Feature request: j/k vim navigation in interactive selection menus (e.g. /effort)

Resolved 💬 2 comments Opened May 30, 2026 by cyperx84 Closed Jul 4, 2026

Feature request

Add j/k vim-style navigation to interactive selection menus — specifically the /effort picker and any other multi-option chooser UI — so they behave consistently with the rest of the CLI.

Related

Tracking with #61403, which makes the same ask for the /diff file picker. This request extends the scope to cover all selection-style menus in the CLI, not just file pickers.

Why

Users who live in vim/neovim (or tmux, or any keyboard-driven environment) reach for j/k instinctively whenever a list appears. Several screens in Claude Code already support this — but the /effort selection menu and other option choosers only respond to arrow keys. The inconsistency breaks flow and is especially jarring when running Claude Code inside a terminal inside NeoVim, where reaching for arrow keys is genuinely disruptive.

Repro

  1. Run /effort (or any similar multi-option selection command).
  2. Press j or k to try to move the selection.
  3. Nothing happens — only / work.

Ask

Wire j/k as aliases for / across all interactive selection menus in the CLI — option pickers, effort choosers, any UI that shows a navigable list. The footer hint text should reflect this (e.g. ↑/↓/j/k to select).

Ideally this would be treated as a universal contract: if it's a list, j/k works. No more per-screen exceptions.

Thanks!

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