Keyboard shortcuts
Every keyboard shortcut in Mel, in one table.
Every action with a binding also lives in the command palette, so ctrl+P is the one shortcut worth memorizing first — type a few letters, hit enter. For a quick in-app reference, ctrl+/ opens a compact cheat-sheet pane, and Settings → Keyboard shortcuts shows the full searchable table.
Mel is cross-platform: the tables show Linux/Windows bindings; on macOS, read ctrl as cmd where noted.
Panes and tabs
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Split pane right | ctrl+D |
| Split pane down | ctrl+shift+D |
| Close pane (last pane closes the tab) | ctrl+W |
| New terminal tab (opens your default tab config if you set one) | ctrl+T |
| Next tab | ctrl+Tab |
| Previous tab | ctrl+shift+Tab |
| Toggle the sidebar (vertical tabs) | ctrl+shift+B |
ctrl+T and ctrl+W work even while the prompt is focused. Splitting is held back while you're typing in the prompt so it never fights your input.
Panels and search
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Command palette | ctrl+P |
| Shortcuts cheat sheet | ctrl+/ |
| Toggle tools panel | ctrl+\ |
| Global search | ctrl+shift+F |
| Open code review | ctrl+shift+= |
Agent
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Start an agent conversation (carries the typed prompt) | ctrl+enter |
| Exit the conversation back to the terminal | esc (input unfocused) |
| Continue the last conversation | ctrl+shift+Y |
| Attach last command output to the prompt | ctrl+↑ |
| Override shell/agent autodetect for this input | ctrl+I |
| Agent runs dashboard | ctrl+shift+M |
| Compose box (inside CLI coding-agent sessions) | ctrl+G |
In the agent input, a leading ! forces the line to run as a shell command.
Selected block
Click a block to select it first; these are disabled while the prompt input has focus.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Copy whole block | ctrl+C |
| Copy command | ctrl+shift+C |
| Copy output | ctrl+alt+shift+C |
| Toggle bookmark | ctrl+B |
Inside the command palette
| Action | Key |
|---|---|
| Navigate results | ↑ / ↓ |
| Run selected | enter |
| Close | esc |
The palette also carries actions with no binding at all — like Create a New Personal Workflow — plus dynamic hits: your conversations, Drive objects, and project files all match as you type.
When shortcuts step aside
While a full-screen terminal program is running in the pane (an editor, a CLI coding agent, ssh), Mel forwards single-modifier keys to that program instead of intercepting them — ctrl+C must reach the program, after all. Tab cycling (ctrl+Tab) and ctrl+shift combos like code review keep working throughout.
See the quickstart to build muscle memory on the core five: ctrl+P, ctrl+enter, ctrl+shift+=, ctrl+\, ctrl+T.