Phials documentation

Keyboard Shortcuts

Phials maps hundreds of actions to keyboard shortcuts. You can search the list, assign up to three shortcuts per action, reset individual actions or everything, and fix conflicts when two actions want the same keys.

Many of the same actions also appear on the path bar and tab bar or in context menus; shortcuts are independent of those placements.

Open shortcut settings

  1. Open Settings.
  2. Under Commands, select Shortcuts.

Find a shortcut

Use the Search shortcuts… field at the top. Matching uses the action label, description, and internal id.

Shortcuts are grouped into sections you can expand or collapse. Each section contains smaller groups of related actions.

Change a shortcut

Each action row shows up to three shortcut slots.

  1. Click a shortcut badge (or the + slot) to start recording.
  2. Press the key combination you want. Modifier keys are shown as you hold them.
  3. Recording finishes when you press a non-modifier key.

While recording:

  • Escape cancels without saving.
  • Reserved system shortcuts (such as app quit or OS app switcher) are rejected with a message instead of being saved.
  • If the combination is already assigned to another action, you see a warning naming that action. Choose Try Again to pick a different combination.

To remove one slot, hover the badge and use the small close control on that shortcut.

To reset one action to its default shortcuts, use the undo control on the row (visible when you have changed that action).

To reset every shortcut in Phials, click Reset All to Defaults at the top of the page.

Conflicts

Phials does not allow two different actions to share the same shortcut. If you try to save a conflicting combination, an alert explains which action already uses those keys. Clear or change the other action first, then try again.

Default shortcuts reference

A few layout shortcuts are built into Phials by default (modifier shown as Cmd on macOS and Ctrl on Windows/Linux):

ActionDefault shortcut
Single PaneCmd/Ctrl+Shift+1
Split VerticalCmd/Ctrl+Shift+2
Split HorizontalCmd/Ctrl+Shift+3
Quad PanesCmd/Ctrl+Shift+4
Cycle LayoutCmd/Ctrl+\

For all other defaults, check the Shortcuts settings page or the badge shown on each row before you change it.