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Keyboard Shortcuts

Arcade supports keyboard navigation for efficient workflow management, including shell-level shortcuts for opening and closing the notifications drawer. Vim-style keys operate in parallel with arrow keys, requiring no mode toggle.

For an overview of Arcade surfaces, see Arcade.

Command Palette

Press Cmd+K (macOS) or Ctrl+K (other platforms) to open the command palette. It provides fuzzy search across routes and actions.

Key Action
Cmd+K / Ctrl+K Open or close the palette
Arrow Up / k Move highlight up
Arrow Down / j Move highlight down
Enter Select highlighted item
Escape Close the palette

The palette includes navigation items (Home, Runs, Projects), shell actions (Toggle Theme, Refresh Data), and workspace actions such as Previous Workspace, Next Workspace, and Close Workspace when a run, project overview, or file-browser workspace is active.

Global Shortcuts

Shortcut Action
Cmd+K / Ctrl+K Open command palette
Cmd+B / Ctrl+B Open or close the notifications drawer
Cmd+\ / Ctrl+\ Open or close the notifications drawer (alternate)
? Toggle shortcut help overlay
/ Focus search input on current view
Escape Dismiss topmost overlay or blur focus

Modifier-key shortcuts (Cmd+K, Cmd+B, Cmd+\) fire regardless of whether a text input is focused. Single-key shortcuts (?, /, g) are suppressed when a text input is focused.

Notifications Drawer

Press Cmd+B (macOS) or Ctrl+B (other platforms) to open the notifications drawer from the current page. Cmd+\ / Ctrl+\ provides the same behavior as an alternate shortcut.

  • The drawer opens on top of the current page instead of navigating away.
  • The same shortcut closes the drawer if it is already open.
  • Escape also closes the drawer.
  • On desktop, the drawer matches the bell trigger in the top-right breadcrumb bar. On narrow layouts, it matches the bell action in the bottom navigation.

Go-To Chords

Press g followed by a second key within 500ms to jump to a section.

Chord Destination
g then h Activity (/)
g then r Activity (alternate alias)
g then p Projects (/projects)

Each chord jumps directly to its mapped section. Waiting longer than 500ms cancels the chord.

These chords continue to target durable shell destinations only. Workspace tabs do not add new global single-key shortcuts in v1.

Workspace Strip

When run, project overview, or file-browser workspaces are open, Arcade shows a horizontal Open workspaces strip above the page content. It uses normal focus order and route navigation rather than hidden tab panels.

Key Action
Tab Move focus into the workspace strip
Arrow Left Move focus to the previous workspace tab
Arrow Right Move focus to the next workspace tab
Home Jump focus to the first workspace tab
End Jump focus to the last workspace tab
Enter / Space Activate the focused workspace tab
Delete / Backspace Close the focused workspace tab

The close button on each workspace follows the same Arrow, Home, End, Enter, Space, Delete, and Backspace behavior so keyboard users can close tabs without leaving the strip.

List Navigation

Navigate runs, artifacts, and attention items using these keys.

These bindings continue to apply to list and drill-navigation surfaces. The workspace strip uses the horizontal behavior above instead of introducing new global h/l tab shortcuts.

Movement

Key Vim Key Action
Arrow Up k Select previous item
Arrow Down j Select next item
Home - Jump to first item
End - Jump to last item

Drill Navigation

Key Vim Key Action
Arrow Right l Drill into selected item (open detail view)
Arrow Left h Drill out to parent context (back to list)

Selection

Key Action
Enter Open/select current item
Escape Clear selection

Activity Feed

The Activity feed supports inbox-style run triage with the same movement keys:

Key Vim Key Action
Arrow Down j Select the next activity item
Arrow Up k Select the previous activity item
Enter / Space - Select the focused activity item

Selection clamps at the first and last rows. On wide screens, selection keeps the feed visible and updates the run preview beside it. On narrower screens, the same action opens or focuses the run's workspace tab instead of rendering a split preview.

Activity keyboard navigation is disabled while focus is in a text input, textarea, or contenteditable editor. That includes Milkdown and ProseMirror artifact editors, so editor cursor movement and text entry take precedence over Activity row selection.

Shortcut Help Overlay

Press ? from any view to see all available shortcuts grouped by category (Global, Navigation, Current View). Press ? again or Escape to dismiss.

Vim Keys Behavior

Vim keys (j, k, h, l) work identically to their arrow key counterparts:

  • j = Arrow Down (move down in list)
  • k = Arrow Up (move up in list)
  • l = Arrow Right (drill into item)
  • h = Arrow Left (drill out to parent)

Text Input Fields

Vim keys, Activity list movement keys, and single-key shortcuts are automatically disabled when focus is in a text input field. This includes:

  • Text inputs (<input type="text">)
  • Password fields
  • Email fields
  • Search boxes
  • Textareas
  • Contenteditable elements

Arrow keys continue to work normally inside those fields and editors for native cursor movement. Modifier-key shortcuts (Cmd+K, Cmd+B, Cmd+\) always fire regardless of focus.

Virtualized Lists

Keyboard navigation automatically scrolls virtualized lists to keep the selected item visible. This works for:

  • Runs list
  • Artifacts list
  • Attention sections

Context-Specific Shortcuts

Artifact Viewer

Shortcut Action
e Toggle table of contents
c Copy artifact content
[ Previous artifact
] Next artifact
h or Arrow Left Return to run detail

File Browser

Shortcut Action
e Toggle table of contents
c Copy file content
h or Arrow Left Return to project view

Platform-Specific Keys

Platform Modifier Example
macOS Cmd Cmd+K
Windows / Linux Ctrl Ctrl+K

The shortcut help overlay and command palette show platform-appropriate labels automatically.

Accessibility

Keyboard navigation follows the roving tabindex pattern for screen reader compatibility:

  • Only the selected item is in the tab order
  • Arrow/vim keys move selection within the list
  • Tab moves focus out of the list to the next focusable element

The command palette and shortcut overlay use ARIA dialog roles with proper focus trapping.