Keyboard Shortcuts

A cheat sheet of every keyboard shortcut in Tempo, grouped by where you use it — global palettes, the chat surface, and the design canvas.

Tempo is built around two main surfaces — chat and design — plus a set of global palettes that work from anywhere. This page lists every shortcut for each, so you can keep your hands on the keyboard.

Shortcuts are written as Cmd+K on macOS and Ctrl+K on Windows and Linux. Where the two differ, both are listed. Letter keys are case-insensitive — R and r press the same key.

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Global

These work from anywhere in the app.

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Palettes

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+P / Ctrl+P	Open the file palette — jump to a file by name
Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P	Open the command palette — run any Tempo command
Cmd+K / Ctrl+K	Open the conversation palette — search and switch chats

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Sidebar navigation

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+1 … Ctrl+9	Jump to the Nth section in the left sidebar (Canvas, Chat, Docs, Issues, etc.)

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Chat

These apply when the chat surface is active.

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Focus and tabs

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+L / Ctrl+L	Focus the chat input (switches to the active chat tab if you’re elsewhere)
Cmd+W / Ctrl+W	Close the most relevant non-chat tab (e.g. a diff or file you opened from chat)

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Switching between chats

Shortcut	Action
Alt+Down	Next chat in the sidebar
Alt+Up	Previous chat in the sidebar
Cmd+[ / Ctrl+[	Back through your chat selection history
Cmd+] / Ctrl+]	Forward through your chat selection history

Alt+Up/Alt+Down walks the sidebar in order. Cmd+[/Cmd+] is more like a browser’s back/forward — it walks the chats you’ve actually visited recently.

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Design / Canvas

These work when the design canvas is focused.

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Tools

Press a single letter to switch tools — no modifier needed.

Shortcut	Action
V	Select tool (cursor)
F	Frame
R	Draw element (rectangle)
T	Text
Shift+R	Draw row (flex row)
Shift+C	Draw column (flex column)
Shift+G	Draw grid
Escape	Exit the active draw tool and return to Select

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Selection

Shortcut	Action
Escape	Deselect — first the inner element, then the storyboard
Cmd+A / Ctrl+A	Select all storyboards
Cmd+Shift+A / Ctrl+Shift+A	Select inverse — everything not currently selected
Up	Move selected element up within its parent stack
Down	Move selected element down within its parent stack
Left	Move selected element left within its parent stack
Right	Move selected element right within its parent stack

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Edit

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+C / Ctrl+C	Copy the selected element
Cmd+X / Ctrl+X	Cut the selected element
Cmd+V / Ctrl+V	Paste from the clipboard
Cmd+D / Ctrl+D	Duplicate the selected element
Delete / Backspace	Delete the selected element or storyboard
Cmd+Z / Ctrl+Z	Undo
Cmd+Shift+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z	Redo

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Send to chat

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+L / Ctrl+L	Add the selected canvas element to the chat as context
Cmd+Shift+C / Ctrl+Shift+C	Copy a high-quality screenshot of the selected element to the clipboard

Cmd+L is the fastest way to ask the AI about something specific you can see — select the element, hit Cmd+L, and start typing your question.

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Zoom and view

Shortcut	Action
Shift+1	Zoom to fit — frame everything in view
Shift+2	Zoom to selection — fit the selected element
Cmd+= / Ctrl+=	Zoom in
Cmd+- / Ctrl+-	Zoom out
Cmd+0 / Ctrl+0	Reset zoom to 100%
Cmd+\ / Ctrl+\	Toggle the right-hand panel (Layers / Style)

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System

Shortcut	Action
Cmd+Option+I / Ctrl+Shift+I	Open Chrome DevTools (for debugging)
Ctrl+Cmd+F (macOS)	Toggle fullscreen