Keyboard shortcuts

This page lists what each key does in MXterm Pro 1.1.31, grouped by where you use it. Seventeen of them can be rebound in Settings.

How keys are written

mod means ⌘ Command on macOS and Ctrl on Windows and Linux. ⌥ is Option on macOS; on Windows and Linux use Alt.
On macOS the app shortcuts answer only to ⌘. Control combinations such as Ctrl+W, Ctrl+D or Ctrl+B go to the program in the terminal. The exceptions are Ctrl+Tab and Ctrl with the scroll wheel, listed below.
On Windows and Linux the app shortcuts use Ctrl, so combinations such as Ctrl+D, Ctrl+W, Ctrl+T and Ctrl+B are app shortcuts.
A key the app claims is not also sent to the shell in an ordinary pane. Ctrl+D splits a pane without sending EOF to the program in it.
An app shortcut works whatever your keyboard layout does with modifiers. A binding such as ⌘⌥B is matched by the physical B key, even though macOS turns that keypress into ∫.

Settings → Shortcuts lists the app's main shortcuts and lets you rebind seventeen of them. See Change a shortcut.

The Windows and Linux keys on this page come from the shortcut definitions in the app. The Windows build is unsigned.

Change a shortcut

Open Settings → Shortcuts (mod+,, then Shortcuts). Rows you can rebind have a pencil button.

Click the pencil (Edit shortcut). The row shows Press a key… and (Esc to cancel).
Press the combination you want. It is saved straight away.
The ✕ (Clear shortcut) leaves the action with no key; the row then reads Not assigned.
A row that differs from its default grows a reset button (Reset to default). Reset all to default at the top right clears every change you made, after a confirmation.

Two combinations are refused or questioned. On macOS, a key macOS keeps for itself is rejected outright with That key is reserved by macOS and would never reach MXterm Pro — ⌘H, ⌘Q, ⌘M, ⌘Z, ⌘X, ⌘C, ⌘V, ⌘A and ⌘⇧W are in that group; on Windows no key is refused this way. A key another action already uses shows Already used by "…" with a Reassign button; reassigning leaves the other action unassigned.

These seventeen actions can be rebound: new tab, close pane, split right, split down, maximize pane, equalize panes, switch a pane between Chat and Terminal, toggle sidebar, toggle right panel, toggle broadcast, Command Palette, SSH manager, Saved Sessions, Save Current Layout, find in terminal, Command Recipes and Remote Access & Devices (mod+Shift+G by default).

Everything else keeps its key. The tab digits, the next/previous tab keys, the move-tab keys, the scroll keys, the jump-to-input key, zoom, mod+, for Settings, copy and paste, and the Ctrl+Tab switcher are fixed. Several of them read a digit, an arrow, Home, End or a punctuation key rather than a letter, which the rebinding UI does not capture.

Tabs and panes

Keys	Action
`mod+T`	Open a new tab on the composer (Compose). Nothing starts until you create the workspace.
`mod+W`	Close the focused pane. Closing the last pane of a tab closes the tab.
`mod+1` … `mod+8`	Go to tab 1 to 8, if that tab exists.
`mod+9`	Go to the last tab, whichever number it is.
`mod+⌥+←` / `mod+⌥+→`	Go to the previous / next tab. It stops at the first and last tab.
`⌘←` / `⌘→` (macOS only)	The same as `⌘⌥←` / `⌘⌥→`: go to the previous / next tab, but only from the terminal: not while you type in a text field or work in the file panel (`⌘⌥←` / `⌘⌥→` always switch). Not on Windows and Linux, where `Ctrl+←` / `Ctrl+→` is a word jump in the shell. These two keys cannot be rebound.
`mod+↑` or `mod+Shift+←`, and `mod+Shift+→`	Move the active tab one place left (`mod+↑` or `mod+Shift+←`) or right (`mod+Shift+→`). The tab stays active and only changes position. It stops at the first and last tab. On macOS the system may take `⌘⇧←` before the app sees it; if it does nothing, use `⌘↑`. There is no `mod+↓` for moving right: that key jumps to the input, see below.
Two-finger horizontal swipe	Go to the previous / next tab (trackpad).
`mod+D`	Split Right: open a new pane to the right of the focused pane.
`mod+Shift+D`	Split Down: open a new pane below the focused pane.
`mod+Shift+M`	Maximize the focused pane, or restore it.
`Esc`	Put a pane back after you double-clicked its header to bring it to the middle of the window. A click outside the pane does the same. Double-clicking a header works only when the tab has at least two panes.
`mod+Shift+J`	Switch the focused pane between Chat and Terminal. It works only while Chat view (experimental) is on in Settings → Terminal, which is off by default. The terminal process is not touched either way.
`mod+P`	Equalize Panes: even out every split in the tab. On Windows and Linux this is `Ctrl+P`, which the app claims, so it is not sent to the shell.
`Ctrl+Tab` / `Ctrl+Shift+Tab`	Open Quick Terminal Switcher and move through every pane in every tab. Release Ctrl to jump to the selected pane. Ctrl on every platform, macOS included.

More on splitting, dragging and maximizing: Panes and splits.

