Keybinds

This page explains the default keybinds and how to customize them via PromptKeymap.

See examples/keybinds.rs for a runnable setup that configures PromptKeymap.

cargo run --example keybinds

Default keybinds

The following keys control the REPL input buffer by default:

Key	Action
Enter	Submit command
Esc	Clear input buffer
Left/Right	Move cursor
Home/End	Jump to start/end
Backspace	Delete before cursor
Delete	Delete at cursor
Ctrl+C	Terminate app (signal)

warning

Ctrl+C behaves like a normal terminal interrupt because Bevy REPL installs a safety hook to handle SIGINT (Ctrl+C) and restore the terminal (disable raw mode) on exit. This works even if a quit command is disabled but also does not allow to use Ctrl+C to be mapped to other actions.

Customizing keybinds

Keybinds are configured with the PromptKeymap resource in bevy_repl::prompt::keymap. Each action maps to an exact (KeyCode, KeyModifiers) pair as a ReplKeybind.

important

The REPL uses Crossterm keycodes and modifiers to capture input, NOT Bevy keycodes and modifiers.

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use bevy_ratatui::crossterm::event::{KeyCode as CrosstermKeyCode, KeyModifiers};
}

Examples of combinations

v: ReplKeybind { code: CrosstermKeyCode::Char('v'), mods: KeyModifiers::NONE }
Shift+v: ReplKeybind { code: CrosstermKeyCode::Char('V'), mods: KeyModifiers::SHIFT }
Ctrl+v: ReplKeybind { code: CrosstermKeyCode::Char('v'), mods: KeyModifiers::CONTROL }
Ctrl+Shift+v: ReplKeybind { code: CrosstermKeyCode::Char('V'), mods: KeyModifiers::CONTROL | KeyModifiers::SHIFT }
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+v: ReplKeybind { code: CrosstermKeyCode::Char('V'), mods: KeyModifiers::CONTROL | KeyModifiers::ALT | KeyModifiers::SHIFT }

Capital letters and Shift

Terminals often report Shifted letters as uppercase KeyCode::Char('V') and may also set SHIFT. Match both code and mods exactly in your binding.

By default, the fallback “insert printable char” only fires for unmodified keys (no modifiers). If you want Shift-only typing (e.g., Shift+v -> V) to insert without an explicit binding, you can relax the fallback policy inside PromptKeymap::map:

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
// inside PromptKeymap::map fallback
use bevy_ratatui::crossterm::event::KeyModifiers as M;
if self.allow_plain_char_insert {
    if let KeyCode::Char(c) = event.code {
        if event.modifiers.is_empty() || event.modifiers == M::SHIFT {
            return Some(ReplBufferEvent::Insert(c));
        }
    }
}
}

Advanced mappings & Kitty protocol

Ratatui uses Kitty protocol by default, which is necessary for advanced keybinds like Ctrl+Enter. For now, this is not supported in the REPL natively, but you can use the REPL together with bevy_ratatui and may have better results.

See examples/alt_screen.rs for a runnable setup that uses bevy_ratatui.