Keyboard Shortcuts
Navigate DorkOS and respond to Claude without reaching for the mouse
Keyboard Shortcuts
DorkOS supports keyboard shortcuts for navigation and for responding to Claude's tool approvals and questions. When Claude is waiting for input, shortcuts let you act without touching the mouse.
Shortcuts are only active on wide screens (768px and wider). On a phone, use the on-screen buttons.
The one to learn first: press ⌘K (or Ctrl+K) from anywhere to open the command palette and jump straight to an agent, a command, or a setting. Everything below is the full reference.
Navigation
These shortcuts work from anywhere in DorkOS. What the last one opens depends on where you are.
Prop
Type
Tabs
Keep several agents open in one window and switch between them.
These keys are for the desktop app, which has its own tab
strip. In a web browser the tabs are the browser's, and DorkOS never takes these keys. Which
keys your browser uses for its own tabs is up to your browser, and it changes from one browser and
one operating system to the next, so check yours. Inside the desktop strip you can also press
Tab to reach it, arrow keys to move between tabs, Home and End to jump to either end, and
Delete to close the one in focus. The + button opens a tab, and the × on a tab closes it.
Prop
Type
Session
While you have a session open. These need a session on screen, so they do nothing on the Agents, Tasks, or Marketplace pages.
Prop
Type
Message Box
While you are typing a message to your agent.
Prop
Type
One Escape does the first thing in that list that applies, top to bottom: close a list if one is open, otherwise leave an edit, otherwise stop your agent. Clearing the box is last, and only when nothing above it applies.
Formatting as You Type
The chat message box shows formatting while you write, instead of leaving the markdown characters on screen. This is on already, and it applies to chat for now.
If you would rather see the plain markdown characters, turn it off in Settings → Advanced → Format text as you type.
Here is what it does:
**bold**turns bold as soon as you close the second pair of asterisks#at the start of a line makes a heading-starts a bullet list`code`becomes code⌘B/Ctrl+Band⌘I/Ctrl+Iwork on whatever you have selected
Enter still sends your message, with one exception: inside a bullet list it starts the next
bullet, and pressing it on an empty bullet ends the list. Everything else on this page behaves the
same whether formatting is on or off — Shift+Enter is still a new line, Escape still stops your
agent, and two Escapes still clear the box.
Anything the box does not preview still works. Quotes, code blocks, links, strikethrough and tables stay exactly as you typed them in the box, and they still render properly in the message your agent receives. You just do not watch them change shape while you type.
Command Palette
Press ⌘K / Ctrl+K from anywhere to jump to an agent, a command, or a quick action, no clicking required.
Prop
Type
Prefix shortcuts in the palette search field:
- Type
@to scope search to agents only - Type
>to scope search to commands only
Pick an agent and its sub-menu asks where you want it: Open Here or Open in New Tab. In the desktop app you also get Open in New Window, which gives you a second DorkOS window for a second screen. A browser has no separate answer to that, so the choice isn't offered there. Open in New Tab opens a real browser tab, which you can bookmark or drag onto another screen yourself.
Tool Approval
When Claude asks to run a tool (like a shell command or file write):
Prop
Type
Question Response
When Claude asks a question with multiple options:
Selecting Options
Prop
Type
Navigating Between Questions
When Claude asks multiple questions at once:
Prop
Type
Free-Text Responses
Typing a custom answer turns off the other shortcuts so you can type freely, no accidental option toggles. When you select "Other," only Enter remains active, to submit your answer.
Visual Indicators
The active request gets an amber border, and its buttons show their key (Enter, Esc, 1, 2, and so on), so you always know what a keypress will do before you press it. Arrow-key navigation highlights the option in focus.
Multiple Pending Requests
If Claude issues multiple approvals or questions at once, keyboard shortcuts only respond to the first one. They queue politely instead of all shouting for your attention at the same time. Resolve it and the next one takes over automatically.