Essential Keyboard Shortcuts

The 3 You Must Know

Forget everything else — just remember these three.

Shortcut	Action	When to use
Ctrl + C	Force stop a running command	When a command won’t stop
Ctrl + L	Clear the screen	When the screen is full of text
Tab	Auto-complete file/command names	When typing long file names

Ctrl + C is the most important. If you think something is broken, try this first.

Terminal Shortcuts

Cursor Movement

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl + A	Jump to start of line
Ctrl + E	Jump to end of line
Ctrl + W	Delete word before cursor
Ctrl + U	Delete from cursor to start of line
Ctrl + K	Delete from cursor to end of line

Much faster than deleting everything and retyping when you make a mistake in a long command.

History

Shortcut	Action
Up / Down	Navigate command history
Ctrl + R	Search command history

Ctrl + R is great. Type part of a previous command and it finds the match.

VS Code / Cursor (Shared)

VS Code and Cursor share almost identical shortcuts (Cursor is based on VS Code).

Basics

Shortcut (Mac)	Action
Cmd + P	Quick open file by name
Cmd + Shift + P	Command palette
Cmd + B	Toggle sidebar
Ctrl + `	Toggle terminal
Cmd + ,	Open settings

Cmd + P is the most important. Far faster than clicking through folders.

Editing

Shortcut (Mac)	Action
Cmd + D	Select next occurrence of word
Cmd + Shift + K	Delete line
Option + Up/Down	Move line up/down
Cmd + /	Toggle comment
Cmd + Shift + F	Search entire project

Multi-cursor

Shortcut (Mac)	Action
Option + Click	Add cursor
Cmd + D	Add cursor to next occurrence
Cmd + Shift + L	Select all occurrences

Great for renaming variables across a file.

Cursor-Specific

Shortcut (Mac)	Action
Cmd + K	Ask AI to generate code
Cmd + L	Open AI chat
Cmd + I	Open Composer (multi-file editing)

Claude Code (in Terminal)

Claude Code runs in the terminal, so terminal shortcuts work as-is.

Action	What it does
Enter	Send message
Escape	Interrupt current response
/help	Show help
/clear	Reset conversation
Ctrl + C	Cancel running operation

For Windows Users

To translate Mac shortcuts to Windows:

Mac	Windows
Cmd	Ctrl
Option	Alt
Ctrl (terminal)	Ctrl (same)

Example: Cmd + P becomes Ctrl + P

How to Learn These

Don’t try to memorize everything at once.

1. Start with just Ctrl + C, Tab, Cmd + P
2. Add Ctrl + R (history search) when you’re comfortable
3. Pick up Cmd + D and Option + Up/Down as you edit more

When you hit a situation and think “there must be a shortcut for this” — that’s when you’ll remember.

Next Steps

• Terminal — Start Here — Basic terminal commands
• Claude Code / Cursor / VS Code — Which One? — Find the right tool for you