn (agent running)

When the agent is generating, the interject chord from the prompt sends a mid-turn interjection without cancelling the turn (non-empty composer only; idle/empty is a no-op for that key).

In /multiline mode, Shift+Enter (or Alt+Enter) sends while plain Enter inserts a newline. (Ctrl+Enter interjects mid-turn when bound on non–VS Code family; it does not send.)

WezTerm: These modified Enter keys need enable_kitty_keyboard = true in your WezTerm config. Full steps and a one-line workaround are in the terminal support guide.

Windows (non–VS Code family): Some consoles drop the Ctrl modifier on Ctrl+Enter (it can collapse to bare Enter or Ctrl+J). Use Ctrl+I as the alt — letter-key Ctrl chords are stable everywhere. On VS Code family, use Ctrl+L.

VS Code family Ctrl+L: Grok uses it for interject and leaves the extensions shortcut unbound (open plugins with /plugins or the command palette). If your terminal profile still maps Clear (or another command) to Ctrl+L, that host binding can steal the chord — rebind or remove it so the PTY receives form feed (\x0c).

Global

Actions available from any screen.

VS Code family terminal (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed integrated terminals): Ctrl+Q is captured by the host, so Grok makes Ctrl+D the sole quit key (Ctrl+Q is not bound). Half-page-down is rebound to bare Shift+D. Mid-turn interject uses Ctrl+L (no alternates) because Ctrl+Enter / Ctrl+I do not reliably reach the PTY; extensions are opened via /plugins instead of Ctrl+L.

Returning to the welcome screen has no key binding — use the /home slash command (alias /welcome) from inside a session. See Slash Commands.

Destructive Action Confirmation

Actions marked with "Yes" in the confirmation column require a double-press within 1000ms. Press the key once to see a confirmation prompt, then press again to confirm. This prevents accidental session loss.

Welcome Screen

Bindings that only fire on the welcome screen (before any agent session is open).

Ctrl+W, Ctrl+I, and Ctrl+Shift+I are only active on the welcome screen. Ctrl+S opens the session picker on both the welcome screen and inside an agent session (where it opens as a modal overlay, same as the /resume command). Ctrl+Q is the same global Quit binding documented above, not a welcome-specific handler.

Command Palette

Press Ctrl+P or ? to open the command palette -- a searchable list of actions. The palette shows:

• All keyboard shortcuts with their current bindings
• All slash commands
• Available skills

Type to filter, then press Enter to execute the selected action.

Shortcuts Bar

The bottom of the TUI displays a contextual shortcuts bar showing the most relevant key bindings for the current state. The hints change based on:

• Which pane is focused (scrollback vs. prompt)
• Whether the agent is currently running
• What type of entry is selected

Mouse Support

The TUI supports mouse interaction:

• Click on a scrollback entry to select it
• Scroll wheel to scroll through the scrollback
• Click on the prompt area to focus it
• Hover over the prompt to see a highlight (configurable via pager.toml)

Quick Reference Card

When scrollback is focused (Simple mode — default)

Navigation:       Up/Down (prev/next entry)  Shift+Left/Right (prev/next turn)
Scrolling:        Ctrl+J/K (line)  PgUp/PgDn (page)  Ctrl+U/D (half page)
Focus prompt:     Space or any letter key (auto-focuses and types)

When scrollback is focused (Vim mode)

Navigation:       j/k (up/down)  H/L (prev/next turn)  K/J (prev/next response)  g/G (top/bottom)
Scrolling:        Ctrl+J/K (line)  Ctrl+U/D (half page; D=Shift+D in VSCode)  PgUp/PgDn (page)
Folding:          h/l (collapse/expand)  e (toggle)  E (all)
Content:          y (copy)  Y (copy cmd)  Enter (fullscreen)
View:             r (raw markdown)  Ctrl+E (thinking)
Focus prompt:     i, Tab, or Space

When prompt is focused

Send:             Enter
Newline:          Shift+Enter or Alt+Enter
Multiline:        Ctrl+M (toggle)
Paste:            Ctrl+V (text, files, screenshots on macOS/Linux)
Paste image:      Alt+V (Windows only — for screenshots / "Copy Image")
Select all:       Cmd+A (macOS, Ghostty only — see note below)
Leave:            Esc or Tab (back to scrollback)

Cmd+A is gated to Ghostty. Grok's in-app Cmd+A handler is only wired up when the detected terminal is Ghostty. Other terminals either swallow Cmd+A at the terminal layer (Apple Terminal, default iTerm2) or apply their own in-terminal "Select All" behaviour (Kitty, WezTerm). On a non-Ghostty terminal, the binding does nothing and the key falls through to the terminal's native behaviour.

On Ghostty, add the one-line unbind to ~/.config/ghostty/config so the keystroke reaches the running TUI:

keybind = cmd+a=unbind

After Ghostty reloads (it watches the config file), Cmd+A in the prompt selects every character in the prompt buffer, including pasted image chips. Image chip placeholders carry the file path ([Image #N: /path/to/file]), so cutting the selection with Ctrl+X after Cmd+A preserves the path through the system clipboard.

Always available

Command palette:  Ctrl+P or ?
Model picker:     Ctrl+M (from scrollback)
Cancel:           Ctrl+C (stop current turn)
Always-approve:   Ctrl+O (toggle YOLO)
New session:      Ctrl+N (press again, then choose normal/worktree)
Quit:             Ctrl+Q (or Ctrl+D in VSCode)

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