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Day 33 of 52 · about 10 min · Basics · Bonus

Set up your terminal and learn the shortcuts that matter

A few keys save more time than any clever prompt: a new line without sending, stopping Claude mid-step, and rewinding a turn that went wrong. Set them up once and use them all day.

You’ll finish with

  • Multiline prompts that work in your terminal.
  • The shortcuts that stop, rewind and redirect Claude.
  • One shortcut remapped in ~/.claude/keybindings.json.

You’ll need

  • Claude Code running in the terminal you use every day.
Start from the practice project as of Day 32 (.zip, 33 KB)

Before you start

Tell us about your setup and the steps change to fit it. Your answers stay in this browser, and you can change them at any time.

Which system are you on?

Commands differ between systems. Pick the one you’ll run Claude Code on.

The steps

One step at a time. When a step’s check matches, tick it and the next one opens.

0 of 4 steps done0%

  1. Step 1 of 4: Find how your terminal adds a new line

    Enter sends your prompt, so you need another key for a line break.

    Works in every terminal

    • Ctrl+J
    • \ then Enter

    Shift+Enter, no setup

    • Ghostty, Kitty, iTerm2, WezTerm
    • Warp, Apple Terminal
    • Windows Terminal

    Shift+Enter after /terminal-setup

    • VS Code, Cursor, Devin Desktop
    • Zed
    • Alacritty before 0.16
    gnome-terminal and JetBrains IDEs have no Shift+Enter, so use Ctrl+J there.

    Check it worked

    You can type a two-line prompt, and it sends only when you press Enter.

  2. Step 2 of 4: Run /terminal-setup if your terminal needs it

    One command writes the key binding into your terminal’s own settings.
    In Claude Code

    You type: /terminal-setup

    What happens: In VS Code, Cursor, Devin Desktop, Alacritty or Zed, it adds a Shift+Enter binding.

    What happens: In Apple Terminal, it turns on Option+Enter for new lines and turns off the audible bell.

    Run it in the terminal itself, not inside tmux or screen.

    Check it worked

    If your terminal was in the third column, Shift+Enter now adds a line instead of sending.

  3. Step 3 of 4: Learn the keys that save the most time

    Most of them help you stop, undo or steer without retyping.

    While Claude works

    • Esc stops it and keeps the work so far
    • Ctrl+B sends a running command or agent to the background
    • Ctrl+O shows the full transcript

    At the prompt

    • Esc Esc on an empty prompt opens rewind
    • Shift+Tab cycles permission modes
    • Ctrl+R searches your past prompts
    • Ctrl+G opens the prompt in your editor
    Press ? on an empty prompt for the full list.

    Check it worked

    Press Esc twice on an empty prompt. The rewind menu opens; Esc closes it.

  4. Step 4 of 4: Remap one key

    Run /keybindings to create or open your shortcuts file.

    Changes to ~/.claude/keybindings.json

    Added: {
    Added: "$schema": "https://www.schemastore.org/claude-code-keybindings.json",
    Added: "bindings": [
    Added: {
    Added: "context": "Chat",
    Added: "bindings": { "ctrl+e": "chat:externalEditor" }
    Added: }
    Added: ]
    Added: }
    Ctrl+E then opens your editor instead of jumping to the end of the line.

    If the file already has a Chat block, add only the ctrl+e line to it. Changes apply without a restart.

    Check it worked

    Type a few words and press Ctrl+E. Your editor opens with them.

    If it didn’t work

    `Ctrl+E` still jumps to the end of the line.

    Check the JSON is valid and the context is Chat. Start Claude Code with --debug to see keybinding warnings.

Finish · 4 of 4 steps to go

Your hands know the way

New lines, stopping, rewinding and your own shortcut now work without a second thought.

What you’ll have checked

  • A two-line prompt sends only on Enter.
  • Esc Esc opens rewind.
  • Ctrl+E opens your editor.

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Questions

Questions about Day 33

The screen flickers or jumps while Claude works. What helps?

Try fullscreen rendering, a [research preview](https://code.claude.com/docs/en/fullscreen): run `/tui fullscreen`, and `/tui default` to switch back.

Sources

Checked against the official Claude Code docs on .

Independent resource, not affiliated with Anthropic. HorizonLux wrote this lesson; Claude Code is made by Anthropic.