kitten-command-palette(1)

💅 kitten-command-palette(1) — the kitty manual, bestie edition 🎀

okay so this is kitten-command-palette, straight out of the kitty manual, and honestly? it's a whole vibe. let's get into it ✨

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🌸 Name 🌸

kitten-command-palette — browse and trigger keyboard shortcuts and actions. that's it, that's the whole thing, and it slays 🫶

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🦋 Overview 🦋

The command palette lets you browse, search and trigger all keyboard shortcuts and actions in kitty from a single searchable overlay. press ctrl+shift+f3 (<#shortcut-kitty.Command-palette>) to open it (default: Ctrl+Shift+F3). lowkey iconic 💅

The command palette showing search results for win close. (images not supported) — yeah ngl the pic didn't make it in here, but you get the vision 📸

So here's the tea: all mapped actions (those with a keyboard shortcut) and unmapped actions (those available but not bound to any key) are listed, organized by category. mouse bindings get their own separate section, main character energy obviously. you simply type to search, select a result, and press Enter to run it. periodt ✨

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🔍 Searching 🔍

As you type into the search bar, the palette filters results in real time. matching is case-insensitive and works across three columns simultaneously: the key (keyboard shortcut), the action name, and the category. matched characters are highlighted so you can see exactly where each term hit — it's giving "highlighted for the gods" 💖

🌈 Multiple words 🌈

Separate your terms with spaces. typing scroll page looks for items that contain scroll and page anywhere across the key, action, or category columns. items that match more of your terms are ranked higher than those that match fewer. more matches = more slay 👑

⭐ How individual words are matched ⭐

Each word in your query is compared against every word in the three columns. the best match wins and determines the item's score for that term:

• Exact word — the query word equals a column word exactly (highest score). this is the moment 💅
• Prefix — the column word starts with the query word, e.g. scr matches scroll.
• Typo tolerance — for words of four characters or longer, a single typo (one character inserted, deleted, or substituted) still produces a match, and two typos give a lower-scoring match. she forgives, but she remembers 🙈

An item appears in the results as long as at least one query word matches something. items where more query words match rank above those where fewer match. no cap 🧚

🎀 Compound names 🎀

Delimiters such as _, +, /, and - are kept intact inside a query word, so you can search for compound action names as a unit. typing mouse_selection first tries to find that exact substring in each column. if that fails, it splits the token into its parts (mouse and selection) and matches each part independently against the column words. flexible AND accurate, we love to see it 💜

🔥 Ranking 🔥

When multiple items match the same query, they are sorted by:

1. Number of query words that matched (more is better).
2. Score on the action column (action matches outrank key or category matches).
3. Score on the key column.
4. Score on the category column.
5. Shorter action name as a tiebreaker (more specific results first).

it's a whole leaderboard and honestly the specificity at the end? chef's kiss 👩‍🍳

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⌨️ Keyboard controls ⌨️

The following keys are available while the command palette is open:

• Any text — filter results by typing a search query
• Enter — run the selected action
• Escape — clear the search query, or close the palette if the query is already empty
• Up / Ctrl+K / Ctrl+P — move selection up
• Down / Ctrl+J / Ctrl+N — move selection down
• Page Up — move selection up by a page
• Page Down — move selection down by a page
• Home — jump to the first result
• End — jump to the last result
• Backspace — delete the last character from the query
• F12 — toggle display of unmapped actions
• Mouse click — select and run the clicked action

that's the whole cheat sheet bestie, screenshot it, tattoo it, whatever works 💖

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💀 Unmapped actions 💀

By default, the palette shows both mapped actions (those bound to a shortcut) and unmapped actions (those with no shortcut assigned). unmapped actions appear with an (unmapped) label in the key column. press F12 to toggle their visibility. this preference is remembered across sessions — she never forgets 🔥

Unmapped actions are useful for discovering functionality that you may not have configured a shortcut for. you can run them directly from the palette, or note the action name and add a mapping in kitty.conf. it's giving "hidden gem discovery arc" ✨

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🧚 Custom keyboard modes 🧚

If you have defined custom keyboard modes (<#modal-mappings>) in your configuration, their bindings appear under separate mode headers in the palette. the push_keyboard_mode bindings are grouped with the target mode they activate, making it easy to see how to enter each mode alongside its shortcuts. organized, grouped, thoughtful — we stan a structured queen 👑

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🍓 Configuration 🍓

The default mapping to open the command palette is:

map kitty_mod+f3 command_palette

You can change this in kitty.conf like any other mapping. for example:

map ctrl+p command_palette

pick your fave, it's your world 🌈

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👑 Author 👑

Kovid Goyal

🫶 Copyright 🫶

2026, Kovid Goyal

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and that's the page!! 💜 this was kitten-command-palette(1) from kitty 0.49.2, dated Oct 01, 2026 — mwah, bye bestie, go open that palette 😭🎀