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Keyboard

Shortcuts

Everyone learns Esc. These are the rest — all checked against Claude Code itself, not copied off a blog.

The three to learn first

If you remember nothing else.

  • Esc Esc
    Stop Claude mid-action The moment Claude starts doing something you did not intend.
  • Esc thenEsc Esc thenEsc
    Clear the input box Your half-written prompt has turned into a mess and you want a clean line.
  • Shift +Tab Shift +Tab
    Cycle permission mode Starting an exploration (plan) or letting an agreed plan run (accept edits). On older Windows setups without VT mode, this is Meta+M instead.

Writing the prompt

Composing, searching, pasting.

  • Ctrl +J Ctrl +J
    Start a new line without sending Any prompt longer than one sentence.
  • Ctrl +R Ctrl +R
    Search your prompt history "What did I type last week that worked?" Inside the search, Ctrl+S cycles the scope: this session → this project → everywhere.
  • Ctrl +S Ctrl +S
    Park the half-written prompt You are three sentences into a prompt and need to go check something.
  • Ctrl +G Ctrl +G
    Edit the prompt in your real editor Writing anything long or carefully structured.
  • Ctrl +V Alt +V
    Paste an image Anything visual. Annotate the screenshot first and it works even better. Ctrl+V, not Cmd+V — macOS keeps Cmd+V for its own paste. Windows and WSL use Alt+V. On WSL both Ctrl+V and Alt+V work.
  • Option +T Alt +T
    Toggle thinking for the next turn One hard question in the middle of otherwise simple work.
  • Ctrl +_ Ctrl +_
    Undo in the input box You deleted half a prompt by accident.

Seeing what happened

What Claude did and what it plans to do.

  • Ctrl +O Ctrl +O
    Toggle the full transcript You want to know what it actually did, not the summary.
  • Ctrl +T Ctrl +T
    Toggle the task checklist Any multi-step task, before it gets far.

Running the session

Long jobs, models, the terminal.

  • Ctrl +B Ctrl +B
    Send the running job to the background A long build, test run, or search you do not want to sit and watch.
  • Option +P Alt +P
    Switch model Between tasks — rarely a good idea mid-task.
  • Option +O Alt +O
    Toggle fast mode Straightforward work where you would rather have speed than depth.
  • Ctrl +Z Ctrl +Z
    Step out to the shell without quitting You need the terminal for one command and do not want to lose the session. Terminal-level shortcut (Unix SIGTSTP), not a Claude Code binding. Windows has no direct equivalent.

The keys are the same on both systems — only the modifier's name changes (macOS calls Alt Option). Run /keybindings in any session to see exactly what is bound on your machine.

Install `gh` (and other CLIs) — Claude knows how to use them

← Tips Workflow & commands

Install gh (and other CLIs) — Claude knows how to use them

Claude is fluent with tools like ``, `az`, `aws`, `jq`, ``. Install them, log in once, and Claude can read , query Azure resources, inspect — without a single server.

both External reference ↗

A surprise that lands for most newcomers: Claude doesn’t need a fancy integration to read your , query an Azure resource, or check a . It already knows how to use the standard command-line tools. You just have to install them.

gh (GitHub ) — the single highest-leverage one for most teams.

brew install gh    # macOS
sudo apt install gh    # Ubuntu / WSL

Then gh auth login once. From that point on, Claude can:

  • Read a PR: gh pr view 142
  • Read the diff: gh pr diff 142
  • List your open PRs: gh pr list --author @me
  • Open an , comment on one, merge after CI passes

You don’t have to tell Claude how. It knows the syntax. You just ask:

Review PR 142 and tell me if it’s safe to merge.

Claude reaches for gh pr diff 142 on its own.

Not sure whether gh is already installed? Don’t check by hand — ask Claude:

Is gh installed on this machine? If not, install it and walk me through gh auth login.

Claude runs which gh, installs via Homebrew or apt if missing, and tells you the one interactive step (gh auth login) you have to run yourself. Same trick for az, aws, and the other CLIs below.

Other CLIs worth knowing exist for the same reason:

  • az (Azure) — az resource list, az webapp logs, az keyvault secret show. The bank’s Azure footprint is reachable from the same Claude that writes the code.
  • aws — same idea if you’re on AWS.
  • jq — slice JSON output before pasting. gh pr list --json title,number,author | jq makes Claude’s view of the data tight.
  • psql / mysql — point Claude at a read-only database connection and it can answer “is this user in the table?” without an ORM round-trip.
  • docker, kubectl — same story for .

Why this beats reaching for an server first: CLI tools cost zero setup, work everywhere (, CI, scripts), and use the same authentication you already have. MCP shines when the CLI doesn’t exist or the surface is genuinely -shaped. Default to a CLI; reach for MCP when you need to.

The team’s pattern: gh and az installed on every developer machine, logged in once, mentioned in the as available tools. Claude does the rest.

Next tip →

Hooks for the non-negotiables — CLAUDE.md only asks nicely

is advisory — Claude follows it about 80% of the time. are deterministic — they run every time, no exceptions. If something must happen 100% of the time (lint, security check, format), make it a hook.

Open it → Back to all tips