Shortcuts

Every keyboard shortcut outl ships with, across every client, in one table per concern.

Source of truth

The desktop and TUI both pull their chord catalog from crates/outl-shortcuts (src/defaults.rs::default_bindings()). The mobile app doesn’t expose a keyboard surface (touch + on-screen keyboard); the rows below leave its column blank when there’s nothing to bind.

One catalog, two adapters. The TUI converts crossterm::KeyEvent → Chord, the desktop converts browser KeyboardEvent → Chord. Both then call the same outl_shortcuts::lookup(mode, chord) → Action. A chord change in defaults.rs lights up on both clients on the next build.

If a row below disagrees with what you observe in the app, the code is right and this doc is stale — file an issue or fix the row.

How to read the tables

• Chrome / Global chords fire in every mode.
• Normal / Insert / Visual / Overlay mirror the vim modes. The desktop subscribes to Normal/Visual only while editor.vim_mode = true (see docs/config.md); chrome and Insert chords are always live.
• Cmd is the macOS modifier; Ctrl is the same chord on Linux / Windows / TUI. We list one form per row to keep the table readable.
• A chord in the form q q is a vim-style two-key sequence: press the first, then the second within ~1 s.

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Chrome (Global) — works in any mode

Action	TUI	Desktop	Mobile
Quick switcher (fuzzy pages + journals)	Ctrl+P	Cmd/Ctrl+P	tap toolbar
Open today’s journal	t / Home	Cmd/Ctrl+J	toolbar
Toggle TODO / DONE on focused or selected block (T for task)	Ctrl+T / Ctrl+Enter	Cmd/Ctrl+T / Cmd/Ctrl+Enter	tap checkbox
Run code block under cursor / inside focused block (X for execute)	g x chord / :run	Cmd/Ctrl+X	tap “Run” button
Previous journal day	[	Cmd/Ctrl+[	swipe right
Next journal day	]	Cmd/Ctrl+]	swipe left
Toggle sidebar	Ctrl+E	Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+E	(single pane)
Toggle backlinks panel	Ctrl+B	Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+B	inline below outline
Open settings	via :settings	Cmd/Ctrl+,	gear icon
Toggle help overlay	?	Cmd/Ctrl+/	help button
Quit	q q (chord) / Ctrl+C	Cmd/Ctrl+Q (OS)	—

Why Cmd+J and not Cmd+T for today’s journal? Every outliner ecosystem uses T for task / TODO — TUI’s Ctrl+T, Logseq’s Cmd+T, the universal Markdown checkbox shortcut. Re-training that muscle memory would be hostile. J for journal is unambiguous and lines up with the TUI’s g j chord.

Defaults the user often asks about. Both clients ship with sidebar and backlinks panel HIDDEN (show_sidebar: false, show_backlinks: false). Editor-hero on first launch — the user opts the panels in with the chord. This matches Bear / Ulysses on the desktop and outl-tui’s historical behaviour.

Why the shifted variants for sidebar / backlinks

Chord	Why not
Cmd+B	Reserved for bold in Insert mode — every popular markdown editor (Notion, Obsidian, Discord, Slack, Typora) treats it that way. Hijacking would be hostile.
Cmd+\	macOS 1Password global autofill. Stealing it breaks every 1Password user.

So Cmd+Shift+E (VS Code’s “Show Explorer”) and Cmd+Shift+B are the canonical chrome chords on the desktop, and the TUI mirrors the spirit with Ctrl+E / Ctrl+B (most terminals collapse Ctrl+Shift+letter into Ctrl+letter, so both forms work identically).

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Inline markdown — Insert mode (textarea focused)

Wrap the current selection (or insert the delimiter pair around the caret). Mirrors the convention every markdown editor on the planet ships.

Action	TUI	Desktop	Mobile
Bold (**…**)	type **	Cmd/Ctrl+B	toolbar B
Italic (_…_)	type _	Cmd/Ctrl+I	toolbar I
Inline code (`…`)	type `	Cmd/Ctrl+E	toolbar <>
Strikethrough (~~…~~)	type ~~	Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+X	toolbar S
Link ([label](url))	type [	Cmd/Ctrl+K	toolbar 🔗

outl ships _…_ as the canonical italic. The parser still accepts *…* for compatibility, but .md projections emit underscores.

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Outline navigation — Normal mode

The desktop honours Normal/Visual only while editor.vim_mode = true. The TUI is vim-style by definition.

