Station

Keyboard shortcuts

Open Settings → Keyboard shortcuts to search Station commands by their plain-language names.

  • Select a shortcut, then press the new key combination.
  • If the editor finds another registered command using it, Station explains the conflict before saving. Choose Replace to clear the old command and move the shortcut, or Cancel to leave both unchanged.
  • Clear removes a shortcut. Restore default returns the command to its current registered default binding, which may come from a plugin or command skill.
  • Each row has a context hint, with a technical hint under Advanced. These currently come from the command's ID, not its actual availability rule; they are not a live explanation of why a command can or cannot run. #2767 tracks that correction.
  • Some known browser-reserved combinations carry a warning. They may work more reliably in the desktop app because a browser can intercept them first.

Shortcut changes are stored in this browser/app profile's versioned station-device-settings-v1 local-storage envelope. The older station.device-settings record is a migration input. Overrides and command-skill shortcuts are included in Settings export/import; they do not automatically synchronize across Devices. The editor is read-only in the mobile layout, including narrow desktop windows.

Command palette

Press ⌘K on macOS or Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux to open the command palette from anywhere in Station, including while you are typing in a field. It does not open while another dialog is open, and you can rebind it under Settings → Keyboard shortcuts. There is no on-screen button for it, so a phone or tablet without a keyboard cannot open it.

Type to search. Results are grouped into commands, actions (such as opening the chat dock, a new Board, the tour or Report a problem), places to go, plugins, Settings rows, open chats, Projects, workspace panes, Agents and skills. After two characters it also searches indexed conversation messages. Among close matches, items you use often rank higher; Reset command history clears that. Choose Workspace search (this Station) at the top to switch to workspace search.

Use the arrow keys to move, Return to run the highlighted item, and Escape or a click outside to close. Running an item usually closes the palette and returns focus to where you were. Some items keep it open, such as Reset command history, which shows whether the reset worked, and a message found on another Station, which explains that it cannot be opened here.

Return in chat

Choose Chat settings → Return in chat on each device. Automatic uses Return to send on desktop and to insert a new line on touch devices. You can explicitly choose either behavior, including for an attached tablet keyboard. Shift+Return always inserts a line; Ctrl/Cmd+Return sends. Return never submits during IME composition. During a turn, the shortcut uses the composer's selected Queue or Steer mode. This preference is included in device-settings export/import.

Dispatch and limits

The registry orders matching shortcuts by priority, then registry order. It checks the registered when expression and current input/modal state before running a handler. An active modal suppresses global registry shortcuts; Escape and chat shortcuts have additional input-ownership rules. A visible row or saved binding does not bypass those conditions or a browser-reserved key. A handler that returns false declines the key: it is not prevented, the next matching shortcut is tried, and otherwise the browser keeps it. The Coding stack's Back/Forward chords decline inside editors that own those keys (CodeMirror, the terminal, a contenteditable editor) and when there is nowhere to go; in plain text fields they are the stack's Back and Forward.

The editor's replacement dialog considers the first matching enabled command. It does not analyze all conditional overlaps or guarantee that restoring a default leaves every chord conflict-free. The catalog also depends on which components have registered their commands in the current view.

Custom bindings containing Space currently store a key name that does not match the standard keyboard event. #2771 tracks the capture-to-dispatch correction; the defect was reproduced through the mounted editor and registry with DOM events.

The keyboard shortcut module connects these rules to the editor, registry, device store, import/export owner and tests. DOM/storage tests do not qualify every physical keyboard, OS shortcut, or native shell.

Plugin shortcuts

Plugins register shortcuts with the SDK's useShortcut. They join the same registry under plugin.<plugin>.<id>, so they appear in the shortcut list (under Plugins) and in Settings, and an active modal suppresses them like any other. A plugin cannot replace a Station shortcut through the SDK, because no Station id starts with plugin.. Plugin shortcuts rank below Station's own, so a Station shortcut on the same chord wins whichever registered first; only Station's "go up a level" Escape fallback yields to a plugin. Only a verified plugin's pane can register shortcuts.

The command palette (⌘K), Settings (⌘,) and the shortcut list (⌘/) are reserved, so a user can always get back in control of a misbehaving plugin. So are the text-editing chords: ⌘C, ⌘V, ⌘X, ⌘Z, ⇧⌘Z and ⌘A, which are Ctrl off a Mac, and Ctrl+Y. Station refuses a plugin chord that equals one of their defaults or their current bindings. If you later move a reserved shortcut onto a plugin's chord, or move a plugin shortcut onto a reserved one, the plugin's shortcut stops firing. Off a Mac, cmd and ctrl are the same chord for this check. A plugin chord with no Cmd, Ctrl or Alt never fires while focus is in a text field.

These rules apply to shortcuts registered through the SDK. A plugin that runs inside Station's own page can still listen for keys directly, so they are not a sandbox.