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Interactive mode

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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://code.claude.com/docs/llms.txt Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Interactive mode

Complete reference for keyboard shortcuts, input modes, and interactive features in Claude Code sessions.

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts may vary by platform and terminal. Press ? to see available shortcuts for your environment.

macOS users: Option/Alt key shortcuts (Alt+B, Alt+F, Alt+Y, Alt+M, Alt+P, Alt+T) require configuring Option as Meta in your terminal:

See Terminal configuration for details.

General controls

Shortcut Description Context
Ctrl+C Cancel current input or generation Standard interrupt
Ctrl+X Ctrl+K Kill all background agents. Press twice within 3 seconds to confirm Background agent control
Ctrl+D Exit Claude Code session EOF signal
Ctrl+G or Ctrl+X Ctrl+E Open in default text editor Edit your prompt or custom response in your default text editor. Ctrl+X Ctrl+E is the readline-native binding. Turn on Show last response in external editor in /config to prepend Claude's previous reply as #-commented context above your prompt; the comment block is stripped when you save
Ctrl+L Clear prompt input and redraw screen Clears typed text and forces a full terminal redraw. Conversation history is kept. Use this to recover if the display becomes garbled or partially blank
Ctrl+O Toggle transcript viewer Shows detailed tool usage and execution. Also expands MCP calls, which collapse to a single line like "Called slack 3 times" by default
Ctrl+R Reverse search command history Search through previous commands interactively
Ctrl+V or Cmd+V (iTerm2) or Alt+V (Windows) Paste image from clipboard Inserts an [Image #N] chip at the cursor so you can reference it positionally in your prompt
Ctrl+B Background running tasks Backgrounds bash commands and agents. Tmux users press twice
Ctrl+T Toggle task list Show or hide the task list in the terminal status area
Left/Right arrows Cycle through dialog tabs Navigate between tabs in permission dialogs and menus
Up/Down arrows or Ctrl+P/Ctrl+N Move cursor or navigate command history In multiline input, first moves the cursor within the prompt. Once the cursor is already on the top or bottom edge, pressing again navigates command history
Esc + Esc Rewind or summarize Restore code and/or conversation to a previous point, or summarize from a selected message
Shift+Tab or Alt+M (some configurations) Cycle permission modes Cycle through default, acceptEdits, plan, and any modes you have enabled, such as auto or bypassPermissions. See permission modes.
Option+P (macOS) or Alt+P (Windows/Linux) Switch model Switch models without clearing your prompt
Option+T (macOS) or Alt+T (Windows/Linux) Toggle extended thinking Enable or disable extended thinking mode. On macOS, configure your terminal to send Option as Meta for this shortcut to work
Option+O (macOS) or Alt+O (Windows/Linux) Toggle fast mode Enable or disable fast mode

Text editing

Shortcut Description Context
Ctrl+A Move cursor to start of current line In multiline input, moves to the start of the current logical line
Ctrl+E Move cursor to end of current line In multiline input, moves to the end of the current logical line
Ctrl+K Delete to end of line Stores deleted text for pasting
Ctrl+U Delete from cursor to line start Stores deleted text for pasting. Repeat to clear across lines in multiline input. On macOS, terminal emulators including iTerm2 and Terminal.app map Cmd+Backspace to this shortcut
Ctrl+W Delete previous word Stores deleted text for pasting. On Windows, Ctrl+Backspace also deletes the previous word
Ctrl+Y Paste deleted text Paste text deleted with Ctrl+K, Ctrl+U, or Ctrl+W
Alt+Y (after Ctrl+Y) Cycle paste history After pasting, cycle through previously deleted text. Requires Option as Meta on macOS
Alt+B Move cursor back one word Word navigation. Requires Option as Meta on macOS
Alt+F Move cursor forward one word Word navigation. Requires Option as Meta on macOS

Theme and display

Shortcut Description Context
Ctrl+T Toggle syntax highlighting for code blocks Only works inside the /theme picker menu. Controls whether code in Claude's responses uses syntax coloring

Multiline input

Method Shortcut Context
Quick escape \ + Enter Works in all terminals
macOS default Option+Enter Default on macOS
Shift+Enter Shift+Enter Works out of the box in iTerm2, WezTerm, Ghostty, Kitty
Control sequence Ctrl+J Line feed character for multiline
Paste mode Paste directly For code blocks, logs

Shift+Enter works without configuration in iTerm2, WezTerm, Ghostty, and Kitty. For other terminals (VS Code, Alacritty, Zed, Warp), run /terminal-setup to install the binding.

