Keyboard shortcuts
Every default binding, the two-axis convention behind them, and how to rebind them.
hob follows a two-axis convention: Alt moves you around — focus and swap panes,
create and close panes and workspaces, jump and cycle between workspaces — while
Cmd/Ctrl performs actions — open panels, the command palette, settings, zoom. That is why jumping to a workspace is
Alt+1–Alt+9 rather than the browser-style Cmd+1–Cmd+9: it lives on the navigation
axis by design.
Notation. Cmd/Ctrl means Cmd on macOS and Ctrl elsewhere. Alt is the
Option (⌥) key on macOS. A few bindings use plain Ctrl on every platform, noted
where they appear.
App
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Command palette | Cmd/Ctrl+K or Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+P |
| Go to file | Cmd/Ctrl+P |
| Open folder | Cmd/Ctrl+O |
| New workspace | Alt+N |
| New window | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+N |
| Settings | Cmd/Ctrl+, |
| Keyboard shortcuts | Cmd/Ctrl+/ |
| App menu (Windows/Linux) | Alt+F |
| Remote popup | Alt+R |
| License popover | Alt+L |
| Quit | Cmd/Ctrl+Q |
Tool panels
These shortcuts open the panel (they don't toggle it). Only Cmd/Ctrl+B toggles the
whole sidebar.
| Panel | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Home | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+M |
| Explorer (files) | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+E |
| Activity | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+A |
| Search in files | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+F |
| Workflows | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+X |
| Stats | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+U |
| Bookmarks | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+B |
| Local issues | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+I |
| Remote issues | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+R |
| Changes | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+D |
| Git | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+H |
| Switch project | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+L |
| Cycle open projects | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+O (back: Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Alt+O) |
| Switch branch | Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+K |
| Toggle sidebar | Cmd/Ctrl+B |
File search lives inside the Explorer panel: Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+F opens it directly
with the search box focused, or open Explorer (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+E) and switch to the
Search view.
Panes
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| New agent pane | Alt+A |
| New agent pane (force new) | Alt+Shift+A |
| New terminal pane | Alt+T |
| New browser pane | Alt+U |
| Expand / collapse pane | Alt+Enter |
| Pin / unpin pane | Alt+Shift+P |
| Bookmark pane | Alt+Shift+B |
| Share pane | Alt+Shift+S |
| Pane actions menu | Alt+. |
| Close pane | Alt+W |
Alt+W closes a pane; Alt+Q — next door on the keyboard — closes a workspace,
and Alt+Shift+Q closes all workspaces.
Pane navigation
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Focus pane (left/right/up/down) | Alt+← Alt+→ Alt+↑ Alt+↓ |
| Swap pane (left/right/up/down) | Alt+Shift+← Alt+Shift+→ Alt+Shift+↑ Alt+Shift+↓ |
| Equalize grid | Alt+Shift+E |
Workspaces
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Next workspace | Alt+PgDn |
| Previous workspace | Alt+PgUp |
| Jump to workspace 1–9 | Alt+1 … Alt+9 |
| Close workspace | Alt+Q |
| Close all workspaces | Alt+Shift+Q |
All workspace chords are Alt-based, so they work everywhere — including browser and
roam modes, where Cmd/Ctrl+T, Cmd/Ctrl+W, and Ctrl+Tab belong to the browser.
Agent pane
These fire only while an agent pane is focused:
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Model picker | Alt+M |
| Reasoning effort | Alt+E |
| Backend / profile | Alt+B |
| Toggle plan mode | Alt+P |
| Toggle auto-accept | Alt+Y |
| Toggle fast mode | Alt+S |
| Cycle permission mode | Shift+Tab |
| Stop agent | Cmd/Ctrl+C or Esc Esc |
Esc Esc (a quick double-press) stops only while the agent is running and the pane is
focused. Cmd/Ctrl+C and Shift+Tab are reserved — see below.
Zoom
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Zoom in | Cmd/Ctrl+= (or Cmd/Ctrl+Shift++) |
| Zoom out | Cmd/Ctrl+- |
| Reset zoom | Cmd/Ctrl+0 |
Zoom applies to the desktop app only — these bindings do nothing in browser, headless, or roam modes.
Other
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Find in pane | Cmd/Ctrl+F |
| Save (render pane) | Cmd/Ctrl+S |
| Quick fix (issues) | Cmd/Ctrl+Enter |
| Search settings | Cmd/Ctrl+F (in Settings) |
Customizing shortcuts
Open the shortcuts editor with Cmd/Ctrl+/, or open Settings and click Shortcuts.
- Rebind — click a binding and press the new combination.
- Add a second binding — click the empty badge next to an action; any action can have more than one binding.
- Disable — clear a binding and it shows as an em dash (
—). - Defaults — hover a customized binding to see its default; set it back manually to restore it.
When you record a chord that's already in use, hob shows a conflict dialog — "X is used by Action" with Reassign or Cancel.
Reserved shortcuts. Stop agent (Cmd/Ctrl+C) and Cycle permission mode
(Shift+Tab) are fixed conventions — they appear in the editor with a lock and can't be
rebound or reassigned.
In browser, headless, gateway, and roam modes, some chords are claimed by the browser
itself (Cmd/Ctrl+T, Cmd/Ctrl+W, Ctrl+Tab, Cmd/Ctrl+N, Cmd/Ctrl+Q, devtools) and
can't be intercepted. Every default binding avoids those chords, so hob works fully by
keyboard in remote modes. The command palette (Cmd/Ctrl+K) is the always-available
fallback.