Keybindings

Dumber uses modal keybindings inspired by Zellij. Press a mode activation key, then use action keys within that mode.

Mode Activation

Press Escape or Enter to exit any mode. Ctrl+Y can activate Vim Mode even when a page input is already focused, so you can use Vim commands without first moving focus away from the editor.

Keybinding tables use uppercase letters as visual labels for unshifted letter keys. In config, use lowercase (for example, ["w"] for Pane Mode eject). Shifted keys are shown with an explicit Shift+ prefix.

Pane Mode (Ctrl+P)

Tab Mode (Ctrl+T)

Vim Mode (Ctrl+Y)

Vim Mode is an explicit Vim-style navigation mode for the active pane only. It applies a pane-local accent from workspace.styling.pane_mode_color, and when workspace.styling.mode_indicator_toaster_enabled is true, shows a persistent bottom-left VIM MODE toaster while the mode is active; the toaster hides on exit, when the mode is toggled off, or when the toaster is disabled in config. The mode exits automatically when focus moves into the omnibox, find bar, overlays, or an editable element inside the page. The default timeout_ms is 0, so Vim Mode does not auto-time out unless you configure one. Arrow keys continue to flow through the browser engine's native page-navigation path while Vim Mode is active, while other app-level shortcuts stay suspended until you leave the mode. Ctrl+Y remains available when an editable page control is already focused.

CEF and WebKit execute Vim Mode scroll commands (h/j/k/l, Shift+J/K) with the shared BuildPageScrollByJS resolver. Each step starts under the viewport center, walks up through ancestors that can move in the requested direction, and hands scrolling to the document when a nested container reaches its boundary. Cross-origin frame contents remain best-effort.

gi focuses the next visible, editable page input. With no eligible input focused it starts at the first one; repeated gi commands cycle through the inputs. ]] and [[ move through visible h1–h6 headings and outline the selected heading with the current Dumber theme accent. When a page input is focused, Tab and Shift+Tab keep focus traversal inside the page; traversal stops safely at the page boundaries instead of moving into the host window. These live input, heading, and page-focus motions currently use the CEF engine path; the WebKit fallback supports Vim scrolling but not these semantic motions yet.

Resize Mode (Ctrl+N)

Session Mode (Ctrl+O)

Global Shortcuts

These work outside modal modes:

• Alt+F is the only floating-pane shortcut enabled by default.
• Alt+F toggles floating visibility and keeps floating pane state intact.
• Ctrl+H toggles the native GTK history sidebar. The sidebar shows browsing history grouped by day with search/filter, keyboard navigation (arrows, Home/End, Ctrl+arrows for day jumps), and activation modes (Enter to navigate while keeping the sidebar open, Ctrl+Enter to navigate while keeping the sidebar open, Shift+Enter to open in a new split). If the native sidebar is unavailable, the shortcut returns an error instead of falling back to dumb://history.
• Ctrl+B toggles the native GTK Favorites sidebar. Search matches favorite titles, URLs, and tag names. Tab/Shift+Tab traverse search, every tag filter, and the favorites list; arrow keys navigate favorites once the list is focused. The + at the right end of the tag-filter row creates a named tag. With a favorite selected in the list, + opens its tag binding controls. Enter and Ctrl+Enter open the selected favorite in the current pane while keeping the sidebar open; Shift+Enter opens it in a new split. Inside the sidebar, a adds, e edits, s opens shortcut mode, Delete starts delete confirmation, / focuses search, Esc clears/cancels/closes, r reloads, and c clears search and filters.
• Ctrl+D toggles the active page as a favorite/bookmark. Favorite shortcut metadata can be assigned in the sidebar, but global Alt+1..9 remains tab switching.
• Ctrl+W closes the active pane; when the floating pane is active, it fully releases that floating session.
• Any URL shortcut (for example Alt+G) must be defined explicitly in workspace.floating_pane.profiles.
• Floating profile shortcuts support modifier combos with ctrl, shift, and alt (for example ctrl+shift+y or ctrl+alt+m).

Warning: some Alt+<key> combinations may conflict with browser-engine shortcuts, website handlers, or your desktop environment. If a shortcut does not trigger in Dumber, choose a different keybinding.

For details, see Floating Pane.

Customization

All keybindings can be customized in ~/.config/dumber/config.toml:

[workspace.pane_mode.actions]
split-right = ["arrowright", "r"]
close-pane = ["x", "q"]

[workspace.vim_mode]
activation_shortcut = "ctrl+y"
timeout_ms = 0

[workspace.vim_mode.actions.vim-scroll-left]
keys = ["h"]

[workspace.vim_mode.actions.vim-scroll-down]
keys = ["j"]

[workspace.vim_mode.actions.vim-scroll-up]
keys = ["k"]

[workspace.vim_mode.actions.vim-scroll-right]
keys = ["l"]

[workspace.vim_mode.actions.vim-scroll-down-fast]
keys = ["shift+j"]

[workspace.vim_mode.actions.vim-scroll-up-fast]
keys = ["shift+k"]

[workspace.vim_mode.actions.focus-input]
keys = ["gi"]

[workspace.vim_mode.actions.heading-next]
keys = ["]]"]

[workspace.vim_mode.actions.heading-prev]
keys = ["[["]

[workspace.shortcuts.actions.close-pane]
keys = ["ctrl+w"]

[workspace.shortcuts.actions.toggle-floating-pane]
keys = ["alt+f"]

[workspace.shortcuts.actions.toggle-history-systemview]
keys = ["ctrl+h"]

[workspace.shortcuts.actions.toggle-favorites-sidebar]
keys = ["ctrl+b"]

[workspace.shortcuts.actions.toggle-current-page-favorite]
keys = ["ctrl+d"]

[workspace.shortcuts.actions.toggle-config-systemview]
keys = []

[workspace.floating_pane]
width_pct = 0.82
height_pct = 0.72

[workspace.floating_pane.profiles.google]
keys = ["alt+g"]
url = "https://google.com"

[workspace.floating_pane.profiles.github]
keys = ["alt+h"]
url = "https://github.com"

See Configuration for full details.