Desktop App
Shortcuts and command palette
The command palette, the Prompt Library, and the full keyboard-shortcut reference.
Operon is built to be driven from the keyboard. Two shortcuts do most of the work — the command palette for finding anything, and the Prompt Library for reusing prompts — and a handful of others move you between views and terminal panes without reaching for the mouse. This page collects them all.
Note
Shortcuts written with Cmd are for macOS; on Windows and Linux use Ctrl in its place. Operon treats the two interchangeably.
The command palette
Press Cmd+K anywhere in the app to open the command palette — a single search box for navigating and acting across all of Operon. It is the fastest way to jump to a project, switch sessions, change views, or run a command without hunting through the sidebar. Press Cmd+K again, or Escape, to close it.
- 1
Open it
Press Cmd+K (or Ctrl+K). The palette appears over whatever you were looking at.
- 2
Type what you want
Start typing a project name, a session, a view, or an action. The results narrow as you type.
- 3
Pick a result
Use the arrow keys to move through the matches and Enter to run the highlighted one. Operon navigates you there and closes the palette.
The Prompt Library
Press Cmd+L to open the Prompt Library — a searchable collection of reusable prompts, including a set of curated built-ins plus any you save yourself. From it you can send a prompt straight to the running agent, copy it, or edit and organize your own. It is the antidote to retyping the same instructions in every session.
Tip
Save the prompts you find yourself writing over and over — a code-review checklist, a commit-message format, a refactor brief — and Cmd+L makes them one keystroke away in any session.
Keyboard shortcuts
The full set. The number keys switch between a session’s views and only do anything while you have a session open; the terminal split keys work while the Terminal view is focused.
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Cmd+K | Open or close the command palette. |
| Cmd+L | Open or close the Prompt Library. |
| Cmd+N | Start a new session. |
| Cmd+1 | Switch to the Overview view. |
| Cmd+2 | Switch to the Terminal view. |
| Cmd+3 | Switch to the Activity view. |
| Cmd+4 | Switch to the Timeline view. |
| Cmd+5 | Switch to the Tasks view. |
| Cmd+6 | Switch to the Analytics view. |
| Cmd+J | From Home, jump to the oldest session waiting on you. |
| Cmd+D | In the Terminal view, split the focused pane to the right. |
| Cmd+Shift+D | In the Terminal view, split the focused pane downward. |
| Cmd+W | In the Terminal view, hide the focused pane (the shell keeps running). |
| Escape | Close the command palette, the Prompt Library, or the new-session dialog. |
Note
Cmd+W hides a terminal pane rather than killing it — the underlying shell and any running command stay alive, so you can split, focus elsewhere, and come back. It only acts when more than one pane is open.