Action	TUI	Desktop (vim on)	Mobile
Selection down	j / ↓	j / ↓	tap block
Selection up	k / ↑	k / ↑	tap block
Enter Insert at end of block	i	i	tap block
Enter Insert at start of block	I	I	tap at start
Open [[ref]] / #tag / ((blk-…)) under cursor	Enter	Enter	tap
New block below + Insert	o	o	toolbar +
New block above + Insert	O	O	—
Indent block	Tab	Tab	drag right
Outdent block	Shift+Tab	Shift+Tab	drag left
Move block up	K	K	drag
Move block down	J	J	drag
Delete block (chord)	d d	d d	swipe left
Fold / unfold (toggle collapsed)	c	c	tap bullet
Last block (jump)	G	G	—
First block (chord)	g g	g g	—
Undo	u	u / Cmd+Z	toolbar
Redo	Ctrl+R	Ctrl+R / Cmd+Shift+Z	toolbar
Yank block ref → clipboard (chord)	y r	y r	—
Enter Visual	v	v	—
Open command palette	:	:	—
Open slash menu	/	/	/

Cursor inside a block (Normal)

Action	TUI	Desktop (vim on)
Char left / right	h / l (or arrows)	h / l
Word right / left	w / b	w / b
Start / end of block text	0 / $ (or Home/End)	0 / $

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Insert mode (text editing)

Action	TUI	Desktop	Mobile
Commit + exit Insert	Esc	Esc / blur	blur
Newline inside the block (multi-line text)	Shift+Enter	Enter	Enter
Commit + new block below	Enter	Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Enter	Enter
Indent (stay in Insert)	Tab	Tab	drag
Outdent (stay in Insert)	Shift+Tab	Shift+Tab	drag
Delete block on empty	Backspace on empty	Backspace on empty	—
Auto-pair ( [ { [[ ((	yes	yes	yes
Ref autocomplete	[[ triggers picker	[[ triggers picker	[[ triggers picker
Tag autocomplete	# triggers picker	# triggers picker	—
Block ref autocomplete	(( triggers picker	(( triggers picker	—
Slash command autocomplete	/	/	—
Toggle TODO/DONE on current	Ctrl+T / Ctrl+Enter	Cmd/Ctrl+T / Cmd/Ctrl+Enter	tap checkbox / long-press menu
Run code block	g x chord	Cmd/Ctrl+X	tap “Run”

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Visual mode (range)

TUI + desktop (vim on); mobile has no Visual equivalent yet.

Action	TUI	Desktop
Extend selection down	j / ↓	j / ↓
Extend selection up	k / ↑	k / ↑
Yank range	y	y
Delete range	d	d
Leave Visual	Esc	Esc

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Overlays (picker, palette, settings, help)

Action	TUI	Desktop
Highlight next	↓ / Tab / Ctrl+J	↓
Highlight previous	↑ / Shift+Tab / Ctrl+K	↑
Confirm	Enter	Enter
Close overlay	Esc	Esc

The picker (Cmd+P / Ctrl+P) fuzzy-matches pages and journals together; type a date in ISO (2026-06-04) or natural (today, yesterday) to jump.

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Where each chord lives in the code

Layer	File	What it owns
Canonical catalog	crates/outl-shortcuts/src/defaults.rs	Every (mode, chord, action, description) row.
Action enum	crates/outl-shortcuts/src/action.rs	The named operation each chord resolves to.
TUI input adapter	crates/outl-tui/src/input/*.rs	crossterm::KeyEvent → Chord.
Desktop input adapter	crates/outl-desktop/src/lib/shortcuts.ts	KeyboardEvent → Chord.
Desktop dispatcher	crates/outl-desktop/src/lib/action-handlers.ts	Action → Tauri command.
Mobile toolbar / gestures	crates/outl-mobile/src/components/	Per-component on-screen handlers.

A chord change is a single line in defaults.rs plus, if the action is new, a row in action.rs and a handler in each client. See crates/outl-shortcuts/CLAUDE.md for the full add-a-binding checklist.

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Help overlay vs. this doc

In the TUI, press ? (Normal mode) to see the live chord table baked into the binary — it’s generated from the same default_bindings() table this doc describes. In the desktop, Cmd+/ opens the same overlay. If you need to look something up while typing, the in-app overlay is faster than this page.

This doc exists so a contributor (or a user shopping for outl) can see every shortcut without launching the app.