Quick commands

Shortcut Description Notes
/ at start Command or skill See commands and skills
! at start Bash mode Run commands directly and add execution output to the session
@ File path mention Trigger file path autocomplete

Transcript viewer

When the transcript viewer is open (toggled with Ctrl+O), these shortcuts are available. Ctrl+E can be rebound via transcript:toggleShowAll.

Shortcut Description
Ctrl+E Toggle show all content
[ Write the full conversation to your terminal's native scrollback so Cmd+F, tmux copy mode, and other native tools can search it. Requires fullscreen rendering
v Write the conversation to a temporary file and open it in $VISUAL or $EDITOR. Requires fullscreen rendering
q, Ctrl+C, Esc Exit transcript view. All three can be rebound via transcript:exit

Voice input

Shortcut Description Notes
Hold Space Push-to-talk dictation Requires voice dictation to be enabled. Transcript inserts at cursor. Rebindable

Commands

Type / in Claude Code to see all available commands, or type / followed by any letters to filter. The / menu shows everything you can invoke: built-in commands, bundled and user-authored skills, and commands contributed by plugins and MCP servers. Not all built-in commands are visible to every user since some depend on your platform or plan.

See the commands reference for the full list of commands included in Claude Code.

Vim editor mode

Enable vim-style editing via /config → Editor mode.

Mode switching

Command Action From mode
Esc Enter NORMAL mode INSERT
i Insert before cursor NORMAL
I Insert at beginning of line NORMAL
a Insert after cursor NORMAL
A Insert at end of line NORMAL
o Open line below NORMAL
O Open line above NORMAL
Command Action
h/j/k/l Move left/down/up/right
w Next word
e End of word
b Previous word
0 Beginning of line
$ End of line
^ First non-blank character
gg Beginning of input
G End of input
f{char} Jump to next occurrence of character
F{char} Jump to previous occurrence of character
t{char} Jump to just before next occurrence of character
T{char} Jump to just after previous occurrence of character
; Repeat last f/F/t/T motion
, Repeat last f/F/t/T motion in reverse

In vim normal mode, if the cursor is at the beginning or end of input and cannot move further, j/k and the arrow keys navigate command history instead.

Editing (NORMAL mode)

Command Action
x Delete character
dd Delete line
D Delete to end of line
dw/de/db Delete word/to end/back
cc Change line
C Change to end of line
cw/ce/cb Change word/to end/back
yy/Y Yank (copy) line
yw/ye/yb Yank word/to end/back
p Paste after cursor
P Paste before cursor
>> Indent line
<< Dedent line
J Join lines
. Repeat last change

Text objects (NORMAL mode)

Text objects work with operators like d, c, and y:

Command Action
iw/aw Inner/around word
iW/aW Inner/around WORD (whitespace-delimited)
i"/a" Inner/around double quotes
i'/a' Inner/around single quotes
i(/a( Inner/around parentheses
i[/a[ Inner/around brackets
i{/a{ Inner/around braces

Command history

Claude Code maintains command history for the current session:

Reverse search with Ctrl+R

Press Ctrl+R to interactively search through your command history:

  1. Start search: press Ctrl+R to activate reverse history search
  2. Type query: enter text to search for in previous commands. The search term is highlighted in matching results
  3. Navigate matches: press Ctrl+R again to cycle through older matches
  4. Accept match:
  5. Press Tab or Esc to accept the current match and continue editing
  6. Press Enter to accept and execute the command immediately
  7. Cancel search:
  8. Press Ctrl+C to cancel and restore your original input
  9. Press Backspace on empty search to cancel

The search displays matching commands with the search term highlighted, so you can find and reuse previous inputs.

