Shell Hotkeys

Shell hotkeys are keyboard shortcuts that trigger IntelliShell features directly from your shell command line (e.g., Bash, Zsh, Fish, Nushell, PowerShell).

Unlike Key Bindings, which control navigation and editing inside the Terminal User Interface (TUI) once it is open, shell hotkeys determine how you launch IntelliShell without leaving your prompt.

Available Hotkeys

The [hotkeys] section in your config.toml allows configuring the following actions:

Default Configuration

You can customize these hotkeys in the [hotkeys] block of your config.toml:

# Configuration for shell integration hotkeys.
# These hotkeys trigger Intelli-Shell features directly from your shell command line.
#
# Unlike TUI keybindings, shell hotkeys must be a single key combination
# in the format `ctrl-<char>` or `alt-<char>` (e.g., "ctrl-space", "alt-s").
[hotkeys]
# Trigger search mode to find and execute stored commands
search = "ctrl-space"
# Bookmark the current command line buffer
bookmark = "ctrl-b"
# Trigger variable replacement mode for templates in the buffer
variable = "ctrl-l"
# Trigger AI fix mode for the command currently in the input buffer
fix = "ctrl-x"

Syntax and Validation Rules

To ensure hotkeys can be translated reliably across all supported shell line editors (Readline, ZLE, Fish, Reedline, PSReadLine):

• Single combination: Hotkeys must be specified as a single string (not a list/array).
• Supported modifiers: Hotkeys must use either ctrl or alt combined with a single ASCII character or space (e.g., "ctrl-space", "alt-s", "ctrl-p"). Combinations like ctrl-alt-... or standalone keys without modifiers are not allowed.

Applying Changes

Shell integration scripts generate their native key bindings dynamically when intelli-shell init <shell> is evaluated during shell startup.

If you update hotkeys in your config.toml:

1. Save your changes to config.toml.
2. Reload your shell profile (e.g., source ~/.bashrc or source ~/.zshrc) or open a new terminal session.

Environment Variable Overrides

For backwards compatibility and advanced use cases, IntelliShell also honors shell environment variables to override hotkeys:

• INTELLI_SEARCH_HOTKEY: Overrides the default ctrl-space hotkey for searching commands
• INTELLI_BOOKMARK_HOTKEY: Overrides the default ctrl-b hotkey to bookmark a command
• INTELLI_VARIABLE_HOTKEY: Overrides the default ctrl-l hotkey for replacing variables
• INTELLI_FIX_HOTKEY: Overrides the default ctrl-x hotkey for fixing commands
• INTELLI_SKIP_ESC_BIND=1: Prevents IntelliShell from binding the Esc key to clear the current command line

If set in your shell profile before the intelli-shell init command, environment variables take precedence over config.toml. This is especially helpful if you need shell-specific key syntax or escape sequences (such as raw terminal escape codes or terminal emulator chords) not directly expressible in config.toml.

💡 Tip: For keybinding syntax when using environment variables, refer to your shell’s documentation (bindkey for Zsh, bind for Bash). For example, to change the search hotkey in Bash using an environment variable, add export INTELLI_SEARCH_HOTKEY='\C-t' to your .bashrc.

Note for Fish users: When overriding via environment variables, Fish 3.x uses escaped sequences (e.g., \cb), whereas Fish 4.x and newer require named keys (e.g., ctrl-b or ctrl-l).

Now that you have configured your shell entry points, you can customize the controls used inside the interface. Let’s move on to Key Bindings.