Kimi Code CLI Keyboard Shortcuts

Empty the input box and press Ctrl+D. Kimi Code asks you to confirm: the first press shows a prompt in the status bar, and a second press of the same key actually exits. Ctrl+C behaves the same way — with an empty input box it starts the same two-step exit, and with text in the box it just clears the box instead. You can also type /exit (or /quit, or /q).

Press Shift+Enter, or Ctrl+J. Both insert a newline instead of submitting. Ctrl+J is the one to remember: Shift+Enter depends on your terminal reporting the modifier, so it silently sends the message in some terminals, while Ctrl+J is a plain control character that works everywhere.

It steers the model mid-answer. Press Ctrl+S while output is still streaming and your input is injected into the turn that's already running — the model sees it at the next interruptible point, without you stopping and restarting. Pressing Enter instead queues your message for after the current turn finishes. This is Kimi Code's most distinctive key; the other terminal agents make you interrupt and re-prompt.

Shift+Tab toggles Plan mode, which restricts Kimi Code to read-only research and planning — it produces an action plan for you to approve before it touches any files. You can also toggle it with /plan, and clear a plan you no longer want with /plan clear while idle. Note that Shift+Tab is a plain on/off toggle here, not the multi-step approval cycle it drives in Codex CLI or Qwen Code.

Type ! in an empty input box to drop into shell mode — the border turns violet and the prompt changes to !. Run your command, then press Esc (or Backspace on an empty line) to return to the agent. If a command is taking too long, Ctrl+B sends it to the background.

Because they belong to the older tool. Kimi CLI (the Python package, documented at moonshotai.github.io) is being wound down and has evolved into Kimi Code CLI, and several keys were remapped along the way. The legacy docs use Ctrl+X to switch into shell mode and Ctrl+O to open the external editor. In Kimi Code CLI, shell mode is ! and the external editor is Ctrl+G, while Ctrl+O expands and collapses tool output. Every key on this page is from Moonshot's current Kimi Code CLI reference.

Press the number key for the option you want. The approval panel indexes its options 1 through 9, so you can approve or decline in a single keystroke instead of arrowing down and pressing Enter. Ctrl+E expands a truncated diff or preview when you need to see the whole change first, and Esc rejects the request outright.

The shape is the same — a terminal agent you launch in a project, with slash commands and an approval flow — but three things stand out. Ctrl+S lets you steer mid-answer rather than interrupting. The approval panel takes number keys 1–9. And it ships /goal for autonomous multi-step objectives plus /swarm for parallel sub-agents. If you're moving over, /import-from-cc-codex pulls your existing Claude Code and Codex instructions, skills, and MCP servers across. See the side-by-side comparison for the full picture.