Termin8 keyboard reference

These are Mac controls for the terminal workflow. The focused view matters: a terminal, the command palette, a find field and an interactive web page do not interpret every key identically. Start by clicking the intended terminal or closing the active overlay.

Everyday controls

Shortcut	Scope and action	Observable check
Command-K	Open actions and settings.	A command-search interface appears; search for the action by name.
Command-T	Open a terminal tab.	A new tab and shell prompt appear; the previous tab remains available.
Command-D	Split the terminal to the right.	Another terminal pane appears beside the current one.
Command-Shift-D	Split below.	Another terminal pane appears below the current one.
Command-B	Open Open panes.	A pane list appears so you can select existing work.
Command-F	Find in the focused terminal's retained scrollback.	A find field/status appears; matches bring output into view.
Command-J	Enter an explicit background command.	A command-entry dialog appears, rather than typing directly into the terminal.
Command-Escape	Close the embedded web view and return to the terminal.	The page disappears; check terminal focus before typing.

Do not infer that every command is safe because it came from a palette or dialog. Review the command, target and working directory before running it. Command-J is for noninteractive work, not a shell that can wait for your answers. Its retained output belongs to the current app run.

While finding terminal text

1. Focus the terminal you want to search and press Command-F.
2. Type literal text from its output. A query without capital letters matches without regard to case; capital letters make the query case-sensitive.
3. Press Return to move toward older matches, or Shift-Return toward newer matches.
4. Press Escape to close find before entering a shell command.

Find operates on retained output in that terminal. No match can mean the wrong pane, different text/case, or output no longer retained. It does not prove the command never ran. Pressing Command-F again while find is open moves toward older matches.

Actions by name

If a shortcut is intercepted by an active view, return to a terminal and use Command-K. Useful action names are New tab, Split right, Split below, Open panes, Browser, and Preview file. Selecting a search result and executing a shell command are separate operations; do not paste shell text into an arbitrary action field.

For Preview file, choose an existing local image, Markdown, HTML or text/source document. A folder is not a previewable document. Local HTML preview does not execute JavaScript; use Browser for an interactive public web page instead.

Avoid ambiguous close and recovery keys

Use the embedded browser's close control or Command-Escape when you only want to leave a web page. A terminal view, its underlying process and a browser host have different lifetimes. These guides deliberately do not use quit, force-quit, or end-thread actions as navigation shortcuts.

If an expected action does not appear, inspect your installed version and the active view rather than repeatedly pressing keys. Follow focus and session troubleshooting, or repeat the bounded first-session exercise.