Support Ctrl+[ as an alternate Escape in vim insert mode

Status Open
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 0 comments · opened Jul 22, 2026

Feature request

In vim mode, Escape is the only way to leave INSERT mode and return to NORMAL mode. Vim users conventionally also use Ctrl+[ for this — it's a very common muscle-memory binding since it's closer to the home row than the physical Escape key.

Ctrl+[ and Escape send the identical byte (0x1B) at the raw terminal level, but Claude Code's vim-mode INSERT→NORMAL transition currently doesn't respond to it (only the actual Escape keypress works).

The existing vimInsertModeRemaps setting (v2.1.208+) only supports two-printable-character sequences (e.g. jj, kk) mapped to <Esc> — it can't express a Ctrl+key chord.

Request: Either make Ctrl+[ work as Escape in vim INSERT mode by default (standard vim behavior), or extend vimInsertModeRemaps (or a similar setting) to accept single Ctrl+key bindings as an escape trigger.

Environment: Claude Code v2.1.206, macOS.

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