Window and panels

Keys	Action
`mod+B`	Show or hide the left sidebar.
`mod+Alt+B` (`⌘⌥B` on macOS)	Show or hide the right panel, which holds the Control Room (formerly War Room), Explorer, History, Git and Preview tabs.
`mod+K`	Open the Command Palette.
`mod+Shift+H`	Open or close the SSH & SFTP Session Manager.
`mod+Shift+O`	Open Saved Sessions.
`mod+Shift+S`	Save Current Layout, as iTerm2 does.
`mod+,`	Open Settings, or close it if it is already open.
`Esc`	Close Settings.
`mod+J`	Open or close Command Recipes, which matches what you type against a set of ready-made Linux commands. No AI model runs.

The right panel has one shortcut for the panel itself; its five tabs are switched by clicking them. Moving a tab to a new window and merging windows have no keys either. Move Tab to New Window is in the tab's right-click menu and the Command Palette; Merge All Windows is in the Command Palette and the menu bar icon. See Panes and splits.

mod+Shift+H is the one key for the SSH manager. mod+Shift+K and mod+⌥+S, which opened it in older versions, do nothing now, and neither does mod+O, which 1.0.22 briefly used.

Broadcast

Keys	Action
`mod+Shift+B`	Turn broadcast on for the current tab, with every pane in the group, or turn it off. The broadcast button is the radio icon next to Workspaces in the sidebar.
`Esc` (terminal focused)	Turn broadcast off.
`⌥+click` a pane	Add the pane to the broadcast group, or remove it.

Inside a terminal

Keys	Action
`mod+F`	Find text in the focused pane.
`Enter` / `Shift+Enter`	In the find box: next / previous match.
`Esc`	In the find box: close it.
`mod+=` (or `mod++`)	Zoom in. Zoom changes the text size of the focused pane only, and the size is saved with that pane.
`mod+-`	Zoom out.
`mod+0`	Reset the font size.
`mod+↓`	Scroll the focused pane to the latest output and put the keyboard in its input: the Chat composer if the pane shows Chat, otherwise the terminal.
`mod+Home` / `mod+End`	Scroll the focused pane to the top of its history / to the latest output. `Home` and `End` without `mod` still go to the program in the pane. On Windows and Linux the app takes `Ctrl+Home` and `Ctrl+End`, so the program does not see them.
Pinch, or `Ctrl` + scroll	Zoom the pane under the pointer in or out. On macOS, `⌘` + scroll does not zoom.
`mod+C`	Copy the selection. With nothing selected, the key goes to the program in the pane.
`mod+V`	Paste. On macOS, copied files paste as their paths, and an image-only clipboard pastes as the path of a temporary PNG file, except in a Claude Code pane, where the image goes to Claude Code. On Windows and Linux the app pastes only text.
`Shift+Enter` or `⌥+Enter`	Start a new line in an agent's prompt instead of submitting it. `Shift+Enter` sends a line feed, `⌥+Enter` sends Esc followed by Enter. This works in a remote pane (a pane that shows another MXterm host) too, once you have control of it.
Click a URL	Open it in your default browser.
`mod+click` a file path	Open the file in a code editor found on your machine (VS Code, Cursor, Zed, Sublime Text or IntelliJ IDEA), at the line and column when the path includes them. If none is found, the file is shown in the file manager instead.

Composer, Command Palette, SFTP and the editor

Composer (the screen a new tab opens on):

Keys	Action
`mod+Enter`	Create workspace, once a working folder is chosen.

Command Palette:

Keys	Action
`↑` / `↓`	Move through the list.
`Enter`	Run the selected command.
`Esc`	Close the palette.

The palette also lists each language by its own name. Choose one to switch the app to it.

SFTP file list (SSH File Manager, see SSH and SFTP). These keys work while the file panel has focus:

Keys	Action
`mod+F`	Jump to the filter box. `Esc` in the filter box clears it.
`mod+A`	Select every item.
`↑` / `↓`	Move the selection. Hold Shift to extend it.
`Enter`	Open the selected folder or file.
`Backspace` (with or without `mod`) or `mod+←`	Go to the parent folder.
`F2`	Rename the selected item.
`Delete`	Delete the selected items. The app asks for confirmation first.
`Space`	Edit the selected text file.
Letter keys	Jump to the first name that starts with the letters you type, or failing that the first name that contains them. The typed letters reset after a short pause. Pressing the same single letter again cycles through the names that start with it.

Keys you type in the filter box, the path box or a dialog now stay there: Backspace deletes a character instead of going up a folder, and Space, Enter, Delete, ↑, ↓ and mod+A no longer act on the list behind it. mod+F is the one shortcut that still works from inside the box. In the filter box, Esc empties it on the first press and returns focus to the list on the second.

The file editor, for a file on the server and for a local file opened from the Explorer tab. Both use the same keys:

Keys	Action
`mod+S`	Save. A remote file is written back to the server, a local one to disk. If a remote file could not be read, saving is blocked and the editor shows a Try reading the file again button instead of the text.
`Esc`	Close the editor. If there are unsaved changes, the app asks first.
`mod+Shift+F`	Find and replace.
`mod+G`	Go to a line.
`⌥+Z`	Turn word wrap on or off.
`mod+/`	Comment or uncomment the current line.