Reference
Keyboard shortcuts
Deck was built to be driven from the keyboard. This is the full list, with every shortcut translated between macOS and Windows.
The two-platform rule
On Windows the app shortcuts use Ctrl+Shift, the Windows Terminal convention.Ctrl on its own collides with what the shell expects, so only the shortcuts that do not conflict stay on plain Ctrl.
There are two exceptions, because the combination was already taken inside the app itself: Tasks and the sidebar use different letters on Windows. They are marked in the tables.
At any moment, ⌘/ on macOS or Ctrl+/ on Windows opens the shortcut sheet inside the app. It is this same list, always current with whatever you have remapped.
General
| macOS | Windows | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ⌥Space | Ctrl+Alt+D | Show or hide Deck, from anywhere in the system |
| ⌘K | Ctrl+Shift+K | Command palette |
| ⌘, | Ctrl+, | Settings |
| ⌘/ | Ctrl+/ | Shortcut sheet |
| ⌘[ and ⌘] | Ctrl+Alt+← and → | Go back and forward between screens |
Sessions
| macOS | Windows | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ⌘⇧C | Ctrl+Shift+C | New session with the default agent |
| ⌘⇧S | Ctrl+Shift+S | New session with options: project, agent, worktree, plan mode |
| ⌘T | Ctrl+Shift+T | Terminal in the same folder as the active session |
| ⌘⇧O | Ctrl+Shift+O | Who is waiting on you, across every project |
| ⌘⇧K | Ctrl+Shift+J | Recent sessions, to jump between the last few |
Screens
| macOS | Windows | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ⌘⇧M | Ctrl+Shift+M | Grid, the terminals side by side |
| ⌘⇧A | Ctrl+Shift+A | Agent map |
| ⌘⇧G | Ctrl+Shift+G | Review, the project diff |
| ⌘⇧P | Ctrl+Shift+P | Project page |
| ⌘⇧T | Ctrl+Shift+H | Tasks |
| ⌘⇧B | Ctrl+Shift+B | Git pane in the sidebar |
| ⌘⇧N | Ctrl+Shift+N | Session browser |
| ⌘B | Ctrl+Shift+E | Show or hide the sidebar |
Terminal and panes
| macOS | Windows | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ⌘D | Ctrl+Shift+D | Split, stepping up to the next grid, all the way to four by four |
| ⌘⇧Enter | Ctrl+Shift+Enter | Maximize or restore the pane |
| ⌘W | Ctrl+Shift+W | Close the terminal |
| ⌘L | Ctrl+Shift+L | Clear |
| ⌘F | Ctrl+Shift+F | Search in the terminal |
| ⌘ and arrows | Ctrl and arrows | Move between the panes in the Grid |
| ⌥Q and ⌥W | Alt+Q and Alt+W | Switch layout group in the Grid |
The ones that never change
These follow the system convention and stay out of remapping:
| macOS | Windows | Action |
|---|---|---|
| ⌘1 to ⌘9 | Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 | Switch project, in sidebar order |
| ⌥1 to ⌥9 | Alt+1 to Alt+9 | Focus a pane |
| ⌘C and ⌘V | Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V | Copy and paste |
| ⌘+ ⌘- ⌘0 | Ctrl+= Ctrl+- Ctrl+0 | Grow, shrink and reset the font size |
| Esc | Esc | Close whatever is on top: a modal, the search field, the browser crosshair |
Copy and paste on Windows
Ctrl+C copies when there is a selection in the terminal. With nothing selected it passes the interrupt through to the shell, the way you expect. Ctrl+V and Ctrl+Shift+V paste, images included.
Mouse gestures
| Gesture | What it does |
|---|---|
| Double-click the pane title | Rename the terminal |
| Drag the pane title | Move it into an empty pane, or swap places with an occupied one |
| Drag the corner handle, in the Grid | Make the pane take up more cells |
| Drag a divider | Resize panes, or the sidebar |
| Drag the sidebar under 120 pixels | Collapse the navigation into a column of icons |
| Drag one session card onto another | Connect the two sessions |
| Drag a project in the sidebar | Reorder it, or drop it into a folder |
| Side buttons on the mouse | Go back and forward through session history |
Change a shortcut
In the shortcut sheet, click the row and press the new combination. If it already belongs to another action, the app tells you whose it is before saving. Every row has a button to go back to the default, and there is one button that restores all of them at once.
The sheet opens with ⌘/, from the command palette, or in Settings, under Terminal, in the input and shortcuts part.
The global shortcut
This is what makes Deck pay off day to day: it brings the app in front of any other application, and hides it again if it already has focus. The default is ⌥Space on macOS and Ctrl+Alt+D on Windows.
You can turn it off or pick another combination in Settings, under General. When the shortcut does not respond, almost always another application registered the same combination first, and the way out is to pick a different one. More cases like this one are in Troubleshooting.