---
title: Keyboard
description: How keys work in Heed: modes, sequences, counts and the hint panel.
url: https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/keyboard
---

# Keyboard
Everything in Heed is a key or two away, in [modes](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/concepts/modes) like vim's. In NORMAL every key is a command;
in INSERT your keys go to the focused terminal.

## Sequences

Many commands are two keys: `g` then a letter for views (`gm` Inbox), `⌃w` then a letter for panes (`⌃w v` split).
Press the first key and wait: a panel at the bottom lists every key that can follow, and what it does.
![After g: every key that can follow, and what it does](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/images/shots/keyboard/leader.png)
`⎋` drops a sequence you started. A number before a command repeats it (`3j`), as in vim.

## How the keys are laid out

Single keys are kept for what you do many times an hour; anything rarer is two keys, grouped by its first:

| Keys                        |                                                                                          |
|-----------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `j` `k` `h` `l` `G` `/` `f` | Move, filter, jump                                                                       |
| `⌃d` `⌃u`, `{` `}`          | Half a page; the previous or next group (a sidebar group, a repo, a day)                 |
| `↩` `o` `i` `v` `x` `m`     | Open, start work, type into the agent, select, done with it, pin                         |
| `r`                         | Refresh the view you are in                                                              |
| `g…`                        | Go somewhere: views (`gm` Inbox), overlays (`go`, `gd`), tabs (`gt`), the browser (`gB`) |
| `z…`                        | The view's layout: `zz` park, `zi` inspector, `zs` sidebar                               |
| `'…`                        | Jump to a pin (`'1`–`'9`), or back (`''`)                                                |
| `]…` `[…`                   | Next or previous of a kind: `]p` PR, `]f` file                                           |
| `⌃w…`                       | Panes                                                                                    |
| `dd`                        | Remove (it asks first)                                                                   |

A key means the same thing in every view where it means anything: `x` closes a session, marks an Inbox item read and
dismisses a feedback item; `o` always starts work, picking the repo under the cursor in Repos.

## Views have their own keys

Some keys only mean something in one view: `s` starts a session in the Inbox, `dd` removes a worktree in Repos. Those
come first there; elsewhere the same key is free or means something else. The status bar always lists the keys that
matter in the view you are in, and `?` shows every key.

## In this section

- [Views](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/keyboard/views) · [Hints](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/keyboard/hints) · [The command line](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/keyboard/command-line) · [Selecting](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/keyboard/visual)
- [Mac shortcuts](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/keyboard/mac-shortcuts) · [Customizing keys](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/keyboard/customizing) · [Key reference](https://docs-v3-preview.elastic.dev/keyboard/reference)