# 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](/docs/termin8/troubleshooting), or repeat the bounded [first-session exercise](/docs/termin8/quickstart).