gh-obra-superpowers-developing-for-claude-code/skills/working-with-claude-code/references/interactive-mode.md

Interactive mode

Complete reference for keyboard shortcuts, input modes, and interactive features in Claude Code sessions.

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts may vary by platform and terminal. Press `?` to see available shortcuts for your environment.

General controls

Shortcut	Description	Context
Ctrl+C	Cancel current input or generation	Standard interrupt
Ctrl+D	Exit Claude Code session	EOF signal
Ctrl+L	Clear terminal screen	Keeps conversation history
Ctrl+O	Toggle verbose output	Shows detailed tool usage and execution
Ctrl+R	Reverse search command history	Search through previous commands interactively
Ctrl+V (macOS/Linux) or Alt+V (Windows)	Paste image from clipboard	Pastes an image or path to an image file
Up/Down arrows	Navigate command history	Recall previous inputs
Esc + Esc	Rewind the code/conversation	Restore the code and/or conversation to a previous point
Tab	Toggle extended thinking	Switch between Thinking on and Thinking off
Shift+Tab or Alt+M (some configurations)	Toggle permission modes	Switch between Auto-Accept Mode, Plan Mode, and normal mode

Multiline input

Method	Shortcut	Context
Quick escape	\ + Enter	Works in all terminals
macOS default	Option+Enter	Default on macOS
Terminal setup	Shift+Enter	After /terminal-setup
Control sequence	Ctrl+J	Line feed character for multiline
Paste mode	Paste directly	For code blocks, logs

Configure your preferred line break behavior in terminal settings. Run `/terminal-setup` to install Shift+Enter binding for iTerm2 and VS Code terminals.

Quick commands

Shortcut	Description	Notes
# at start	Memory shortcut - add to CLAUDE.md	Prompts for file selection
/ at start	Slash command	See slash commands
! at start	Bash mode	Run commands directly and add execution output to the session
@	File path mention	Trigger file path autocomplete

Vim editor mode

Enable vim-style editing with /vim command or configure permanently via /config.

Mode switching

Command	Action	From mode
Esc	Enter NORMAL mode	INSERT
i	Insert before cursor	NORMAL
I	Insert at beginning of line	NORMAL
a	Insert after cursor	NORMAL
A	Insert at end of line	NORMAL
o	Open line below	NORMAL
O	Open line above	NORMAL

Navigation (NORMAL mode)

Command	Action
h/j/k/l	Move left/down/up/right
w	Next word
e	End of word
b	Previous word
0	Beginning of line
$	End of line
^	First non-blank character
gg	Beginning of input
G	End of input

Editing (NORMAL mode)

Command	Action
x	Delete character
dd	Delete line
D	Delete to end of line
dw/de/db	Delete word/to end/back
cc	Change line
C	Change to end of line
cw/ce/cb	Change word/to end/back
.	Repeat last change

Command history

Claude Code maintains command history for the current session:

• History is stored per working directory
• Cleared with /clear command
• Use Up/Down arrows to navigate (see keyboard shortcuts above)
• Note: History expansion (!) is disabled by default

Reverse search with Ctrl+R

Press Ctrl+R to interactively search through your command history:

1. Start search: Press Ctrl+R to activate reverse history search
2. Type query: Enter text to search for in previous commands - the search term will be highlighted in matching results
3. Navigate matches: Press Ctrl+R again to cycle through older matches
4. Accept match:
   • Press Tab or Esc to accept the current match and continue editing
   • Press Enter to accept and execute the command immediately
5. Cancel search:
   • Press Ctrl+C to cancel and restore your original input
   • Press Backspace on empty search to cancel

The search displays matching commands with the search term highlighted, making it easy to find and reuse previous inputs.

Background bash commands

Claude Code supports running bash commands in the background, allowing you to continue working while long-running processes execute.

How backgrounding works

When Claude Code runs a command in the background, it runs the command asynchronously and immediately returns a background task ID. Claude Code can respond to new prompts while the command continues executing in the background.

To run commands in the background, you can either:

• Prompt Claude Code to run a command in the background
• Press Ctrl+B to move a regular Bash tool invocation to the background. (Tmux users must press Ctrl+B twice due to tmux's prefix key.)

Key features:

• Output is buffered and Claude can retrieve it using the BashOutput tool
• Background tasks have unique IDs for tracking and output retrieval
• Background tasks are automatically cleaned up when Claude Code exits

Common backgrounded commands:

• Build tools (webpack, vite, make)
• Package managers (npm, yarn, pnpm)
• Test runners (jest, pytest)
• Development servers
• Long-running processes (docker, terraform)

Bash mode with ! prefix

Run bash commands directly without going through Claude by prefixing your input with !:

! npm test
! git status
! ls -la

Bash mode:

• Adds the command and its output to the conversation context
• Shows real-time progress and output
• Supports the same Ctrl+B backgrounding for long-running commands
• Does not require Claude to interpret or approve the command

This is useful for quick shell operations while maintaining conversation context.

See also

• Slash commands - Interactive session commands
• Checkpointing - Rewind Claude's edits and restore previous states
• CLI reference - Command-line flags and options
• Settings - Configuration options
• Memory management - Managing CLAUDE.md files