Background bash commands

Claude Code supports running bash commands in the background, allowing you to continue working while long-running processes execute.

How backgrounding works

When Claude Code runs a command in the background, it runs the command asynchronously and immediately returns a background task ID. Claude Code can respond to new prompts while the command continues executing in the background.

To run commands in the background, you can either:

Key features:

To disable all background task functionality, set the CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_BACKGROUND_TASKS environment variable to 1. See Environment variables for details.

Common backgrounded commands:

Bash mode with ! prefix

Run bash commands directly without going through Claude by prefixing your input with !:

```bash theme={null} ! npm test ! git status ! ls -la


Bash mode:

* Adds the command and its output to the conversation context
* Shows real-time progress and output
* Supports the same `Ctrl+B` backgrounding for long-running commands
* Does not require Claude to interpret or approve the command
* Supports history-based autocomplete: type a partial command and press **Tab** to complete from previous `!` commands in the current project
* Exit with `Escape`, `Backspace`, or `Ctrl+U` on an empty prompt
* Pasting text that starts with `!` into an empty prompt enters bash mode automatically, matching typed `!` behavior

This is useful for quick shell operations while maintaining conversation context.

## Prompt suggestions

When you first open a session, a grayed-out example command appears in the prompt input to help you get started. Claude Code picks this from your project's git history, so it reflects files you've been working on recently.

After Claude responds, suggestions continue to appear based on your conversation history, such as a follow-up step from a multi-part request or a natural continuation of your workflow.

* Press **Tab** or **Right arrow** to accept the suggestion, or press **Enter** to accept and submit
* Start typing to dismiss it

The suggestion runs as a background request that reuses the parent conversation's prompt cache, so the additional cost is minimal. Claude Code skips suggestion generation when the cache is cold to avoid unnecessary cost.

Suggestions are automatically skipped after the first turn of a conversation, in non-interactive mode, and in plan mode.

To disable prompt suggestions entirely, set the environment variable or toggle the setting in `/config`:

```bash theme={null}
export CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_PROMPT_SUGGESTION=false

Side questions with /btw

Use /btw to ask a quick question about your current work without adding to the conversation history. This is useful when you want a fast answer but don't want to clutter the main context or derail Claude from a long-running task.

/btw what was the name of that config file again?

Side questions have full visibility into the current conversation, so you can ask about code Claude has already read, decisions it made earlier, or anything else from the session. The question and answer are ephemeral: they appear in a dismissible overlay and never enter the conversation history.

Press Space, Enter, or Escape to dismiss the answer and return to the prompt.

/btw is the inverse of a subagent: it sees your full conversation but has no tools, while a subagent has full tools but starts with an empty context. Use /btw to ask about what Claude already knows from this session; use a subagent to go find out something new.

Task list

When working on complex, multi-step work, Claude creates a task list to track progress. Tasks appear in the status area of your terminal with indicators showing what's pending, in progress, or complete.

Session recap

When you return to the terminal after stepping away, Claude Code shows a one-line recap of what happened in the session so far. The recap generates in the background once at least three minutes have passed since the last completed turn and the terminal is unfocused, so it's ready when you switch back. Recaps only appear once the session has at least three turns, and never twice in a row.

Run /recap to generate a summary on demand. To turn automatic recaps off, open /config and disable Session recap.

Session recap is on by default for every plan and provider. To override the /config toggle, set CLAUDE_CODE_ENABLE_AWAY_SUMMARY to 0 or 1. The recap is always skipped in non-interactive mode.

PR review status

When working on a branch with an open pull request, Claude Code displays a clickable PR link in the footer (for example, "PR #446"). The link has a colored underline indicating the review state:

Cmd+click (Mac) or Ctrl+click (Windows/Linux) the link to open the pull request in your browser. The status updates automatically every 60 seconds.

PR status requires the gh CLI to be installed and authenticated (gh auth login).

See also