Interactive Mode

Interactive Mode

The VT Code terminal UI is keyboard-first. Press ? on an empty input line to open a quick shortcut overlay.

General Controls

Shortcut	Description
Ctrl+C	Cancel the current generation or command (twice to exit)
Ctrl+D	Exit interactive mode
Ctrl+L	Clear the terminal screen, keep history
Ctrl+T	Toggle verbose tool output
Alt+G	Toggle the TODO task panel
Ctrl+O	Copy last agent response as markdown
Alt+O	Open/close fullscreen transcript review
Ctrl+R	Reverse-search command history
Up/Down	Navigate command history
Tab	Accept inline suggestion; cycle primary agents when idle
Ctrl+Enter	Process now / steer the active turn
Shift+Tab / Alt+M	Cycle primary agents
Esc + Esc	Open the rewind picker for checkpoint restore / summarize

Input Prefixes

Prefix	Action
#	Pick and run a custom prompt
/	Issue a slash command
!	Bash mode — run a shell command directly
@	Open the file picker / reference files
@agent-<name>	Insert a subagent mention
Alt+P	Inline prompt suggestion (ghost text, Tab accepts)

Multiline Input

• \ + Enter — quick escape (works everywhere)
• Option+Enter — macOS default
• Shift+Enter — native in Ghostty, Kitty, WezTerm, iTerm2, Warp; run /terminal-setup in VS Code, Alacritty, or Zed
• Ctrl+J — insert a line feed

Fullscreen Mode

When running in alternate-screen mode, the transcript uses a fixed fullscreen layout (like vim or less).

• PgUp / PgDn — scroll half a page
• Ctrl+Home — jump to oldest content
• Ctrl+End — jump to newest, resume auto-follow
• Mouse wheel scrolls when mouse capture is enabled (ui.fullscreen.mouse_capture)

Alt+O opens the transcript review surface with search (/, n, N), paging (Ctrl+U/D, Ctrl+B/F), export to terminal scrollback ([), and opening in your editor (v).

Inside tmux, enable set -g mouse on for wheel scrolling. Avoid fullscreen mode in tmux -CC (iTerm2 control mode).

Slash Commands

Command	Description
/help, /slash-commands	List available commands
/model	Switch model or provider (auto-compacts on switch)
/theme <id>	Switch the active theme
/agents	Create/inspect/edit subagent definitions
/agent	Inspect delegated child threads
/plan	Start or continue the planning workflow
/compact	Compact session history now
/fork	Fork the archived session
/continue, /resume	Resume archived sessions
/tasks	Toggle the TODO panel
/jobs	Manage background/PTY jobs
/pause, /resume, /stop	Steer an active run
/local	Manage local inference servers
/mcp	Manage MCP connections
/skills	Manage agent skills
/vim, /vim on/off	Toggle Vim prompt editing for the session
/statusline	Generate a custom status-line command
/secret add <provider>	Store an API key in the OS keyring

Vim Mode

Set ui.vim_mode = true in vtcode.toml to enable Vim-style prompt editing. Supports INSERT/NORMAL modes with motions, change/delete/yank operators, text objects, p/P, J, and . repeat. No visual mode, macros, or multiple registers.

Background Bash

• Ask VT Code to run a command in the background, or press Ctrl+B mid-command to background it.
• Background tasks return an ID and stream updates via BashOutput; they auto-cleanup at session end.
• Great for build systems, package managers, test runners, and dev servers.
• ! prefix runs a command without agent interpretation and streams output into the chat.

Active Run Steering

While a turn is running:

• Ctrl+Enter — steer the active turn with your current draft
• /pause — pause at the next model/tool/approval boundary
• /stop — cancel immediately
• Ctrl+B — start/stop the configured default background subagent

Related

• Getting-Started
• Planning-Workflow
• Configuration