Keyboard shortcuts

This page lists what each key does in the interactive prompt, and how to change the ones you do not like. If you are new to nimlet, you can ignore the customisation half and just skim the tables.

Composer and editing

Key	Action
Enter	Submit the prompt (or queue it, if a turn is running)
Shift+Enter / Alt+J	Insert a newline
Tab	Accept the highlighted completion
Left / Right	Move the cursor one character
Alt+B / Alt+F	Move the cursor one word
Home / Ctrl+A	Move to the start of the line
End / Ctrl+E	Move to the end of the line
Up / Down	Move through your input history (or the completion menu)
Ctrl+P / Ctrl+N	Previous / next input history entry
Backspace	Delete the character before the cursor
Delete / Ctrl+D	Delete the character after the cursor
Ctrl+W / Alt+D	Delete the word before / after the cursor
Ctrl+U / Ctrl+K	Delete to the start / end of the line
Ctrl+Y	Yank the last deleted text back
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+G	Edit the prompt in your external editor
Paste (Cmd+V / Ctrl+V)	Insert pasted text; a single image path becomes an @ mention

Pasting is handled by your terminal, so what reaches nimlet is the pasted text. If that text is the path to an image (/tmp/shot.png, file:///tmp/shot.png, or a path inside your workspace), nimlet replaces it with an @ mention and sends the image with your next message.

Shift+Enter submits instead of making a new line?

Not every terminal tells nimlet that Shift was held, so Shift+Enter can arrive as a plain Enter. When that happens, use Alt+J instead - it always inserts a newline.

Messages and queues

While a turn is running, the composer stays editable. Enter and Alt+Enter queue messages instead of submitting them, so you can keep typing while the agent works.

Key	Action
Enter	Queue a steering message, delivered after the current tool batch
Alt+Enter	Queue a follow-up message, delivered after the turn finishes
Alt+Up	Take queued messages back into the composer, without interrupting
Esc	Interrupt the turn, and return queued messages to the composer
Ctrl+C	Interrupt the turn

When nothing is running, Esc clears the composer, Ctrl+C clears it if it has text, and Ctrl+C again on an empty composer quits nimlet.

Modes and panels

Key	Action
Shift+Tab	Switch between plan and act mode
Ctrl+O	Expand or collapse tool output and thinking details
Ctrl+F	Search the transcript
PgUp / PgDn	Page the transcript up and down
Mouse wheel	Scroll the transcript

In the transcript search box, Enter accepts, Esc cancels, and Ctrl+N / Ctrl+P jump to the next and previous match. In the /resume picker, Ctrl+R renames the highlighted session and Ctrl+D stages it for deletion.

Selecting text

Drag over the transcript to select lines, then release to copy the selection to your clipboard. Ctrl+Shift+C (or Cmd+C, where the terminal reports it) does the same for the current selection.

To copy without selecting, expand the text you want with Ctrl+O and use your terminal’s own selection, or run /copy to copy the latest assistant response.

Changing a binding

Bindings live in the top-level keybindings object of your config. Add it to .nimlet/config.json in your project, or to ~/.nimlet/config.json for everything you run. Each entry maps an action name to one key, or to an array of keys:

.nimlet/config.json

{
  "keybindings": {
    "app.editor.external": "ctrl+e",
    "tui.editor.deleteWordBackward": ["ctrl+w", "ctrl+h"]
  }
}

An array replaces the defaults for that action, so list every key you want, not just the extra ones. Use an empty array to disable a binding entirely:

{
  "keybindings": {
    "app.editor.external": []
  }
}

Keys are written lowercase, joined with +. Supported names:

• ctrl+<letter>, for example ctrl+g, ctrl+z, ctrl+p
• alt+b, alt+d, alt+f, alt+left, alt+right, alt+up, alt+enter
• shift+enter, alt+j, shift+tab
• escape (or esc), enter (or return), backspace, delete, left, right, up, down, home, end, pageup, pagedown, tab

Note

Some control codes are not bindable, because the terminal cannot tell them apart from other keys. Ctrl+H arrives as Backspace, Ctrl+I as Tab, and Ctrl+M as Enter. Ctrl+F always opens transcript search and cannot be rebound.

Action names

Actions starting with app. are handled by the screen. Actions starting with tui. are handled by the composer. These are the ones you can rebind, with their defaults:

Action	Default
app.editor.external	ctrl+g
app.interrupt	escape
app.clear	ctrl+c
app.message.followUp	alt+enter
app.message.dequeue	alt+up
app.thinking.cycle	shift+tab
tui.input.submit	enter
tui.input.newLine	shift+enter, alt+j
tui.input.tab	tab
tui.editor.undo	ctrl+z
tui.editor.deleteCharBackward	backspace
tui.editor.deleteCharForward	delete, ctrl+d
tui.editor.deleteWordBackward	ctrl+w
tui.editor.deleteWordForward	alt+d
tui.editor.deleteToLineStart	ctrl+u
tui.editor.deleteToLineEnd	ctrl+k
tui.editor.yank	ctrl+y
tui.editor.cursorLeft	left, ctrl+b
tui.editor.cursorRight	right, ctrl+f
tui.editor.cursorWordLeft	alt+b
tui.editor.cursorWordRight	alt+f
tui.editor.cursorLineStart	home, ctrl+a
tui.editor.cursorLineEnd	end, ctrl+e
tui.editor.cursorUp	up
tui.editor.cursorDown	down
tui.editor.historyPrevious	ctrl+p
tui.editor.historyNext	ctrl+n

The shortcuts in the other tables on this page are built in and cannot be remapped.