Keyboard Shortcuts - Claude Code

Claude Code ships with 50+ keyboard shortcuts covering session control, history navigation, transcript viewing, and prompt editing.

What it does

Default bindings include Ctrl+C to cancel the current turn, Ctrl+R for reverse history search, Ctrl+O for the transcript viewer, and Alt+T to toggle extended thinking. You can remap any of them by editing ~/.claude/keybindings.json. Bindings respect modifier combinations and chord sequences.

When to use it

• You want to move faster in long sessions without reaching for the mouse.
• Your muscle memory from vim, emacs, or readline needs specific keys.
• You have conflicts with your terminal multiplexer or IDE bindings.
• You run Claude Code across machines and want a portable keymap.

Gotchas

• Some shortcuts won't fire inside tmux unless you pass through the prefix key.
• Remote sessions over SSH can swallow Alt-based chords. Use Escape-prefix alternatives.
• Vim mode overrides several defaults while in normal mode - see the vim mode guide for the full map.

Official docs: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/keybindings.md