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Productivity

Keyboard Shortcuts & Productivity

Master the Claude Code CLI shortcuts and techniques to work faster in the terminal.

Mode Switching

Claude Code has three permission modes you can cycle through instantly:

  • Shift + Tab — Cycle: Normal → Auto-accept → Plan Mode

Use Normal for careful work, Auto-accept when you trust the flow, and Plan Mode for read-only exploration. See the Plan Mode guide for details.

Essential Shortcuts

  • Ctrl + C — Cancel current generation or input
  • Ctrl + D — Exit Claude Code
  • Ctrl + L — Clear the terminal screen
  • Ctrl + R — Reverse search through command history
  • ↑ — Recall previous prompts

Input & References

  • @ — Reference a file or directory (tab-completable)
  • / — Open slash commands menu
  • # — Quick-update your CLAUDE.md from the conversation
  • ! — Enter bash mode (run shell commands directly)
  • Ctrl + V — Paste an image for visual analysis

Thinking & Output

  • Option + T / Alt + T — Toggle extended thinking mode
  • Ctrl + O — Toggle verbose output
  • Option + P / Alt + P — Switch model

Session Management

  • Esc Esc — Rewind: undo code changes and/or conversation turns
  • Ctrl + B — Send current task to background
  • Ctrl + T — Toggle task list
  • Ctrl + G — Open current content in a text editor

Workflow Tips

Pipe Input

Feed external data directly into Claude Code using Unix pipes:

git diff main | claude -p "review this diff for issues"
tail -f app.log | claude -p "summarize errors as they appear"
cat schema.sql | claude -p "suggest indexes for this schema"

Session Resume

Continue where you left off without losing context:

claude --continue        # resume the most recent conversation
claude --resume          # pick from a list of recent sessions

File References

Use @ to pull file content into your prompt efficiently:

@src/auth/login.ts what does this auth flow do?
look at @tests/ and write tests for @src/utils/parser.ts

Background Tasks

Press Ctrl + B to send a long-running task to the background. You can start a new conversation while it runs, then check back with Ctrl + T.

Why do these shortcuts matter?

Each shortcut maps to a core agent capability: mode switching controls the permission model, @ manages the context window, and Esc Esc leverages checkpointing. Understanding the agent architecture behind these makes you faster.

Explore the Agent Tool Use path

Next Steps