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Skillintermediate
Interactive mode
> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://code.claude.com/docs/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Claude Code Knowledge Pack7/10/2026
Overview
Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://code.claude.com/docs/llms.txt Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Interactive mode
Complete reference for keyboard shortcuts, input modes, and interactive features in Claude Code sessions.
Keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard shortcuts may vary by platform and terminal. Press ? to see available shortcuts for your environment.
macOS users: Option/Alt key shortcuts (Alt+B, Alt+F, Alt+Y, Alt+M, Alt+P, Alt+T) 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": truein VS Code settings
See Terminal configuration for details.
General controls
| Shortcut | Description | Context |
|---|---|---|
Ctrl+C | Cancel current input or generation | Standard interrupt |
Ctrl+X Ctrl+K | Kill all background agents. Press twice within 3 seconds to confirm | Background agent control |
Ctrl+D | Exit Claude Code session | EOF signal |
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; the comment block is stripped when you save |
Ctrl+L | Clear prompt input and redraw screen | Clears typed text and forces a full terminal redraw. Conversation history is kept. Use this to recover if the display becomes garbled or partially blank |
Ctrl+O | Toggle transcript viewer | Shows detailed tool usage and execution. 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) | Paste image from clipboard | Inserts an [Image #N] chip at the cursor so you can reference it positionally in your prompt |
Ctrl+B | Background running tasks | Backgrounds bash commands and agents. Tmux users press twice |
Ctrl+T | Toggle task list | Show or hide the task list in the terminal status area |
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 | In multiline input, first moves the cursor within the prompt. Once the cursor is already on the top or bottom edge, pressing again navigates command history |
Esc + Esc | Rewind or summarize | Restore code and/or conversation to a previous point, or summarize from a selected message |
Shift+Tab or Alt+M (some configurations) | Cycle permission modes | Cycle through default, 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. On macOS, configure your terminal to send Option as Meta for this shortcut to work |
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 |
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 |
| 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, and Apple Terminal. For VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, 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 | Bash mode | Run commands directly and add execution output to the session |
@ | File path mention | Trigger file path autocomplete |
Transcript viewer
When the transcript viewer is open (toggled with Ctrl+O), these shortcuts are available. Ctrl+E can be rebound via transcript:toggleShowAll.
| Shortcut | Description |
|---|---|
Ctrl+E | Toggle show all content |
[ | Write the full conversation to |