Shortcuts

Shortcuts are custom commands that appear in the task detail dialog. Click a shortcut to launch an editor, open a git tool, run a script, or anything else you can do from the command line.

Global Keyboard Shortcuts

Every keyboard shortcut in Kangentic lives in a central keybinding registry, and most can be rebound from Settings > Hotkeys (see Customizing Keybindings below). The defaults:

General

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P	Toggle the Command Terminal overlay
Ctrl+Shift+F / Cmd+Shift+F	Open the global search palette (Quick Find)
Ctrl+F / Cmd+F	Find on Board - focuses the board toolbar search, or opens Quick Find when you’re not on the board (suppressed inside focused text fields)
Ctrl+Shift+S / Cmd+Shift+S	Toggle the settings panel
Ctrl+Shift+B / Cmd+Shift+B	Switch between the Board and Backlog views
Ctrl+Shift+E / Cmd+Shift+E	Toggle the project sidebar
Ctrl+Shift+J / Cmd+Shift+J	Collapse or expand the bottom terminal panel
Ctrl+N / Cmd+N	Open the New Task dialog on the board
Escape	Close any open dialog, dismiss the search palette, or exit Inspect mode

Task Detail and Command Terminal

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Shift+M / Cmd+Shift+M	Maximize or restore the open panel (task detail dialog or Command Terminal)
Ctrl+Shift+W / Cmd+Shift+W	Close the open panel (task detail dialog or Command Terminal)
Ctrl+Shift+B / Cmd+Shift+B	Toggle the Browser pane (inside the task detail dialog, where it shadows the Board/Backlog toggle)
Ctrl+Shift+G / Cmd+Shift+G	Toggle the Changes (diff) panel inside the task detail dialog

Embedded Browser

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter	Send the embedded browser capture to the active agent
Ctrl+D / Cmd+D	Toggle Draw mode in the embedded browser
Ctrl+I / Cmd+I	Toggle Inspect mode in the embedded browser
Ctrl+= / Cmd+= (also Ctrl++)	Zoom in the embedded browser (gated on pane hover or focus)
Ctrl+- / Cmd+-	Zoom out the embedded browser (gated on pane hover or focus)
Ctrl+0 / Cmd+0	Reset embedded browser zoom to 100%
Ctrl+Wheel	Step zoom in the embedded browser webview
F5 / Ctrl+R	Reload the embedded page

Standard OS shortcuts (copy, paste, select all, etc.) work as expected in the terminal.

Customizing Keybindings (Hotkeys)

Open Settings > Hotkeys to view and rebind shortcuts. The panel lists every registered action grouped by area (General, Task Detail, Browser, Terminal), with its current combo next to it.

• Rebind - click a combo and press the new key combination. Bindings use the platform-primary modifier (Ctrl on Windows/Linux, Cmd on macOS).
• Conflict detection - if two actions that can be active at the same time resolve to the same combo, the panel flags the conflict so you can pick a different binding.
• Terminal warnings - rebinding an action onto a combo the embedded terminal consumes (like Ctrl+C or Ctrl+V) shows a warning, since the shortcut would not fire while the terminal is focused.
• Fixed bindings - a few combos are display-only and cannot be rebound: Escape (dialog dismissal) and the terminal copy/paste/interrupt combos.

Hotkey overrides are stored per-machine in the global config (hotkeyOverrides) and are not shared per-project.

Adding Shortcuts

Open Settings > Shortcuts (per-project). You have two options:

1. Presets - click the Presets dropdown to pick from built-in shortcuts for popular tools
2. Add Shortcut - create a blank shortcut and fill in the label, command, and icon

Built-in Presets

Presets are filtered by your operating system. Available categories:

Editors

• VS Code - code "{{cwd}}"
• Cursor - cursor "{{cwd}}"
• Zed (macOS/Linux) - zed "{{cwd}}"
• Sublime Text - subl "{{cwd}}"
• WebStorm - webstorm "{{cwd}}"
• IntelliJ IDEA - idea "{{cwd}}"
• Visual Studio (Windows) - auto-detects via vswhere

Git Tools

• GitHub Desktop (Windows/macOS) - github "{{cwd}}"
• Fork (Windows) - fork open "{{cwd}}"
• Fork (macOS) - open -a Fork "{{cwd}}"
• GitKraken - gitkraken -p "{{cwd}}"
• TortoiseGit Log (Windows) - TortoiseGitProc /command:log /path:"{{cwd}}"
• TortoiseGit Commit (Windows) - TortoiseGitProc /command:commit /path:"{{cwd}}"

Files & Terminal

• File Explorer (Windows) - explorer "{{cwd}}"
• Finder (macOS) - open "{{cwd}}"
• File Manager (Linux) - xdg-open "{{cwd}}"
• Windows Terminal - wt -d "{{cwd}}"
• Terminal (macOS) - open -a Terminal "{{cwd}}"
• iTerm2 (macOS) - open -a iTerm "{{cwd}}"
• Alacritty - alacritty --working-directory "{{cwd}}"

Template Variables

Shortcut commands can use these placeholders, which are replaced at runtime:

Variable	Replaced with
{{cwd}}	Task’s working directory (worktree path or project root)
{{branchName}}	Git branch name
{{taskTitle}}	Task title (sanitized for shell safety)
{{projectPath}}	Root project path

Display Options

Each shortcut has a display setting that controls where it appears in the task detail dialog:

Option	Where it appears
Header	As a pill button in the dialog title bar
Menu	In the three-dot kebab menu
Both	In both locations (default)

Use Header for shortcuts you use constantly, and Menu for less frequent ones to keep the title bar clean.

Custom Shortcuts

Click Add Shortcut to create your own. Fill in:

• Label - display name (e.g., “Deploy to Staging”)
• Command - any shell command with {{}} variables
• Icon - pick from the icon palette
• Display - where it appears (header, menu, or both)

Shortcuts can be reordered by dragging.

Display Location

The Display setting controls where each shortcut appears in the task detail dialog:

• Header - shows as a pill button in the dialog title bar, visible at all times. Best for shortcuts you use frequently (e.g., “Open in VS Code”).
• Menu - appears only in the three-dot kebab menu. Best for less frequent shortcuts to keep the title bar clean.
• Both (default) - appears in both locations.

Team vs Personal Shortcuts

Shortcuts have two scopes:

Scope	Stored in	Shared via Git
Team	kangentic.json	Yes - everyone on the project sees them
Personal	kangentic.local.json	No - local to your machine

Use team shortcuts for shared tools (editors, git workflows) and personal shortcuts for your own utilities.

Tip

Team shortcuts are part of the Board Configuration file. When you export or commit kangentic.json, shortcuts are included.

Next steps

Next: Board Configuration - shortcuts live alongside columns and transitions.

See also:

• Command Terminal - run ad-hoc commands without creating a task
• Settings - the Hotkeys tab and other customization options