Keyboard shortcut to move focus between panes (terminal, chat, diff) without toggling them

Status Open
Maintainer reply None cached
Activity 1 comment · opened Aug 26, 2026

Problem

In the Claude Code desktop app there is no keyboard shortcut to move focus between panes (chat input, integrated terminal, diff, browser). The existing shortcuts (e.g. <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>`</kbd>) toggle a pane's visibility rather than move focus to an already-open pane. As a result, returning focus from the terminal back to the chat input requires reaching for the mouse (or pressing <kbd>Esc</kbd>, which also interrupts Claude if it's mid-response).

This makes the app hard to drive keyboard-only for users coming from the terminal CLI.

Proposal

Add keyboard navigation for pane focus, for example:

  • A "cycle focus to next / previous pane" shortcut (e.g. <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>Tab</kbd> / <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>Shift</kbd>+<kbd>Tab</kbd>), and/or
  • Direct "focus terminal" and "focus chat input" shortcuts that move focus without toggling the pane's visibility.

Ideally these would be rebindable (see note on customization below).

Alternatives considered

  • <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>`</kbd> — toggles terminal visibility, doesn't move focus to an open terminal.
  • Clicking the target pane — works, but breaks keyboard-only flow.
  • <kbd>Esc</kbd> to leave terminal focus — also interrupts an in-progress Claude response, so it's unsafe as a general "back to chat" key.

Related

  • Desktop keyboard shortcuts are currently not customizable (~/.claude/keybindings.json is CLI-only). If focus shortcuts are added, allowing them to be rebound on desktop would be valuable.
  • Related feature request: #89908 (auto-open the integrated terminal on new desktop sessions).

Environment

  • Surface: Claude Code desktop app (macOS)

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